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A Disappointing Continuation

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is "Aftermath", a half-hour short movie from over 20 years ago written and directed by Spaniard Nacho Cerdà. Basically you could divide this film into two parts. First part takes place at a morgue where a man working there does the autopsy of a corpse. His colleagues and apprentices are carefully watching, but nobody's talking. There are no spoken dialogs in here. Everything seems normal. Second half takes place also at the morgue, but the guy from before is a lone. He has a young woman at his tables and starts severing her body parts, one after the other. It becomes a pretty bloody mess. Now we know, he who seemed so normal (if you can be normal in that profession) is a complete sociopath and a killer. In the end his dog also gets a bit of the body.I have to say I found this pretty uninteresting. Yes it's bloody and supposed to be shocking, but it dragged so much by half of the film already that the big spectacular second half left me complete unattached. There is also nothing in the script, with which the actors could show their talent, if they have any that is. Also it's a piece of style over substance. The only purpose I can see in here from Cerdà's side is to make a film as shocking as possible. There is no real story or elaboration on the characters, nothing. I have no idea why this got some awards attention. And I am even more clueless about the fact that there is a sequel. I will give this one a look later on. Hopefully, it's better. As for this one here, not recommended and actually should never have been made.

currently watching this right now. very bloody and disturbing but no dramatic violence, rather a very indifferent form of violence for the most part - the rape being the obvious major exception - which makes quite a change and certainly affects the overall tone, the approach is somewhat matter of fact while making it clear that the mortician himself is definitely up to no good. the incredibly morbid subject matter creates immediate unease, while the sexual/rape element and the animal death makes it even more uncomfortable. one way or another the mortuary is one place we all end up visiting in the end whatever we do in life. the film is very short, which given the simplicity of the idea is probably for the best, what it also means there is no wasted time as the discomfort never lets up making the effect more concentrated than it would be at greater length; a longer story would weaken the impact and open up the possibility of the story straying into standard genre clichés, luckily this didn't happen. the central causes of unease here are common ones including the inevitability of death, the frailty of the human body and phobias such as the sight of blood - you certainly get to see plenty of that. it struck me as being quite tragic that the mortician character actually needs to commit the acts he does, it seems that he doesn't actually have anyone to turn to/rely upon. what else can explain the lengths he goes to? basically he seems to have no moral compass whatsoever and feels free to do whatever he wants. the underlying message seems to be that people are simply dead meat, a view which would eliminate much of the meaning from life, unless it's actually being grimly ironic, trying to say in a very perverse way that humanity is far more than a collection of body parts, which of course it is. if this was the intention, a subtle but important point has been raised that makes this more than just exploitation, almost philosophical. without moral direction, the film seems to be saying, life would turn into chaos without values. overall aftermath is better and more interesting than i had expected, while still managing to maintain a strong perversity that makes it very unlikely that a major studio could ever produce anything remotely similar. in that sense, extreme horror with distasteful subject matter can be quite liberating as a viewing experience, though i wouldn't recommend it to everyone. in the final analysis i would say that this film is worth a look if you think you can stomach it.

Aftermath is set in a Spanish hospital morgue where autopsies take place, the bodies of the dead are strewn across metal tables & are unceremoniously cut to pieces to determine the cause of death. For the pathologists who work there it's just another day in the office but one has a very sick secret, he gets off on violating a female corpse & having sex with it while a camera takes pictures...This Spanish production was written, produced & directed by Nacho Cerdà & is a pretty strong depiction of necrophilia & the violation of a corpse, to be fair I found it quite watchable in a grisly sick sort of way but what I call entertainment many would disagree & Aftermath is definitely the type of film you don't admit to liking in public if you still want people to talk to you. There's little point to this thirty odd minute endurance test, there's some graphic (although clearly fake) autopsy footage & some necrophilia thrown in there for good measure & that's about it. There is not one word of dialogue spoken (apparently director Cerdà has been quoted as saying 'I felt a film about death should be silent.) & as such there's character development as such & Aftermath relies on it's shocking imagery to make it's slight point about even after death we are all vulnerable still & the way that pathologists treat the dead with utter disdain & zero compassion. The moral message is negligible, the imagery is strong & will be very shocking to some & at thirty minutes at least it's short, overall I liked it but as a rather sick curiosity rather than some profound piece of meaningful art. Yeah, I'm just weird.The gore levels are high with graphic depictions of autopsies, bodies are sliced open, organs are removed & seen & terrible injuries are also shown, there's loads of graphic blood letting here with the human body sliced open & cut to pieces. The necrophilia scene isn't graphic, the pathologist is never seen naked for instance. The film is very stylish & great to look at, every shot seems to have been thought out with a nice clean metallic look for the autopsy room which further dehumanises the process & really nice cinematography with measured close-ups, long panning shots & a sleek visual look throughout.Aftermath is a powerful film with shocking imagery that will surely be labelled as nothing but sick rubbish by many but the film looks great, it has a moral point to make although it's a little lost with no dialogue at all & I liked it but mainly because it was just a sick & twisted thirty odd minutes featuring lots of graphic gore & a bit of necrophilia, so shoot me.

If the guys from Cannibal Corpse haven't seen this yet, I'm definitely bringing a DVD to the next show and throwing it onstage. I mean, this is a visual companion to at least two songs in their catalogue. Totally brutal, detached, no dialogue, loaded with sharp and well-placed symbolism. And oh the realism! I don't think I've ever seen a dead woman's vagina on screen, especially not like this. I'd really like to know how he made the cadavers, because as it stands now, it's one of the most realistic depictions of gore I've ever seen. What makes this a rewarding viewing experience is the fact that it's not just gore porn, a la Cannibal Corpse's lyrical subject matter - the director makes a nice sweeping yet clear statement about the social context of death in modern society. All I have to say - when you get to heaven and they greet you with harps and garlands at the pearly gates, remember not to look back down.