Aftershock (2012)

Eli Roth’s second film released this year is better then The Last Exorcism Part 2 but nothing special as Aftershock plays out as your standard run of the mill disaster film with more gore and violence. But more gore and more violence don’t make up for bad writing and bad acting. 

The film begins with three friends touring Chile. Eli Roth’s character named Gringo...yeah, they couldn't give him an American name, is the American who doesn’t speak Spanish while his three friends Ariel played by Ariel Levey and Pollo portrayed by Nicolás Martínez do. These characters are put through mind numbing scenes of tourism that are so slow you will be banging your head off the ground out of how slow it is. There is some character development but nothing interesting and the one looks like want-to-be Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover, which takes you out of the film. We really have no reason to care for any of the characters. 

The earthquake scene is gory and people are getting crushed but it dare I say it boring. We have seen it all it before and there is nothing special about it.  One of the main plot points of the film is that when the earthquake hits it destroys a prison and all the psychos and prisoners get out. It’s an interesting take on the disaster genre that we really haven’t seen before. I just wish they could have done more with it. Yeah, these guys cause trouble and yeah, they are brutal but it only seems that there only after the main characters. I would have liked to see the criminals on a larger scale, causing havoc and hell through the entire town and not just where the main characters are. 

As the movie goes on it gets really predictable, except for an added twist and a few other surprises that you may not see coming. The acting here is pretty bad, it’s a good thing Eli Roth is a producer/director because holly fuck, he cannot act worth shit.  You want to talk about hammy, hallow and forced. Everyone else really doesn’t act that well either. Even the psychos fall flat.

It’s an average disaster thriller with Eli Roth’s gore and grisly violence thrown in it and adding the escaped prisoner adds a nice twist. But, the prisoners are not expanded enough and the gore and violence just feels really gimmicky. You take all the violence and psychos this movie would have been boring as hell.

2.5 out of 5