Sometimes I watch a film and I'm disappointed after the huge build up a film gets before it's even released see Halloween Kills for a perfect example of this. Then there is the complete opposite where a film appears on my "to watch" list and I know nothing, or close to nothing, about the film ahead of time. This is the case with The Aftermath, a post apocalyptic sci-fi/horror written, directed, and starring Steve Barkett who plays Newman. Newman is one of three astronauts in space when a nuclear war breaks out and destroys most of the planet as we know it. The destruction is often depicted in pieces of artwork filmed as scene pieces but is obviously hand painted pictures. The film is loaded with these pictures and when not using them they use photographs of the paintings for points of reference to how bad the destruction around the world is. It's no big secret this was filmed on a shoestring budget, and it shows but something very odd happens with this film; it doesn't matter the film still works!
Also starring is Captain Spaulding himself Sid Haig as Cutter the leader of a gang of salvaging survivors who hunt humans to use as slaves or in the case of any women they should find who they use for sex. There's also mutants. Lots and lots of mutants who also hunt the remaining humans for food. The mutants look odd, almost like really bad Halloween costumes but they also have a certain charm about them and I found myself cheering every time one would be onscreen. The film also stars Forest J. Ackerman (that's two films with him in less than a week that seems like it should be a record of some sort) as a museum curator who fills Newman (and us) in on the short version of what exactly happened while he was in space. The curator also introduces him to a young boy names Chris who he asks Newman to take care of since he is dying of radiation poisoning. Newman and Chris (who is played by Barkett's actual son who just happens to also be named Chris) later meet Sarah (Lynne Margulies who may be better known as Andy Kaufman's girlfriend who was portrayed by Courtney Love in Man on the Moon) after she escapes Cutter and his gang.
There's a lot of awkward acting and as I said some of the scenery is hand painted pictures but the film is enjoyable enough. Originally labeled a "Video Nasty" ,although I have no idea why, the film also features well known character actor Dick Miller (a favorite of The Man Hole and should be one of yours as well) or at least his voice, as the voice we hear on the recording on the tape recorder found in the radio station. The Aftermath is an enigma in that it has no right to be good. Enjoyable perhaps but it has all the earmarks of a bad film. From the low budget to all the actors with little or no resume to speak of the movie tells me it's going to be horrible before I even press the play button. But it's not horrible. I was entertained for an hour and a half, sure sometimes I laughed at the film when I wasn't supposed to but that shouldn't matter very much. Or at least that shouldn't detract from the film. This story has heart and it comes in the unexpected form of the job done by Christopher Barkett. Yeah, this young boy makes The Man Hole blog history by being one of the only children in a horror film I didn't want to see disemboweled by whatever force is available to do the job. Corey Feldman in whatever installment of the Friday the 13th franchise he is in also qualifies for this prestigious recognition. This is clearly a case of the film being more than the sum of it's parts and I really appreciate that in a movie and was pleasantly surprised by it. We give this three and a half severed mutant arms out of five for this (near) diamond in the ruff.
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