Aftershock - A shock to the system

Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) really has gone downhill. There was a time when he was hailed as a something refreshingly new in the horror genre. However, if `Aftershock' is anything to go by, he really has lost his muse.

It's about a group of people, holidaying in Chile when an earthquake hits. The first problem is that all the characters are pretty unlikeable, spending their time trying to pull, moaning or taking drugs. This might not be too bad if the story quickly moves on to the action, but it takes the best part of the film for the earthquake to hit. By this time you really won't care much if any of them (besides Roth himself, who's `fish-out-of-waterness' is quite endearing) live or die.

Apparently in Chile, the general population consists of looters, rapists and murderers, for as soon as the earthquake hits, the country descends into anarchy. Then our - pretty horrid - heroes find themselves being pursued by people only slightly more unlikeable then themselves.

This film has no real redeeming features - a few moments of gore (which I didn't know whether were supposed to be humours or not) and that's about it. Granted there are worse movies, but there are a million better ones. If you do decide to watch it, you might as well start the film at about 45 minutes - at least you'll skip the bits that are even more tedious than the last 45 minutes.

4/10 You can watch this film while you're doing the ironing (you'll still get the general gist of it)