The Aftermath — The Aftermath(Blu Ray/ DVD)
Very few people have survived, and many of those who have are hideously mutated. Newman befriends a young boy Chris, and a girl Sarah. Sarah, has escaped from a brutal gang led by Cutter (Sid Haig of House of 1000 Corpses/ Devil’s Rejects fame). Cutter and his gang have been kidnapping women and children and holding them prisoner, whilst Cutter himself has been forcing his affections onto the young ladies. Newman has a plan to free the hostages and take down Cutter and his gang, and he enlists the help of his new-found friends.
I won’t spoil the plot for those who have never seen it but it was a real pleasure to see a film that included a cameo from Forrest J Ackerman and featured a narration from Dick Miller (Gremlins 1&2). The Aftermath is a really enjoyable entry in the post apocalypse genre, featuring some fairly cheap special effects, and bad dialogue. The performances on the whole however are far better than they should be and it’s great to see that Barkett involves the whole family in his passion projects with appearances from a number of family members, who all do a really good job for novices. Sid Haig is excellent as the sleazy villain, a role he would go on to make his own across his career. The film is incredibly violent with some well above average gore effects for a film of its budget and features a fantastic symphonic score by John Morgan.
The restoration of the film has been completed to a very high standard from the original negatives. The 2k restoration has really sharp image representation and the colours are vibrant and crisp. The picture quality is very clean, and there is no damage or grain to speak of. It is a pleasure to see an underground gem like this given a new lease of life, and it really puts a lot of higher profile restorations to shame.
The release comes as both a Blu Ray and a DVD and whilst I’ve not checked the DVD disc I believe it features the same extras as the Blu Ray, which is no bad thing at all as the disc is packed with interesting content. Firstly, there is the insightful directors commentary, and a host of extras from the old laserdisc release. There is also an excellent short film “The Night Caller” based on a Ray Bradbury story of the same name, this is worth twenty minutes of anyone’s time and was obviously an inspiration for The Aftermath. You get John Morgan’s full symphonic score to listen to at your leisure and a preview of another Barkett film “Empire of the Dark” which is forthcoming from VCI in a 2k transfer.
Overall, VCI have lovingly brought this forgotten underground gem back to vibrant life. The film whilst inexpensively assembled is a lot of fun and the action sequences work really well. The new restoration is a revelation, and along with the excellent selection of extras, makes for an pretty fantastic overall package. I’d very much like to see other companies put as much love and effort into the restoration of classic horror and exploitation films as has been lavished on The Aftermath.