''Aftershock'' is a 2012

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by Nicolás López and was written by López,

Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films ''Cabin Fev ...

, and

Guillermo Amoedo Guillermo Amoedo Schultze (born 2 March 1983 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan director and screenwriter, working in Santiago, Chile since 2007. Amoedo is the cowriter, with Nicolás López, of the films ''Que Pena Tu Vida'' (2010), ''Que Pena Tu ...

, from a story by Roth and López. The film stars Roth,

Andrea Osvárt Andrea Klára Osvárt (born 25 April 1979) is a Hungarian actress, film producer, and former fashion model. Personal life She was born in Budapest and grew up in Tamási, a small town in the south of Hungary. Her parents divorced when she w ...

, Ariel Levy, Natasha Yarovenko, Nicolas Martinez, and

Lorenza Izzo Lorenza Francesca Izzo Parsons (; ; born September 19, 1989) is a Chilean actress and model. She has appeared in films, including ''Aftershock'' (2012), '' The Green Inferno'' (2013), '' Knock Knock'' (2015), and Quentin Tarantino's ''Once Upo ...

as a group of travelers who are in an underground nightclub in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

when a massive earthquake hits and quickly learn that reaching the surface is just the beginning of their nightmare. An American and Chilean co-production, ''Aftershock'' had premiered at the

TIFF Tag Image File Format or Tagged Image File Format, commonly known by the abbreviations TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is w ...

on September 11, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 10, 2013 by

Dimension Films Dimension Films was an American independent film and television production and distribution label founded in 1992, and currently owned by independent studio Lantern Entertainment. Formally one of the American " mini-majors" (i.e., small to m ...

and RADiUS-TWC. The film grossed only $294,696 and received generally mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, who criticized its depiction of the 2010 8.8 earthquake in Chile as well as its writing, characters and plot.

Plot

Gringo, Ariel, and Pollo meet Hungarian sisters Monica and Kylie and their

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

friend Irina at a club in Chile. They decide to travel together to

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

but during a party at another club, an earthquake strikes, trapping them under debris. Ariel loses his hand trying to help a trapped bartender, and they struggle to escape until a cleaning lady guides them through a tunnel to a

manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft (civil engineering), shaft, utility vault, or large container, vessel. Manholes, typically protected by a manhole cover, are often used ...

. Unfortunately, a passing truck kills the old lady as they try to climb out. After escaping the club, the group finds their car destroyed and Ariel's condition worsens due to blood loss. They decide to get him to a hospital on top of the hill. As they rush to the cable tram station, a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

warning is heard. The owner agrees to let only Ariel board the tram car, but a frayed cable breaks, causing the car to plummet to the bottom of the hill, killing everyone on board. The group heads towards the cemetery through a hidden tunnel after Ariel's tragic death. Along the way, they encounter escaped prisoners looting on the streets. Trying to escape, Gringo gets trapped under a falling building while Monica and Pollo leave to find help. They come across an out-of-control firetruck that crashed due to prisoners attempting to take it over. Monica and Pollo save the living firefighter trapped inside. While Irina comforts Gringo, Kylie overhears approaching prisoners. Gringo tells the women to hide, but the prisoners threaten him for their location. Irina is captured and raped by the leader while the others sit around joking. Gringo tries to stop the leader and is burned alive in retaliation. Kylie runs away and bumps into Monica and the group, who go back for Irina. Pollo kills the leader's brother, but as they try to escape, the leader returns and kills Irina. The group finds a gated building with other survivors but a single mother initially refuses to let them in. As they beg, the woman shoots Pollo in the chest. They hide him and go to get help, but one of the prisoners hears Pollo's phone ringing and finds him. They kill Pollo and pursue the others. The group reaches the cathedral, and the priest saves them by leading them through a secret passage. The cathedral collapses during an aftershock, killing the priest and injuring Kylie. The firefighter who helps Kylie is revealed to be one of the escaped prisoners. Monica finds Kylie's body while the prisoner tries to kill her, but she manages to kill him with an axe during another aftershock. Monica finally manages to escape through the tunnel and reaches a beach, but she passes out. When she regains consciousness, she looks behind and sees a massive tsunami barreling towards her.

Cast

as Gringo *

as Monica * Ariel Levy as Ariel * Natasha Yarovenko as Irina * Nicolás Martínez as Pollo *

as Kylie * Marcial Tagle as Firefighter * Ramón Llao as Ramon *

Ignacia Allamand María Ignacia Allamand Lyon (born August 29, 1981) is a Chilean film and television actress. Personal life Allamand was born in Santiago, Chile. She is the daughter of the former Chilean defense minister and presidential candidate André ...

as Guide *

Paz Bascuñán María Paz Bascuñán Aylwin (, 2 June 1975), commonly known as Paz Bascuñán, is a Chilean theatre, film and television actress. Daughter of politician Mariana Aylwin and granddaughter of Chile's former president Patricio Aylwin, and has more ...

as Pregnant woman * Matías López as Marito * Patricio Strahovsky as Priest * Álvaro López as Jesus * Dayana Amigo as Bartender * Eduardo Domínguez as Russell Dazzle *

Gabriela Hernández María Gabriela Hernández Gómez (born January 15, 1939), also known as Gaby Hernández, is a Chilean theater, film and television actress with a long active career. Early life and education Her father was from Castilla, Spain, and her mother ...

as Cleaning lady *

Edgardo Bruna Edgardo Bruna del Campo (8 February 1947 – 19 March 2017) was a Chilean actor, musician, theater director, and social activist, recognized for his long career in various productions and plays. He is known for his roles in telenovelas, playing th ...

as Grumpy operator *

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. Gomez began her career as a child actress, appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), a ...

as VIP Girl * Cristina Pascual as Kindly woman

Production

The film is directed by Nicolás López and written by López,

, and Guillermo Amoedo, from a story by Roth and López. The film was based on true events from the 2010 8.8 earthquake in Chile. It was shot in

, in many of the same locations where the destruction took place. The idea came from a conversation with Roth and López in which López described the horrors of not just the earthquake, but the complete chaos and temporary

collapse of society Societal collapse (also known as civilizational collapse or systems collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of social complexity as an Complex adaptive system, adaptive system, the downf ...

in the ensuing hours. The film is distributed by

. Roth raised $2 million in funding from a group of doctors in Buffalo. Distribution rights were presold to recoup the budget costs. López had previous experience shooting using Digital SLR cameras, and after screen tests, convinced Roth that with the right lenses and lighting it would look like 35mm film. The entire movie was recorded using a Canon EOS 5D camera.

Release

The film initially received a NC-17 rating, and consequently had to be re-edited so that it would achieve an R rating.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives ''Aftershock'' a 42% approval rating based on 53 reviews, with an average score of 4.80/10. The site's consensus reads: "''Aftershock'' hints at an inventive twist on horror tropes, but ultimately settles for another round of mind-numbing depravity that may alternately bore and revolt all but the most ardent gore enthusiasts".

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gives a 39 rating, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews, based on reviews from 20 critics.

Box office

The film opened at 110 theatres in the United States, and earned $40,179 in its opening weekend.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aftershock 2012 films 2012 horror films 2010s disaster films 2012 independent films 2012 horror thriller films American disaster films American films based on actual events American horror thriller films English-language Chilean films Disaster films based on actual events Films set in Chile Films shot in Chile Chilean independent films Chilean horror thriller films American independent films Films produced by Brian Oliver Films produced by Eli Roth Films with screenplays by Eli Roth Cross Creek Pictures films Dimension Films films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s Chilean films English-language independent films English-language horror thriller films