MovieChat Forums > After Sundown (2006) Discussion > It's awful to even think about..

It's awful to even think about..

posted 18 years ago by Patrilot
24 replies | jump to latest

This is easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen.. and I've seen a LOT of horror movies. I can even forgive the fairly poor film quality because I'm used to it, but there are SO many problems..

1. The Blood is very, very fake.. it looks like ink even close up
2. (minor spoiler) What kind of craptacular concept is vampire blood makes you a zombie?
3. Most of the zombies were very, very corny. The make-up was actually pretty decent, but I swear they were the worst actors ever.. and that's saying something for being a zombie.
4. (minor spoiler) *picks up cell phone* "hello! I'm trapped in the closet.. with nothing but my cell phone! I need you to call the police!"
5. (minor spoiler) The car scene was awful.. I might just be picky, but the car was already slowing down when she "slammed" on the breaks.. and even then you could tell the car was practically stopped alread and he rolled casually down the hood!
6. (major spoiler) When he was pinned to the tree.. it went from the middle of the night.. to the fastest sunrise ever, to broad daylight in around 7 seconds..

The movie was far from entertaining.. and I'd only recommend it to someone who I really didn't like.

[–] dglenney 18 years ago

7. And what about the baby being "the key to this whole thing?" They say that and then just ignore it.
8. Or the fact that when exhuming the old cemetery they find a fresh corpse--What do they do? They pick her up and put her in the back seat of their car and take her to the funeral home! Where that dumb Benjamin guy asks rhetorical questions about it. Quite blazingly illegal, I should think.
9. Some of the zombie make-ups were brilliantly done, but you can't even see them most of the time.
10. I thought vampires had supernatural skills. This guy just lumbers around like frankenstein's monster. To them being a creature of the night mostly involves ugly cro-magnon klingon faces. The head vampire jumps on top of the car where he stays for like ten minutes, one arm grabbing through a window for the "key to this whole thing."
11. And i just gotta add, the complete lack of foley really irritates me. The whole sounds track blows.

[–] draikdraik 18 years ago

I agree with every word you said. Another thing that bothered me in the movie was in the begining when the people were getting shot the just casually layed down, and there wasn't even any blood coming out of their wounds. It was honestly the worst movie I have ever seen.

[–] moviebug28 18 years ago

None of you have even the slightest idea what goes into making a film! It's an indie film out of Texas that found distribution, which means someone thought it was worthy of being out there in the panetheon of films.

If you're looking for a Hollywood movie, then give the filmmakers $20 million and see what they can do! But give it props where props are due. It's not easy to make a movie and you have to admire things for their merits and not their (sometimes) poor quality. Admire After Sundown for what it DID manage to accomplish on so little, not what it didn't.

You cannot judge and indie horror film by the same standards by which you judge a Hollywood horror film. Try again.

And, no, I had no involvement with the film.

*beep* Barbra Streisand!"--In & Out

[–] dglenney 18 years ago

Yeah, but this flick didn't have any merits to speak of. If I were making an indie film, there would be things that I absolutely would not compromise on. I think it's also a problem scale: They could have produced five kick-ass zombies replete with spurting whatever rather than a hundred crappy ones. Anyway, what's worst about it is the non-visual content. Consider something like The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra--ludicrously inexpensive but vastly more entertaining because it has comic merit. And decent acting.

[–] soliz001 18 years ago

No doubt. On the Micro budget films I would say, that you have to start somewhere.
Look at John Carpenter and "Dark Star" The Alien was a beach ball with leggs.
When a Film is made like this for under 20 k and gets distabution, Let me tell you they are crying all the way to the Bank and most likely ready for some more. Stop talking it and start walking it.

[–] Patrilot 18 years ago

How do you assume I'm comparing it to big budget films? Tell me.. when did I once complain about the quality of the filming? In fact I believe I said that I can forgive it because I am, in fact, used to B movies. Aside from the blood (which it's very easy to make fake, semi realistic blood) absolutely nothing I mentioned could have been fixed with a larger budget. And for the record, I've seen movies that are even LOWER budget and I enjoyed them a lot more.

[–] sibak_scott 18 years ago

Sorry, but the lack of budget doesn't enter into it. It was the script that had more holes in it than a pair of antique underwear. I've seen wonderful movies shot on VHS and absolute garbage shot with a multi-million dollar budget. Good film making is good film making, and bad film making is just that. This, I'm sorry to say, was bad film making. It accomplished very little.

[–] talibonjohn 18 years ago

True that. The original Mock horror comedy screening was great. It looks like in Post Prod it was tore apart. Seems like they tried to turn it into a real horror movie and failed. Maybe next time. If there is any next time

[–] Scarekrow9 18 years ago

I'd like to see any of these people that poke fun at "after sundown", make a movie themselves.

so everyone else can make fun of it.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and the world laughs AT you.

[–] Patrilot 18 years ago

In other words.. your philosophy is that EVERY movie is great?

[–] Scarekrow9 18 years ago

did i say that? no, if i dont like a movie, i just simply turn it off without whining.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and the world laughs AT you.

[–] Patrilot 18 years ago

Who said anything about whining? Seems the only one that is whining here would be people saying "well I'd like to see you do better!" Basically, it's not ok to say what you think about a movie if it's criticism?

[–] Scarekrow9 18 years ago

so i can't defend a movie if someone thinks its bad? yes, i too can answer with a question. and yes, i would like to see you do better, the world needs more movies,whats wrong with trying to be better?

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and the world laughs AT you.

[–] Patrilot 18 years ago

Of course you can defend a movie if someone thinks it's bad. It'd be no fun if everyone agreed. However.. "I'd like to see you do better!" isn't a defense for the movie, it's just an unnecessary challenge to someone that thinks a movie is bad and wants to voice their opinion. Their ability to create a movie does not have any relation to their opinion on other movies.

[–] Scarekrow9 18 years ago

i can agree with that,i love to argue.parents always said i could argue with a stopsign and win.
but sometimes thats how things get done. naturaly i didnt mean go out and actualy make a movie, but think about it, they worked hard on it.

now "savage planet" they "didnt" work hard on that. not they as in the same they, just "they" in general.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
Weep, and the world laughs AT you.

[–] edgar959 18 years ago

anyone who trying to create something this bad and call it A MOVIE should commit suicide before anyone start bashing it
Make decent,good movies or don't bother at all
you already embarassed yourself enough by just only defending this ..........
Have a nice day,thnx.

[–] sprockateer 17 years ago

The "Mock horror comedy" version was only great to a SOME. It was NOT great to the distributors on the West Coast nor the majority of the Billy Bob's audience- got the paper to prove it.

Why Lions Gate picked it up was that the producers listened to what the distributors wanted and not what their own egos demanded for "artistic" reasons. This was a budget-restricted entertainment PRODUCT and like I have said in other posts, some like it because it is fun and let me tell you- it was never meant to be a Mock horror, a comedy/drama or anything else like that. And yes budget does affect a picture and those are the facts. If you are renting a micro-budget horror with no name talent don't expect a "Nightmare on Elm St." Sheesh, if you order hot dogs, don't yell at the cook for not giving you a T-bone!

AS is what it is, a mindless romp with lots of shooting, yelling, dead people walking around and vampires looking for something. There are cowboys and horses too as a bonus. It has about the same artistic value as a roller coaster ride and that was the way it was intended to be- and that is why it sold to the gigantic Lions Gate. Of course all of you know much more about film commerce than the largest distributor of indie film in the U S.

[–] mbbrowncow 17 years ago

Here are the ACTUAL results from the Original Edit screening (not the same version that's in stores)

Facts about the After Sundown first cut screening:
Original Edit created by M. Brown (Director) & D. Pinkston (D.P./Editor)
Tuesday June 7th 2005 8pm at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth
Over 400 people in attendance
Hundreds of comment cards were submitted from fans/general audience members, industry professionals and cast and crew. Here are the numbers:

Over 90% of those polled said AS was 4 out of 5 (5 being the highest) for
overall entertainment value,

Over 65% polled said that would buy AS for their DVD collection for $14.95.

Over 75% polled said that would buy AS for their DVD collection for $9.95.

Over 90% said they would rent it once.

Over 67% said they would rent it twice.

So yes, the majority of the Billy Bob's audience liked it (over 90% in fact),

-The Director

[–] Mud_dib 16 years ago

no offense, but seriously take a look at those numbers.

You have some 65 names listed on IMDB under cast and crew, and I suspect there are several more that haven't been listed as I did watch the movie and saw the sheer number of zombie extras.

Of the cast and crew that came I would assume that family and friends accompanied them as well and if we stick to just 2 guests per cast memeber listed (and I would suspect that that number would be somewhat higher to be honest) that would account for 130 more people.

Industry professionals... I would assume most of those were from the Ft. Worth area, and I would assume most of them were people you knew, so while they may be industry professionals they still fall under friend or friendly aquaintance.

You said that hundreds of cards came back from an audience of over 400... but you didn't give the exact number of cards only percentages in reguards to the responses... leaves me wondering how many cards you actually got back.

As it stands in my estimation over half of the audience was cast and friends and that alone will drastically skew any statistic you get from those surveys so much so that any info taken to be useless. For example I had a screening of my award winning short the other day... and recieved 100% veiwer satisfaction... of course the audience was my family.

Now in all fairness I haven't seen the first cut, only the cut that was in the stores... but the one that was in stores had plot holes a mack truck could cruise through which leads me to doubt the quality of the first cut.

I know I come off like a prick here, so let me just say I did think your make up effects were good, you production design (esp the old west portion) was solid. I know what your budget was and have to say for a budget that small it is very impressive that you have a finished film, and monumentally impressive that you got distrabution.

That being said, the movie wasn't that good mostly because of a shoddy script, so so acting, and mediocer direction(the latter I assume had something to do with budgetary and time constraints).

"You shady mother *beep*
-"Dirty Money in the Midwest" by Me

[–] sprockateer 16 years ago

Actually, AS had few family involved in its creation. Zombies came from an open casting call. Main talent are good working local actors (check out their IMDB). The percentages at the focus group showing at Billy Bob's in Ft. Worth were overwhemingly positive, although I am not going to offer up our detailed market research here in an open forum. We had this as a free open showing at BB and 1/2 the audience was likely unrelated to the film and probably 1/2 were (a wild estimate on my part). But this was not true for the Deep Ellum Film Festival showing, of which AS won festival audience favorite and no, the audience there was not stacked with zombies.

AS was an ambituous effort for an ultra low budget feature that was aimed squarely at junior high boys. Some people like it, some people don't. Is it Aliens, Dawn of the Dead or even Stay Alive? Of course not. But to some is it fun little home video romp? Yes.

No, you do not come off like a prick. You are entitled to your opinion.

To conclude, the Exec. Producers' goal was to put a saleable ultra low budget picture together, get it out to the broadest market possible in relation to its budget and genre, and to have it be fun. In the business regard, the goal was achieved through Lions Gate initially and foreign is still in question. Wood Entertainment is hopefully gonna get it out there. And as for the the fun factor, the results are admittedly mixed, but as I have said before, you can't please everyone. Film taste is just that, a taste. Some people lile Blair Witch, others don't. Some people like From Dusk Til Dawn, others don't and on and on.

Mainly, the original edit had more humor and less zombie scenes. One of the directors claims the cuts are better and pacing is better in the first edit. Some cast members and others who have seen both disagree and say the final cut is better. My two cents: I think AS would have been better if we would have shot the script as written, had much more pre-pro, one director, better make up FX (and more gore), some nudity (for commerciality) and about $100k more in funding to shoot the script as written. But I guess those are minor gripes (tongue firmly in sheek).

[–] thedarkestshadow81 18 years ago

if you think its one of the worst than i dont think you have seen very many movies at all let alone horror movies. I can easily think of 20 movies that are far worse than this.

[–] cool_alexGR 17 years ago

What more can I say except that: I saw a "horror" movie which made me laugh all the time!! And the law budget SURELY it's not a defence.. I don't care! Don't create and sell movies if you don't "have it"..

AAA! I shouldn't forget the scene when a woman was trying to defend hershelf from the zombies holding a branch for tree!!

lol

[–] Patrilot 11 years ago

Had to go back and exhume this title after 6 years and I still stand by every comment I made on it and then some. It's not even a matter of micro-budget vs big-budget Blockbusters. It's a matter of everything I listed (which would not be fixed by a larger budget) as well as simply making no sense. As a counter-example.. take a look at the movie Slashers. It was all done on a single camera from a first person perspective, the effects were pretty cheesy, and the acting is not so good to say the least. However, I watched that movie once, and watched it again immediately afterwards because I found it so entertaining.

Also, having made almost a (very bizarre) hobby out of finding bad movies like these for entertainment.. I have seen more than my share of them. I can at least commend the creators for getting AS distributed, but I can't say anything about the movie aside from being entertainingly awful. I guarantee you can't name 20 horror movies even arguably worse than this.. let alone FAR worse.

[–] sprockateer 17 years ago

1. The Blood is very, very fake.. it looks like ink even close up;

Sure it does...

2. (minor spoiler) What kind of craptacular concept is vampire blood makes you a zombie?

Well, since vampires use human "familiars" and have trouble overcoming human will, why not have a vampire able to resurrect the dead, because traditional zombies who have no will. Since traditional vampires are demon spirits, wow that could be cool...

3. Most of the zombies were very, very corny. The make-up was actually pretty decent, but I swear they were the worst actors ever.. and that's saying something for being a zombie.

They look like zombies to me. Not much for zombies to "emote in the moment" Next time we'll have 'em each read Stanislavsky.

4. (minor spoiler) *picks up cell phone* "hello! I'm trapped in the closet.. with nothing but my cell phone! I need you to call the police!"

Yeah that was pretty dumb...

5. (minor spoiler) The car scene was awful.. I might just be picky, but the car was already slowing down when she "slammed" on the breaks.. and even then you could tell the car was practically stopped alread and he rolled casually down the hood!

It kinda worked for many people, but I can see your point... If you rewind it a million times...

6. (major spoiler) When he was pinned to the tree.. it went from the middle of the night.. to the fastest sunrise ever, to broad daylight in around 7 seconds..

Have you ever seen Evil Dead II? That shot was homage to a similar scene and we know how stupid and terrible that multi-million dollar grosser was (directed by Sam Raimey, "Spiderman")

The movie was far from entertaining.. and I'd only recommend it to someone who I really didn't like.

Too bad you didn't like it. Lots of others have... oh well... maybe next time....

Cheers