A brutal murder-suicide happens at a house. A crew comes to clean it after the police have closed their investigation. One of the crew, Kevin (Aaron Ashmore) sees that the house will be available, so he goes to the sister of the couple (who now owns the house) and makes an offer. Sometime later, he and his wife Natalie (Ashley Greene) move in. It’s all part of an effort to save their marriage since Natalie had an affair and they’re in couples therapy.

As they move forward, Kevin decides to go to college where he meets Avery (Diana Hopper) and Natalie seems to be hearing strange noises and experiences strange events. With this marriage already tense and an an apparent ghost in the house, the gap between the couple grows wider and wider. And the haunting becomes more tense and even violent.

It’s a great setup, and the film has a lot of potential. There are even some things in that setup that are well-done mis-directions. Unfortunately, Aftermath wastes that potential, letting big events in the first half of the movie get forgotten by the characters for most of the rest of it, turmoil that is completely overdone, all building to a climax that is patently ridiculous. In fact, I don’t know where the climax to this film comes from and how Natalie–who winds up being the “victim” in that moment–figures out certain things about the antagonist.

That’s even more disappointing than a movie that is simply bad, because at least a bad movie can be laughable or you can give it a bit of a pass for its awfulness. In this case, I was intrigued at the beginning and enjoyed the way certain plots were heading, but then … the third act was just dreck.

Watch or Skip?

Skip