Horror movies are ON, releasing one after another "Here After" is one of those films that takes the audience through the worst experience that a mother can think of. The film develops around the life of Claire who suffers a huge loss in her life when her daughter Robin dies in a car accident, now the main event of the film or lets say what start everything on this story can only be described as an extremely cliche turn of events, Robin is somehow resurrected and her mother is extremely happy, just imagine. Although this sets the stage to a dark side of the miracle as Claire starts to realize that her daughter is changing in ways she cannot explain. As the events of the story progress, Claire who at first is happy is slowly turning into a fearful woman. She begins to wonder if some evil spirit has brought Robin back from the edge of the grave and the story starts to develop the nature of life, death and the world beyond. The movie manages to build dramatic moments with horror which gives the audience the feel of suspense throughout the film, they are provocative and make you wonder about the state of identity and the implications of tampering with the cycle of life and death, for those who like to know what is on the other side. Some of the basic themes that the plot could touch on are mourning, forgiveness and what a parent is capable of to safeguard their kid from dangers. Not a long movie as it only last 1 hour and 29 minutes, taking out credits and intro its a very short one and as a fan of horror movies I at least like very much that there was no signs of supernatural event during the trailer, although its the hole point that someone else is inside her daughter.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5402714/
- Platform: Theaters
- Release: September 13, 2024
Exploring the Supernatural and Psychological
The plot focuses on the theme of the afterlife and its consequences when we humans try to disrupt the order that has been set in place. It provokes thoughts about the self identity and asks whether a person is the same after they have a near death experience, many after an accident or some sort of similar situation say that they have seen the light or God has spoken to them and do drastic changes in their life, besides a supernatural event it also kicks in the question "What is going through this people mind, how they felt while they were gone".The story probably deals with possession or some evil spirit traveling back to the land of the living through Robin, it could lead to certain events where things get scarier and scarier as Claire attempts to figure out what exactly has happened to her child and how she can save her daughter from the evil within her, I just hope it doesn't end into exorcism because it would be nice if the movie present an alternative ending. This aspect of the movie intensifies the suspense as how she will bring her daughter back or if she can and why this evil power is inside her? did this evil actually came for Claire?
The Cast and Their Performances
Connie Britton as Claire
Connie Britton plays the role of the mother, Claire who is in ther center of the storm. Britton had some outstanding performance in multiple TV series, just to mention a few like Friday Night Lights, Nashville and The White Lotus.. This makes her suitable for playing the complicated and much dramatic role of Claire who gets desperate about her daughter condition.
In this film, Britton would probably add drama and passion to Claire and the conflict a mother feels between her love for her child and her fear from her child, it gets to a point where Claire is afraid of what her daughter might do to her or others, she knows its not her daughter anymore, it maybe due to her performance that the supernatural components of the story feel realistic and natural, not feeling its all about supernatural has to do a lot with the acting.
Giovanni Cirfiera as Luca
There is also the character of Luca played by Giovanni Cirfiera who may not be as famous as Britton, but he has been gradually establishing himself in such projects as “American Crime Story” and “Ford v Ferrari”. This part in this movie could really be a boost in his career. Now days movies do keep certain characters offline until the film release, Luca of Cirfiera is one of them but I can only assume he is to be a major character of the plot, be the right hand and support of Claire, from my understanding there is no other villain in the story than the evil inside Claire. Giovanni Cirfiera acting could also bring another perspective on the movie as to how various individuals handle the phenomenon from different perspectives.
Freya Hannan Mills as Robin
The young actress Freya Hannan Mills also plays another major character of the film, Robin who is Claire’s daughter. Hannan Mills is quite a young actress who has worked before in the drama "The Cuckoo". Being Robin a woman who goes through a near death experience and might be reborn in the film, the role is definitely a difficult and significant one in the movie, she has to dramatically change characters from Claires daughter to this new entity living inside her after been brought back to life. She will have to demonstrate how the change, gradual and significant, in her character takes place and makes everyone, including the other characters, feel uneasy and afraid.
Robert Salerno's Directorial Debut
Robert Salerno, the director of the film could be the perfect fit for the project as he has experience in producing dramatic and mind bending movies. Here After is Salerno’s directorial debut, but as a producer he worked on some successful films as 21 Grams, Nocturnal Animals, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. His participation on this couple of psychologically demanding dramas shows that he is able to understand the ins and outs of plot and the characters, which would definitely add more detail, depth and complexity as a supernatural suspense film to lift it up.Direct experience with horror is not extensive in Salerno but his recent movie Smile (2022) proves that he can successfully work in the genre, Smile (2022) has a specific vision and it is a horror movie that tries to incorporate drama into the story and it actually succeeds in the process of scaring the audience and this might be the case for Here After. That is how his approach to the drama, where he pays much attention to the dramatic weight and characters, can turn this film into something more than just another poor average horror movie.
Possible Themes and Messages
Right from the start I could think of psychological aspect of the movie, how before getting into the supernatural and spiritual aspect, Claire might start to fall into madness as she can not change or control whats going on with her daughter, looking at her drastic changes, this might make her psychologically unstable so mental health during such drastic moments where your children are in danger is a very important theme for the movie.
The one message that critics and viewers could get from the film is the focus on the theme of grief and how it influences the members of a family, the near death experience of the daughter could also be identify as a kind of loss, based on the events that Claire's daughter is not there anymore, how trauma affects relationships and perspectives in a family, how Claire is going to react towards her "daughter", another aspect of the themes within the movie that is quite important in today’s society as people start to discuss mental issues and consequences of traumatic events.
One last possible message may be the author’s reflection on people’s fear of the unknown, in particular the fear of death and what comes after it. The event itself of "getting something evil from the other side" plays on the fundamental human instinct of death and post death existence, which have always formed the core of horror tales, part of the audience may find this as a representation of how the society handles matters to do with life and death as well as human nature of fearing what we cannot explain.
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