Aftershock
Dimension Films | Release Date: May 10, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
9
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
VarietyDennis HarveyApr 8, 2013
The script by Roth, Lopez, and Lopez’s frequent collaborator, Guillermo Amoedo, giddily piles crisis upon crisis, with none of the customary mercy reserved for leading characters. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyClark CollisMay 13, 2013
The first, pre-'quake half hour is such a patience-testing slow burn that director Nicolás López runs the risk of extinguishing the viewer's interest altogether. But when things head (metaphorically) south they do so with an escalating, apocalyptic ferocity which continues until the very last second. Read full review
67
The PlaylistDrew TaylorMay 13, 2013
Thankfully, as the movie goes along, he tempers his bloodlust, instead engaging in sequences that up the suspense and terror while not exclusively luxuriating in the bloodshed. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 9, 2013
The violence is quick and occasionally inventive, with little of the attenuated nastiness that characterizes so many genre pictures, and the photography ranges from brightly sun-kissed to down-and-dirty. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMay 8, 2013
Right up until the quake, Aftershock is a bland, sub-"Hangover" comedy about guys on the make in South America. Then finally, blessedly, the ground swallows up these shallow idiots. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMay 9, 2013
Though offering some chilling twists on the usual conventions, employing wit and restraint where otherwise the filmmakers might have relied on the contents of an abattoir, Aftershock is ultimately predictable in its litany of who lives and who dies, and doesn’t try to be too ironic or self-reflexive about it. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 8, 2013
Aftershock then becomes a catalog of most every unpleasant way of dying you can imagine. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerApr 8, 2013
A movie that tends to stick to formula, offering up minimal scares amid scattered moments of gross-out bliss. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnApr 8, 2013
Aftershock has no earth-shattering revelations to make its mayhem stand out in the wreckage. Read full review
45
Film.comWilliam GossApr 8, 2013
At first, it’s all fun and games whenever somebody gets hurt, but that’s not enough in and of itself to sustain the movie’s tension. We’re left waiting for characters to die off without much of a vested interest in anyone’s survival. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 9, 2013
The ending is sick enough to make it almost worth the wait. Key word: almost. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 7, 2013
People become mere punch lines: fleshy avatars for the gory grist. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 10, 2013
It's an unrelentingly brutal movie set in an unusually scenic locale — the coastal city of Valparaiso, Chile. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineAbhimanyu DasMay 7, 2013
There's plenty of gore, but none of it is particularly inventive, nor does it engender any visceral or emotional reactions beyond jaded disgust. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 11, 2013
If all this sounds outrageous, and extreme … don’t worry, it’s not. Provocation coupled with ineptitude doesn’t reveal the ugliness of humanity; it simply reveals the ugliness of the filmmakers themselves. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithMay 9, 2013
A weird mash-up of disaster, horror and dystopia genre pictures, Aftershock fails to make the Earth move. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMay 7, 2013
The actual Chilean earthquake killed 300 people and turned thousands more homeless, but this movie distills everything for comic effect. Everyone gets robbed, raped, impaled, mutilated, decapitated or burned alive. But that’s not all. Crawling through the blood-drenched debris, here comes the tsunami! Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 10, 2013
A lot of Aftershock predictably involves screaming or shock cuts, and the movie features a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Selena Gomez. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 9, 2013
Lopez is a middling ringmaster of doom at best. But there's so little context to the litany of ugliness — some played for laughs, some meant to shock — that it's hard to discern where the entertainment value lies in any of this. Read full review
20
Village VoiceChuck WilsonMay 9, 2013
Aftershock is incompetently made and morally muddled, but since talent, morality, and Mr. Roth have never been on speaking terms, we're not exactly surprised. Read full review
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