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★★★
Directed by: #MichaelAguiar
Starring: #BillOberstJr, #GabrielLee, #TraceyDecresie, #DanaMauro and #ChristopherScott
After Hours Movie Review
I love a good thrift store; they provide legit good times, you can buy the weirdest shit there and if, like me, ya broke and have a weird fashion sense, then the thrift store is the place to create fashion statements, as well as to buy Furbys to stare at you while you sleep...I have seven now.
Filmmaker Michael Aguiar has taken it upon himself to throw us into the less shiny and happy side of the thrift store, and allow us to swim around in the creepy nature that such a place can provide...after hours, hence the title, After Hours.
A young employee is closing up at the store, for some reason with all the lights off, all the time, ok, guess she likes a challenge, and it’s not long before she gets the feeling that she is not alone and of course she is not, soon she has got all stabbed up and a fellow employee finds her all covered in the red stuff.
The police pop along to help solve the crime, and maybe buy some of those soup mugs that have recipes on them, our lead detective, [who looks like a smoother Sean Penn] has an interesting interview with a woman about what she was doing before the murder, this scene is not immensely important to the storyline, or aiding with character arcs, but is especially funny because a parrot [off screen] decided to shriek during the dialogue...and they chose that this was the take to use...hmmmm.
With parrots and Furbys safely behind him, our detective decides to go home and continue to watch CCTV of the shop, he eats dolly mixture out of a cereal bowl while he does this...hmmm, can we just take a minute on how specific that is, there is no foreshadowing earlier in the movie to this fetish, but there it is, please go watch this short just for that moment, oh and the parrot scene, movie gold.
Now I don’t want to give away the ending to much but I’m going to because I can and I’m in charge here, so spoiler alert....it’s a mannequin, a mannequin that killed the girl, and he has followed the detective home and is in the back of his car, ok.
Now, I love a good bit of fun in a #horror, I mean Child's Play is about a guy who was a murderer and used voodoo to live in a doll, it’s dumb it's fun, but it's explained, we know that he wants to hide from the police and goes into a doll in order to carry on his reign of terror...cool fine, motive established, but After Hours provides nothing in regards to an explanation.
How are the mannequins alive? Why have they got beef with people? Is this like the 80s film Mannequin, and people are gonna start falling in love with them and get married? Who knows, well, none of us knows because nothing is explained.
Now, this aside, it’s a fun little short film, suspense in the opening scene is genuine, well shot and follows all the rules of providing a moment of nail-biting fear of what lurks in the shadows, acting is adequate and delivers where it needs to and camera work is well thought out and competent.
But as I said, so much is unanswered, and also ...parrot scene, there are so many little oddities in this film it feels a little like something so bad that it’s good, think Nicolas Cage’s version of the Wicker Man or The Room.
Ad so if you want a little fun and horror at the same time, and to watch a grown man eating dolly mixture from a cereal bowl while solving a murder then go, go now, because they are certainly worth your viewing time.
After Hours is one of the Free Movies available on the UK Film Channel. Watch Now!
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