Claire Hiller's joy at the miraculous resurrection of her daughter Robin after a fatal accident turns to dread when she notices disturbing changes, fearing that something dark has followed Robin since she is apparently dead.
Robin is a fifteen-year-old with a great talent for the piano, which in the opening we see her playing in a picturesque Roman church, full of people who have come to see her perform. Claire, her mother, is loving and understanding towards her and seems to understand and support her fully.
Director: Robert SalernoWriter: Sarah ConradtStars: Connie Britton, Giovanni Cirfiera, Freya Hannan-Mills
Robin has decided to stop talking since childhood, after a tragic car accident in which her sister lost her life. But after a second accident, from which Robin miraculously emerges unharmed, she begins to speak again. Despite Clare's initial enthusiasm, the situation soon takes a disturbing turn: the fifteen-year-old begins to display increasingly sinister behaviors that, as time goes by, make Robin unrecognizable in the eyes of her mother, who will end up convinced that she suffers from demonic possession.
As the title suggests, Here After. The Afterlife is a film that moves in the dreamlike dimension of the near-death experience. It is precisely this that, once Robin has gone through it, will change her in an (apparently) irreversible way. And during the viewing there is a desire to approach the theme of growth, explored through what we can read as moments of change, towards faith, in religion or in the family.
However, it seems that the interweaving of the two macro-worlds that Salerno would like to combine never manages to speak to each other with complete sincerity; rather, one has the impression of attending a tension that is not very fluid and with which it is difficult to enter into complete harmony. Another obstacle to the identification between the spectator and the story are undoubtedly the poorly written characters. In fact, it is very difficult to empathize with them due to a cumbersome writing of the dialogues and gestures - too - out of the box.
Here After. The Afterlife also lives in the closed form of domestic and school interiors that are really implausible. At the prestigious Catholic school attended by the protagonists, it is difficult to give in to the belief of a credible scenario, especially given the crude and unattractive photography that is put into play.
The film barely manages to get back on its feet at the end, when Clare opts to go all out by insinuating herself into the pre-death world that her daughter frequents. In this last practice Here After. The Afterlife actually reaches heights of originality, when we see Clare communicate deeply with her traumas and navigate the submerged world of the unconscious. It is a pity that perhaps this segment is not enough to save a horror film, which throughout the entire viewing fails to force a solid relationship with the viewer
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