After.Life

Director: Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo

Overview

Young couple Paul (Justin Long) and Anna (Christina Ricci) are toying with the prospect of marriage when they have a chance encounter with Eliot (Liam Neeson), a mysterious undertaker who claims he can speak with the dead. When Anna becomes caught in the otherworldly realm between life and death, she risks being buried alive. Will Eliot help her, or is he being driven by darker motivations?

Product Details

Release Date:	08/03/2010
UPC:	0013132169194
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	R
Source:	Starz / Anchor Bay
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	1,827

Special Features

Devling into the After.Life: The art of making a thriller; Audio commentary with co-writer/director Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Liam Neeson	Eliot Deacon
Christina Ricci	Anna
Justin Long	Paul
Josh Charles	Actor
Celia Weston	Actor
Chandler Canterbury	Actor
Shuler Hensley	Actor

Technical Credits

Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo

Jakub Korolczuk

Paul Vosloo

Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo	Director,Screenwriter
Brad M. Gilbert	Producer
Paul Haslinger	Score Composer
Pamela Hirsch	Executive Producer
Niven Howie	Editor
Catherine Kellner	Executive Producer
Jakub Korolczuk	Screenwriter
Matthew Lessall	Casting
Edwin L. Marshall	Executive Producer
Anastas Michos	Cinematographer
Luca Mosca	Costumes/Costume Designer
William O. Perkins	Producer
Celine Rattray	Producer
Cooper Richey	Executive Producer
James Swisher	Executive Producer
Paul Vosloo	Screenwriter
Ford Wheeler	Production Designer

Editorial Reviews

After.Life is a smart little horror-thriller with a pretty original hook: an undertaker who can talk to the recently deceased corpses on his slabs. But is he a malevolent force trying to doom people whose lives have yet to fully run their course, or does he just have a gift for talking to departed souls, who distrust him because they're understandably terrified by their new circumstances? Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo smartly walks this line throughout, giving Liam Neeson's character a sinister edge, but stopping short of defining him as an out-and-out villain. The story really has to do with the struggles of the protagonist, Anna (Christina Ricci), to determine what's real and what isn't -- what parts of the funeral home in which she's confined can she actually manipulate, and what parts are only in her imagination. Again, Wojtowicz-Vosloo is reluctant to give concrete answers, and she heightens the tension by getting excellent camerawork and editing from her team. The visuals in After.Life really pop, and Ricci complements that aesthetic scheme. With her big, haunted eyes, her gaunt frame, and her sallow complexion, it's like she was born to play a corpse. This is by no means a backhanded compliment, because she gives the character true pathos and expertly dramatizes the panic and fear a body would feel in that kind of purgatory. Justin Long is also a good choice as her fiancé, sinking his teeth into some dramatic work that suits him well. Since After.Life is all about mood and atmosphere, it's worth mentioning another performer who contributes -- namely, Celia Weston as Anna's wheelchair-bound mother. She simply drips with a moribund contempt for Long's character, believing he contributed to the premature end of her estranged daughter's life. An underdog gem, After.Life announces Wojtowicz-Vosloo as a filmmaker to watch.

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