Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? Yes, especially if you like horror.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes!
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 92 minutes (1.5 hours)
“Afterimages” is a Singaporean horror film anthology of four stories. The film centres on a group of aspiring film makers who come upon a supernatural source of short films, and their subsequent efforts to exploit this discovery. It stars Robert Warnock (Richard Wylie), Melissa Faith Yeo (Amy Tan), Adeline Pang (Yasmin Binte Sulaiman), Vincent Tee (Hok Leng), with cameos by Keagan Kang (Agent Wilkinson), Lim Kay Tong (Agent Sin), Lim Yu-Beng (Agent Chai), and Pamelyn Chee (Agent Zi). It is also rated NC16.
“Afterimages” is a distinctly Singaporean film with pleasant depth and sophistication to it, thanks to the range of different stories told and the themes and issues dealt with in each tale. Compare to the local fare we’ve had this year, this movie has been a surprisingly good change! The framing story is titled “Burnt Offerings” and it is the contextual device by which the rest of the stories are depicted. In order, they are: “Ghost Pull/Pool Leg,” “Xiao Bao Bao,” “Skin Deep,” and “Rekindling.”
So why is “Afterimages” the Singaporean film to catch this year?
Multiple horror techniques
It’s not just a shockfest – “Afterimages” sends your eye shifting warily across the darkness of the cinema through the use of suspense, unease, tone, music, and of course, nasty surprises. It’s refreshing to see that each story frightens you in different ways, so that even by the fourth story, you’re still terrified.
Local settings
The reason why “Afterimages” is so haunting is because the settings are so local, so familiar, and so relatable – a condo swimming pool, a high rise flat, a claustrophobic lift, and a coffeeshop. You can almost image the scenarios for each tale happening to yourself, or to someone you know, simply because you see those very locations and characters every day. And that’s what makes a ghost story so effective – when you go home and worry that it might actually come to pass.
Shooting style
The soft focus and dark, morbid colours not only serve to heighten the tension of the film, but also portray Singapore in a very different light. It serves to romanticise our country and cast it in an idyllic light, which amplifies the horror even further when danger strikes and shatters this illusion of peace built. Needless to say, you’ll see Singapore from a very different perspective after this film.
The moth motif
It’s almost imperceptible, but a moth can be seen in many of the climatic scenes of the stories. It’s never called out or blatant, but it lends a much appreciated Singaporean flavour to the film – how many times have you heard your parents telling you that black moths are actually the deceased who have come back to visit us? It strengthens the theme of death throughout the film with a unique, and distinct visual symbol.
As much as “Afterimages” was a treat to watch, there were some parts that could have been better refined.
The framing story is ludicrous and unsympathetic
The group of aspiring film makers in “Burnt Offerings” are possibly the most pretentious, dumb characters in the film. They hardly have any qualities which allow you to empathise with them, and to make it worse, they display extreme stupidity in the way which they tap on the supernatural source of the short films. You’re almost driven to scream at them to stop – except that you probably don’t care if they survive the film. Which is a pity, because the rest of the stories have very genuine and sympathetic characters.
Poor digital special effects
The regular special effects are actually quite decent until you see the computer generated ones. It breaks your suspension of disbelief, especially in the final story, where the digital effects are an abysmal distraction to the terror of the characters.
“Afterimages” is definitely the local film with the year, as it eschews the usual crassness and boorishness of many local movies, to tell thought provoking tales about Singapore society. It never hammers home an issue, but rather it gently approaches ideas to bring you fresh insight into our country. For a horror movie to be both scary and intellectual is no mean feat, and “Afterimages” does it with a graceful aplomb.
“Afterimages” opens in cinemas 11 September, 2014 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo Movies Singapore.
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