‘Here After’ Review: A Child Returns From Death’s Door in Uninspired Supernatural Drama

As a seasoned cinephile who’s seen his fair share of resurrection-themed films, from the chilling to the downright bizarre, I must admit that “Here After” left me feeling rather underwhelmed and unfulfilled. The movie seems to straddle two genres without fully committing to either – it dabbles in supernatural horror but lacks the necessary suspense and creepiness, and its sentimental exploration of sacrifice and redemption feels like a watered-down version of faith-based entertainment.

Several films explore the profound sorrow experienced after a child’s demise. A number of these, such as “Pet Sematary” and its peers, delve into the uncomfortable situation when the deceased child inexplicably returns, or seems to do so. The film “Here After” skillfully weaves this concept but lacks originality, attempting to combine horror-tinged unease with a heartwarming narrative of sacrifice and redemption reminiscent of “faith-based entertainment.” However, it stops short of fully committing to either aspect.

Regardless of Connie Britton’s strong performance as an American expat in Rome, Robert Salerno’s first feature film directing attempt appears more like a supernatural TV drama, lacking intensity in its suspense and overly predictable in its focus on maternal hardship. The co-production between Paramount is set to premiere in U.S. theaters and digitally this Friday, following its release in Italy by several weeks.

For the past 25 years, Salerno has released films from various unique directors such as Charlie Kaufman, Lynne Ramsay, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Brady Corbet, Tom Ford, and Billy Bob Thornton, along with more commercially-driven projects like the recent hit “Smile” and its upcoming sequel. However, “Here After” doesn’t seem to be a personal or passionate exploration of genre elements. Although it’s well-made, it lacks the distinct, signature style that could have made the generic yet unclear script by Sarah Conradt (who also worked on Benoit Delhomme’s recent film “Mothers’ Instinct”) stand out.

Britton portrays Claire, an English literature instructor at a Catholic school. Her daughter Robin (Freya Hannan-Mills), a gifted pianist, is also a student there. It appears they reside in Rome to keep close to Robin’s father Luca (Giovanni Cirfiera), who has remarried and started a new family with his second wife Syama Rayner. The strained relationship between Claire and her ex-husband is hinted at subtly, but the reason for their divorce isn’t fully disclosed until later in the story.

Riding her bike through heavy rain to a conservatory audition, Robin meets with a tragic accident that causes her death in the emergency room, leaving her parents heartbroken. However, against all odds, she miraculously regains consciousness, which seems almost like an answer to her mother’s prayers. This miracle, though, brings more trouble than joy as Robin becomes rude and disrespectful towards her mom, uses inappropriate language, behaves aggressively towards her schoolmates, and shows signs of threatening behavior. Her musical talent also seemingly vanishes overnight. A brain scan reveals no problems, but when Robin’s mother, Claire, starts having terrifying hallucinations, she believes that the teenager has been possessed by an evil entity after going to “the other side.” Church authorities and Luca dismiss this idea as foolishness. Instead, they find comfort in the support of physician Ben (Tommaso Basili), who runs a group for people who have survived near-death experiences.

It is to him that Claire eventually spills a long, rambling monologue explaining the circumstances that ended her marriage, and may have left an angry spirit out to avenge itself — or to seek healing reconciliation. A watery climax involving a prior, second fatal traffic accident provides that opportunity. But the supernatural elements here make little sense, despite the metaphysical mishmash characters occasionally ponder out loud. In the end, one conclusion to be drawn (if any) is that Claire is somehow being punished for the moral crime of breaking up the family unit, even though it’s clear that Luca wasn’t much of a husband or father.

The outcome is simultaneously complex and oversimplified, tentatively employing horror motifs as a tool to approach a somewhat perplexed idea of redemption. While we anticipate gruesome acts from the revived Robin, there’s not much action in that aspect, making Hannan-Mills struggle to convey a series of expressions that appear demonic but ultimately come across as insincere and misleading.

Britton is a dependable actor more than capable of rising to a meaty opportunity. Yet while this story is entirely from Claire’s point of view, her role is primarily a reactive one, responding to situations that aren’t particularly well-developed or credible. There’s not much she or the competent support cast can do to sell this scenario, which might’ve had greater impact had Salerno taken a more heightened, idiosyncratic directorial approach. Instead, he realizes the script with a tasteful efficiency and not much else, while production designer Luca Merlini’s elegant settings, DP Bartosz Nalazek’s handsome cinematography and other contributions do more to muffle than build sinister atmospherics. Fabrizio Mancinelli’s string-driven original score does more to achieve a desired urgency in the targeted intersection of grief and tension.

2024-09-13 02:47

‘Here After’ Review: A Child Returns From Death’s Door in Uninspired Supernatural Drama

Read More

Minority Mindset