An unhappy young woman (Christina Ricci) blacks out in a car crash and wakes up on a gurney in the basement of the local undertaker (Liam Neeson); when she protests that she’s not dead, he replies, “You all say the same thing.” Whether or not she’s alive is the question that’s supposed to animate this ostensibly metaphysical horror movie, but thematic rigor mortis sets in long before the final reel. Apple pitch man Justin Long, who acquitted himself well as Alison Lohman’s confused lover in Drag Me to Hell, tackles a similar but more emotionally demanding role here, and the character’s torment is more than he can manage (I guess there’s no app for that). The pallid Ricci spends most of her scenes clad in a sexy red slip or completely nude, which makes you wonder whether the producers are banking on word-of-mouth from necrophiliacs. Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo, making her feature debut, directed a script she wrote with husband Paul Vosloo. R, 97 min.
After.Life
R • 1 hour 43 min • 2010