After.Life
| After.Life | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Agnieszka Wójtowicz-Vosloo |
| Produced by |
Bill Perkins Brad Michael Gilbert Celine Rattray |
| Written by | Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo Paul Vosloo Jakub Korolczuk |
| Starring |
Christina Ricci Liam Neeson Justin Long |
| Music by | Paul Haslinger |
| Cinematography | Anastas N. Michos |
| Edited by | Niven Howie |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2,002,618 |
After.Life is a 2009 American psychological horror-thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci and Justin Long, directed by Agnieszka Wójtowicz-Vosloo from her original screenplay.
Middle school teacher Anna Taylor (Christina Ricci) attends a funeral of her piano teacher where she encounters the solemn owner of the funeral home, Eliot Deacon (Liam Neeson). That night Anna argues with her boyfriend Paul (Justin Long), leaves in a panic, and gets in a traffic accident. She awakens in a morgue finding the funeral director, Eliot, dressing her wounds and telling her she has died. He tells Anna he has a gift to help the dead accept their deaths. It is revealed that Eliot talks to the dead and has a collection of photographs of corpses whom, it is implied, he has helped to "cross over". Eliot injects Anna regularly with a fictional drug called hydronium bromide to "relax the muscles and keep rigor mortis from setting in."
Anna unsuccessfully attempts to escape several times; Eliot tells her she must let go of life as she had not really been living anyway. Eventually, Anna escapes and finds a room with a phone where she reaches Paul, who hangs up thinking it's a prank. Anna comes to believe she has actually died when Eliot allows her to see her corpse-like self in a mirror. One of Anna's students sees her and alerts Paul, who becomes suspicious that she is still alive. Paul requests to see Anna's body but Elliot does not allow it.
During the final preparation for the funeral, Anna asks to see herself one last time. Eliot holds up a small mirror, and while she stares at herself she notices her breath condensing on the glass and once again believes she has been alive all along. Eliot injects her one last time to make her numb. At the funeral, as Paul views Anna's body, she twitches her eyes but is unable to get his attention. Paul places the engagement ring he intended to give her the night of the crash on her finger and gets surprised as Anna's body was cold and then kisses her.
After the funeral, Paul drinks heavily telling Eliot he knew Anna was not dead. Anna is shown awakening to the sound of earth being shoveled onto her coffin. She cries out and desperately scratches the satin lining of her coffin lid. As she slowly dies of suffocation, Eliot suggests Paul should find out whether Anna is actually dead or not before it is too late. Driving under the influence of alcohol, Paul rushes to the cemetery. The two embrace and Anna tells Paul she has always loved him. As they hug, Paul is curious about odd sounds he hears; Anna explains it is the sound of Eliot's gloves and scissors on the table as he prepares Paul's body. Paul sees Anna disappearing, then a bright flash of headlights. A moment later, he finds himself in the morgue with Eliot standing over him preparing his body. Paul says he saw Anna, but Eliot tells him that he never made it to the cemetery due to a car accident which killed him. Paul pleads that he is alive until the moment Eliot inserts a trocar deep into his torso.
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