AFTERMATH
No, not THAT Aftermath, you sick bastards
No, not the Spanish autopsy movie. This is the cheaply-packaged post-holocaust movie that actually isn't bad. This is really a lot more sci-fi than horror, but like with The Campus Corpse, I'm always seeing it in the horror section, so just in case it's in yours too, I'm sharing my thoughts on it with you good folks at alt.horror.
The plot's a little Planet Of The Apes-ly - three astronauts, on the way home from an unspecified mission, aren't getting any signals from Earth, so they have to land the shuttle manually. One of 'em dies in the attempt, and when they get down on the ground, they find (much to their chagrin) that nuclear and germ warfare have left shattered cities in their wake, and only savage mutants, armed gangs and hot women with great breasts to inherit the earth. Okay, maybe it's not all bad down there. Those mutants might come in useful.
If this one and Def Con 4 were combined, we'd have a pretty damn good movie. This one is pretty weak until we get into the post-apocalyptic action, which is pretty well-done considering the obvious budget restraints, and it's nice and savage and brutal all around, complete with exploding heads and people getting knives in the eyes and kids getting killed. DC4, on the other hand, started out wonderfully with the astronauts in space but degenerated into crap once they got down to the surface and saw what was left of the world.
Dick Miller, inexplicably, does voice-over narration as the protagonist, who isn't played by Dick Miller. Sid Haig plays the gang leader, Cutter (damn, even the name is stolen from Mad Max). Features some pretty hot women, too; wish we got to see more of them before they all got raped and killed. (c'mon, this isn't a spoiler, this is par for the course with these post-apocalypse movies) Features really good, Star Trek-style music from John Morgan, and a number of good visuals of a smashed L.A.
This one isn't a great movie - it's not even a very good movie, but it ain't bad, and certainly leagues better than the ultra-cheap packaging suggests. Low budget aside, this is obviously a far bigger ego-trip from writer/director/producer/star Steve Burkett than Kevin Costner could manage in a million lifetimes, but who cares? It's entertaining enough. Needed more mutants, though.