IN THE AFTERMATH (1988) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: CARL COLPAERT / SCREENPLAY: CARL COLPAERT, MAMORU OSHII / STARRING: TONY MARKES, RAINBOW DOLAN, KENNETH MCCABE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Made with a budget so small it’s not visible to the naked eye, genre mash-up curio In The Aftermath secures a Blu-Ray release courtesy of the dedicated specialists at Arrow Video. Originally released in 1988 and targeted at the burgeoning VHS rental market in the US, In The Aftermath is a truly bizarre amalgam of animation and live-action, which makes zero narrative sense, but which provides a revealing reflection of what was happening in the fringes of the American film industry as the soaring popularity of the domestic video recorder led to an explosion in demand for movies in the late 1980s.
If you’ve not seen the film before, there’s a good argument for starting with the Blu-ray’s special features, as candid interviews with producer Tom Dugan and star Tony Markes will put what you’re about to see in an insightful context. Dugan explains that New World Entertainment had acquired the 1985 arthouse Japanese anime Angel Egg and then decided to splice elements from it with some new live action sequences (shot as cheaply as possible) to try to ‘make sense of an animation film that they had paid very little for’. To try to blend new footage with what Duggan calls the ‘incomprehensible’ mythology of Angel Egg, the producers chose to shoot scenes supposedly set in a post-apocalyptic America in the ruins of an abandoned steel plant in Fontana, in Southern California, with a cast of just four.
In a toxic wasteland, survivors of an unexplained calamity search for supplies of clean air. With stocks dwindling and competition brutal, the remnants of the human race appear to be doomed, unless (and cue the animation) an Angel can find a way to purify the planet once more.
While the cinematography is fine, it’s all but impossible to believe that the nonsensical screenplay required the talents of the writers listed in the end credits. Things reach maximum weirdness when Markes’ character, wearing his bio-suit, plays Horacio Moscovici’s Carnavalito Tango on a piano in a makeshift hospital over an unrelated stream-of-consciousness montage of largely out-of-focus clips.
Markes recalls the unromantic realities of the shoot (the crew worried that the site might be toxic in real life) and describes how the cast’s questions about the storyline (especially in relation to the animated sections that they had not seen) went unanswered.
This Arrow Video release reflects the company’s dependably high standards. The restoration is sharp and clean and offers good colour and crisp sound. As well as the revealing interviews with Dugan and Markes, anime expert Andrew Osmond locates Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg in the evolving traditions of 1980s’ Japanese cinema. In addition to a stills and poster gallery and a reversible sleeve (of original and newly-commissioned artwork), the initial pressing includes an illustrated booklet by STARBURST’s own Jon Towlson on the history of the film.
Within a few years of its release, audience expectations about the quality of VHS home rental content had risen past the point at which the hybrid shenanigans of In The Aftermath would have been widely accepted. But even in 1988, the profit expectations of its producers would have been modest, and its circulation small. This is a release more likely to intrigue than to entertain, but the insight it provides into an era of rapid transition in the modern history of American filmmaking is salutary.
