Explain the ending of Aftermath on Netflix again please, because, look… I had to phone a friend, and then ask the audience, before it made sense to me. Did you guys get it right away? Then hurry up and explain it to me in the comments. Let’s see if we can sort this movie out – so help me out would you? First off, Aftermath is the movie that is blowing up over on Netflix right now. But I’m not 100% certain why. I mean, sure, it has some janky cool tricks up its sleeves, but unless you were taking notes? Uh huh. If you haven’t watched Aftermath on Netflix yet, then I’m going to respectfully ask you to take a pass on this post – just sit this one out. (Or you could click this link I guess and watch it now, THEN come back and see what all the fuss is about. That’s an option I suppose.)
Explain the Ending of Aftermath on Netflix Again Please
The movie opens with a notification that the movie was based on true events. Was Aftermath based on true events? Could this even really be a thing? At the bottom of this post, I’ll walk you through the real world events that actually happened to inspire the movie. The opening is critical to understanding the entirety of the film. Erin, the designer of the self-built home, and her husband Jay are having marital problems which culminates in a murder suicide. Erin was killed by Jay, and Jay committed suicide. Maybe.
After the introduction to Erin and Jay – and their swift departure from the film – we meet Claudia, Jay’s sister, who unloads the house to Kevin (Shawn Ashmore) and Natalie (Ashley Greene – Twilight) just to get rid of it. (Wait, hold on. Is it just me? Or does Ashley Greene look like Marena Baccarin’s (You know, from Homeland) doppleganger? Maybe I’m just seeing things here. Who knows. Anyway.) But Claudia’s husband, Robert, just doesn’t seem very happy with the transaction. Not even a little bit. Why?
As the movie starts out, the couple start receiving weird mail, like porn and other things they definitely didn’t order. And worse? Natalie starts to think that there is someone else in the house when she is accosted in the night. Or maybe she’s insane. Because that isn’t a well-worn movie plot detail… is she just randomly going insane? Why, yes, of course she is! Because that makes sense. Eventually, Natalie reports the events and the attack, to the police… but when the security footage shows her running through the house alone – the police write it off to Theatrical Insane Woman Syndrome. Commonly referred to as TIWS. And screenwriters everywhere should be made aware of this overly used movie script syndrome.
But then Dani, Natalie’s sister, completely disappears while at the house. But Natalie and Jay really think nothing of it other than to be annoyed that the dog wasn’t fed. BECAUSE OF COURSE. (Can I just say that, I could have madlibbed a better screenplay based on the real events. But I stuck with the movie solely because I had heard there was a clever double back at the end of the movie. CURSE YOU – YOU FIENDISH DOUBLE BACK!) And then their dog Odie has to be put down after eating something poisonous.
Eventually, Natalie goes to visit Claudia – the woman that sold them the house – in order to find out what might be happening with the house and how her brother and sister died. And she learns that the couple had been having affairs. But Claudia really doesn’t think that her brother killed himself and his wife. After their chat, Robert, Claudia’s husband offers to buy the house back at a reduced rate. But, stupidly, Natalie refuses. I would have cut and run at this point, personally.
Things go from bad to worse when Natalie notices photos on her phone of her sleeping. OK weird. And she also sees a “rail thin” man in the house. Kevin, soon after, collapses from a drug in his system called nerium… which is apparently lethal at too large a dose. Which makes the police think that it is actually Natalie that is poisoning her husband. But when she’s attacked at the front door of her home by an attacker that read a post online about how Natalie has rape fantasies, the Police realize what is going on. It turns out that it was Claudia’s husband, Robert, who was responsible for the post in Natalie’s name. He had invested in Claudia’s husband’s home and after the house was sold for a loss, he was severely in debt. (Stop, if you wanted to make an “investment” that would put you in debt, would you invest in your brother-in-law’s custom build home? That they were going to live in? Like, what? They could live there the rest of their lives. It wasn’t like it was a build and flip. This just makes no sense at all.) But of course, Robert was trying to scare the couple into leaving his home.
But, when pressed, Robert denies attacking Natalie in the night, or killing their dog, or poisoning Kevin. Right? Because he didn’t. At this point though, do I even care what the double back is? Because we know there is a double back of some sort, there’s still like 25 minutes left in the film. After Natalie loses faith in Kevin, she mentions they should think seriously about separating. And the next day, she sends him a text telling him to stay out of the house tonight. But that night, Natalie is attacked again, and she is chained in the attic by the thin man, who, has been living in the house all this time. But wait, who is this rail thin guy living in the house again?
Otto. It’s OTTO! Wait, who is Otto? Otto is Erin’s lover who has been living in a hiding spot behind a closet. Turns out, Erin designed it to keep her lover around. But, when Erin chose her husband over Otto, he came completely unglued and killed them both.
The True Story Aftermath Is Based On
The movie opens with the notification that the movie is based on a true story. Really? How could this crazy movie actually be based on a true story? But, sure enough, a quick search paints the picture that Aftermath really is a true story. Apparently the real world story happened to Jerry Rice and Janice Ruhter who were unfortunate enough to purchase a home in San Diego California in 2011. The first sign something was wrong was when their mail stopped being delivered. Next? About a grand’s worth of magazine subscriptions started showing up. Worse? Valentines cards were being delivered to women on the street in Jerry’s name. Come on, that’s messed up. And even worse, when the couple searched for themselves online, Janice found that “she” had taken out ads for sex parties at their home. And that she even liked to be raped, that people should surprise her, and that it was her fantasy to be attacked violently. So harsh. The chaos apparently had an enormous strain on the couple’s marriage. As it would.
So what was happening in real life? Why would someone do this to a random couple in real life? Well, apparently, Kathy Row happened to be really REALLY annoyed that she was outbid for the house. Which makes sense? Right? The last time I was outbid for a house, I stalked the winner of the bid and threatened them with online attacks, and invited others to their house for sex parties. Uh. No. You move on to the next house, and try again. No? But maybe the housing market in San Diego is different? Wow. Anyway, Kathy was sentenced to a year of electronic surveillance and five years of probation in 2015. Wait, she’s free and walking around without someone monitoring her? Crazy.
But wait! What about all the murder suicide, and the craziness about affairs and all that stuff? Yeah, all made up whole cloth. From scratch. The real story was low key in comparison to the film. Valentines and mail stoppages. Hrm. Yeah, maybe the screenplay authors should have just passed on the entire story?
Edited by: CY