History Film / AfterLife

* RealityEnsues: The aforementioned CruelTwistEnding happens because [[spoiler:Paul had been drinking right before he got behind the wheel. Drunk drivers and deadlines do not mix together very well, and Paul crashes his car on the way to the cemetery]].

* ISeeDeadPeople: Deacon appears to possess this ability. [[spoiler: However, it turns out he's a SerialKiller who drugs people to make them seem dead, burying them alive, because he feels they've wasted their lives, making them unworthy of life. He also (in the case of Anna at least) then convinces them of the fact, claiming this power as his explanation for why he can speak with them when they're supposedly dead.]]

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation]] to the [=ITV=] show, the [[VideoGame/{{Afterlife}} 1996 game]], or the 1998 Japanese film ''Wonderful Life'' (released in the west as ''After Life'').

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks No relation]] to the [=ITV=] show, or the [[VideoGame/{{Afterlife}} 1996 game]].

* FanService: Christina Ricci spends a good portion of the film naked.

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Deacon confesses that the first person who he "buried" was his mother.]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Deacon manages to evade having his true activities revealed even when Paul is ''right outside the door'' from where Anna is, alive; having convinced her she's dead and has to "move on", she doesn't reveal herself. He then later goads Paul into speeding off to check whether she's really dead or not, and then kills him in the funeral home, getting rid of one of the only two people who could have revealed him. Jack, the other person who knows, is recruited by Deacon, who fooled him into thinking they both can speak with the dead, and calmly watches as Deacon kills Paul, convinced that he's just a spirit. Deacon gets away clean. He's also done this many times before, judging by his array of corpse photos (WordOfGod says those with their eyes open were alive, like Anna)...]]

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Deacon confess that the first person he "buries" was his mother.]]

* TheSociopath: [[spoiler: Deacon is revealed to be this. He loves to bury people alive for the sole reason he thinks they're not worthy of living. Before doing that he seems like he likes torturing them by using either his medical instruments or BreakThemByTalking. In the end he decides to simply kills Paul for knowing too much, not before taunting him about his failure.]]

* CruelTwistEnding:[[spoiler: Deacon ensures that Anna gets buried alive with Paul thinking she was already dead. Then Deacon tells a drunk Paul to go see for himself that she's really dead. He goes and digs her up just in time to save her from suffocating and everything seems like it will end well. Then it turns out it was all a hallucination and he ends up on Deacon's morgue table with Deacon telling him he really died in a car crash on the way to the cemetery before inserting a trocar deep into his torso. So Anna dies in a grave, Paul is killed, and Deacon gets away with everything.]]

* CruelTwistEnding:[[spoiler: Deacon ensures that Anna gets buried alive with Paul thinking she was already dead. Then Deacon tells a drunk (and possibly drugged) Paul to go see for himself that she's really dead. He goes and digs her up just in time to save her from suffocating and everything seems like it will end well. Then it turns out it was all a hallucination and he ends up on Deacon's morgue table with Deacon telling him he really died in a car crash on the way to the cemetery before injecting him with the same drug Deacon injected Anna with at the start. So Anna dies in a grave, Paul will join her soon, and Deacon gets away with everything.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: There were clues from the beginning that Anna wasn't actually dead. A white van follows her prior to the accident (the same type which we later see Deacon drive), her injuries did not appear sufficient to be fatal (though granted, that isn't definitive-people can be killed without much visible damage), injecting a corpse is pointless as the blood wouldn't circulate it, the drug he injects her with is said to cause the appearance of death, her breath fogged the mirror up (which Deacon wipes away the first time-why bother if she's actually dead?), she can't leave the room (why does Deacon race back to stop her when he finds she's taken his keys, if she's really just a ghost?) Plus the way Deacon adjusts the thermostat for his morgue (why, if they're popsicles already? It could be invisible, odorless gas to knock Anna out)]].
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Deacon manages to evade having his true activities revealed even when Paul is ''right outside the door'' from where Anna is, alive; having convinced her she's dead and has to "move on", she doesn't reveal herself. He then later goads Paul into speeding off to check whether she's really dead or not (he may have drugged him beforehand), and then kills him in the funeral home, getting rid of one of the only two people who could have revealed him. Jack, the other person who knows, is recruited by Deacon, who fooled him into thinking they both can speak with the dead, and calmly watches as Deacon kills Paul, convinced that he's just a spirit. Deacon gets away clean. He's also done this many times before, judging by his array of corpse photos (WordOfGod says those with their eyes open were alive, like Anna)...]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: It's never revealed how Deacon chooses his victims, besides Paul, though it seems to be set up in advance, since he appears to have followed Anna in the van before her accident. On that note, it seems hard to insure someone wouldn't be killed before he could get to them, and why bother? What's his need, convincing people they're dead to bury them alive?]]

''After.Life'' is a 2009 paranoid thriller film starring Creator/LiamNeeson, Creator/ChristinaRicci, and Justin Long.

* LonersAreFreaks: Deacon is a classic example, though does it seem slightly odd that he has no employees at all to help him with his successful funeral business and his large mansion. He appears to do everything himself and he pays great attention to detail eg. in one scene we find him delicately trimming a hedge with a pair of scissors.

* LonersAreFreaks: Deacon is a classic example, though does it seem slightly odd that he has no employees at all to help him with his successful funeral business and his large mansion. He appears to do everything himself and he pays great attention to detail-in one scene we find him delicately trimming a hedge with a pair of scissors.