Aftermath is 1994 horror short film created by Nacho Cerdà. It forms a loose trilogy with two of Cerdà's other films, The Awakening and Genesis.
A woman named Marta Arnau Marti is caught in a fatal car crash involving a dog, and her body is shipped to the morgue, where two morticians are working on a pair of male cadavers. After his companion finishes up and leaves, the other worker takes Marta's corpse out of its drawer. The mortician proceeds to masturbate while mutilating and eviscerating Marta's body, which he takes pictures of, eventually becoming so overcome with lust that he mounts the corpse and has sex with it, while its chest is still cut open. Afterward, the man cleans up, seals Marta, and takes her heart home, where he blends it so his dog can eat it. The dog eats the heart while his owner watches television, and the camera zooms in on Marta's obituary, which happens to be among the scraps the dog's bowl is set on.
And that's it, really. Well, aside from the complete and utter lack of any dialogue, and the occasional outbursts of intense music.
In conclusion, a darkly beautiful and atmospheric art film with a deep hidden meaning, or just a sick and twisted borderline porno for necrophiles and gore fetishists? You decide, which a lot of critics are still trying to do to this day.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: The right foot of one of the male corpses has been severed.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: A hose is used to wash off the bodies of the two men.
- Death Glare: The mortician gives one to an orderly when he notices him observing the autopsies.
- Eye Scream: One of the male bodies has a messed up eye, and a needle is inserted into the eye of the other.
- The Faceless: The mortician's face is not revealed until the very end, and his co-worker's face is not shown at all.
- Groin Attack: Marta is stabbed in the crotch.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Besides the obvious (it's about autopsies) a dog that was run over, causing its intestines to spill out, is shown.
- Hemo Erotic: The mortician is transfixed by the blood of the man he is autopsying.
- Mundane Made Awesome: That is one intense soundtrack.
- No Name Given: Everyone except Marta.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: It plays over the opening and end credits.
