Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (2021) review: ‘AFTER BLUE (Dirty Paradise)’ is intoxicating genre weirdness .

AFTER BLUE

A chimeric future on After Blue, a planet from another galaxy, a virgin planet where only women can survive in the midst of harmless flora and fauna. The story is of a punitive expedition.


On a planet filled exclusively with women, a mother and daughter are charged with catching the killer daughter Roxy inadvertently set free. What occurs over the next two-plus hours is a retelling of events, unlike anything we ever experienced before on film.

Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2021 audiences certainly got more than they bargained for with After Blue. The cast gives it their all from start to finish. This speaks volumes about the trust between writer-director Bertrand Mandico and these actors. An ambitious work, Mandico’s most rewarding aspect is the creation of an entirely new world. Every inch of the set is adorned with eye candy, glitter, and sci-fi western weirdness. It’s a visual feast. The costumes drip with a mix of 70s witch, barbarian, mermaid aesthetics. It’s like watching a really expensive, new wave music video at times. The entire film feels like softcore porn for hardcore genre nerds. In all seriousness, sexual urges motivate each character’s every moment. While the plot is flimsy, the psychosexual energy and gender dismantling make After Blue an intriguing watch. The commentary on class, consumerism, and privilege is, quite literally, written on objects. There’s an Android named Louis Vuitton, guns named Gucci and Chanel. You have to let go of any preconceived notions about After Blue and ride the hypersexual, demented wave of the bizarre.