As apocalypse scenarios go, this one feels both retro and commendably topical: Nuclear bombs, remember those? (Also: Edward Furlong, remember him?)
“Aftermath” finds Texas med student Hunter (C.J. Thomason) on a walk when World War III breaks out, mushroom clouds blooming on the dusty horizon.
A deft first responder, he hustles several terrified strangers and himself into a cellar before radioactive fallout starts.
Director Peter Engert, to his credit, delivers a believably awful scenario; nine people trapped underground for a month are mostly going to pace, cry and argue. Unfortunately, this makes for wearying watching.
Furlong, as the angry hick, provides the main source of tension among a roomful of mostly decent people gradually being picked off by radiation sickness and, eventually, marauding survivors from the outside.
As a portrait of “the month after,” it’s not a pretty sight.