If there’s one film that causes an ongoing dispute in The Duke world its After Last Season, you see I think we should screen it, but Evrim is vehement in his disapproval to ever let it grace our screen. And here’s the interesting point, we both like and dislike it for the same reason: it’s boring!

After Last Season hails from 2009 and managed to gain a modicum of notoriety when its trailer mysteriously debuted on the iTunes Movie Trailers website one day. This unique trailer featured a seemingly random collection of scenes which were badly acted, badly filmed and gave no clue as to what the film was actually about, which lead to people speculating that it was actually a promotional stunt by Spike Jonze, whose Where The Wild Things Are was due to be released around the same time.

But no, After Last Season is a real film, one that just happens hold the record for being the most mind-numbingly boring thing we’ve ever see. Having only watched this once, and that was a few years ago, it’s still etched into my memory just how terrible this film is, which for me is a sign of truly great bad film. I’d try and explain the plot to you, but I don’t think I really understood it at all. It’s something to do with medical students, using some sort of cutting edge technology to try and track down a killer, or something like that, seriously I don’t really know what it was about even after having seen it.

What I can tell you though is that it’s one of the shoddiest films I’ve ever watched, the sets are made of paper, the CGI seems to float in mid-air, the lighting looks like they used prison spotlights on the sets, it’s hard to know even where to begin with this film. And for me that’s the beauty of it all, the utter madness that creates a truly one off experience, I’ve only watched this film once but I’ve never forgotten it, which in the end is really what anyone creative is trying to do, leave an impression on their audience.

Now as a counterpoint to my views here’s Evrim’s take on the film:

“After Last Season – The View From My Porthole:

It might make me sound like some sort of draconian madman but there is a very good reason as to why I kept shooting down any desire to show ‘After Last Season’. Yes, the film is fun. But for only about five minutes. Then it dissolves into the kind of monotonous drone that no audience should ever be subjected to in their entire life.

There are long stretches of what I dread to call animation in the film created by someone who is clearly non-adept at Paint and these sequences might just be the most soul-sucking, hope-crushing sequences in film that I personally have encountered. If you gave me a choice between a lobotomy and watching ‘After Last Season’ again I’d reach for any thin and long object to shove into my brain gladly. It is a portal to a boredom hell just waiting to consume others.

So make sure you go looking for it. Dig it up. It’s one of a kind. Truly.”

A great bit of trivia about the film is that it actually had a theatrical release at four separate cinemas around the USA. Once it had stopped running the distributor informed the cinemas that they should throw away the prints as it was cheaper than sending them back!

Digging around online for this feature I actually discovered a brand new trailer for this had surfaced, which would bring the trailer total to four for what’s really an obscure film. This more recent one seems to try and address the story problems of the script by having a narrator spell out what’s actually supposed to be happening, great idea, but DON’T get a guy with a super creepy voice to do it!

So that’s After Last Season, easily one of the most boring and logic defying films you’ll ever see, we promise it’s worth the effort to track it down, but just don’t watch it on your own!