After the Dark doesn't work because nothing matters

Besides playing the Netflix game, I wanted to watch After the Dark because I remember watching the trailer when it came out, and it seemed like the kind of movie I would like. But about 20 minutes into the movie, I realized that I would not like it as much as I expected. There are a few reasons for that. Spoilers ahead...

1. Every significant thing happens in the thought experiment, not in real life, and there no real stakes for the characters. 

The exciting parts of the movie are in the thought experiment—how the group survives and the consequences of their choices. But in real life, these students are all just sitting around a classroom. Mr. Zimit, the teacher, threatens a couple of them with lower grades, but that’s it. Other movies have pulled off an alternate space that affects reality. Characters who die The Matrix die in real life. Things go wrong in Inception's shared dreams, and it affects the characters' goals in real life. But it’s difficult to care about what happens to the characters in After the Dark when their classroom discussions have no real consequences.

2. New iterations of the thought experiment don’t propel the story.

We find out more about each character in each iteration, but we still don’t know what the point of the experiment is in the first place. Is this the class’s final exam? Is Mr. Zimit trying to prove something? Is it about character reveals? We don’t know. At the end of the movie, we find out Mr. Zimit wants to be with Petra and was trying to show her that James isn’t the right guy for her. It's the kind of reveal that could work well, but it doesn't here. The writers withheld important information until the end, so we don’t see where the thought experiment is going all along, and that makes it difficult for us to care.

How could new iterations propel a story? Take Groundhog Day for example. We know upfront that Bill Murray’s character wants to stop repeating Groundhog Day. He wants a way out. First, he tries killing himself, but the day resets after each attempt. Next, he tries perfecting the day, and when he finally does, the loop breaks. We know what he wants the whole time—find a way to stop repeating the day—so we can empathize with his situation as the movie progresses.

3. We don’t know who to sympathize with. 

After the Dark has a large cast—20 students plus Mr. Zimit. Down to 10 people in the bunker. And we learn about each character in bits and pieces. All those people and all that information makes it difficult to know who we should be rooting for. It seems like our choices narrow to James, Petra, and Mr. Zimit. Of these three, James is the most likable. He is friendly and honest. He looks out for his classmates. He tries to act in a morally good way. Petra, on the other hand, seems cold, even as she emerges as the leader of the students. We see brief scenes of her and James together and where he is loving and sweet, she is distant and unresponsive. We don’t know if she’s holding back her feelings for James or if she’s lying to him about their relationship. We don’t know what she wants, so we can’t hope that she gets what she wants. And then there is Mr. Zimit who is cast as a villain for most of the movie. He kills the poet, acts impulsively, and withholds information that would help the group survive. We don't know what he's up to, but then at the end of the movie, it seems like we're supposed to feel bad for him.

After the Dark starts with an interesting concept but non-existing stakes, unclear character motivations, and too many characters make it difficult to enjoy the film. You can sit back and watch it purely for the philosophical stuff, but if you think about the story, it feels muddled.