Netflix’s Afterlife of The Party (2021) Review: Shiny, Idealized and Basic

Afterlife of the Party is a recently released movie on Netflix and is directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Victoria Justice in the lead role as Cassandra (a.k.a Cassie) and Midori Francis, Adam Garcia, Spencer Sutherland, and Robyn Scott among other cast members. The total run time of the movie just about hits the one-hour fifty minutes mark.

Netflix describes it as:

Social butterfly Cassie experiences the biggest party foul of all… dying during her birthday week. To her surprise, she’s gifted a second chance to right her wrongs on Earth by reconnecting with loved ones, and most importantly, prove that she’s worthy enough to get into the big VIP room in the sky.

Via the Netflix Offical website

– Afterlife of the Party review does not contain any spoilers –

The movie follows Cassie, who is a total party girl. As she throws rager after rager building up to her birthday week, she gets into a severe bathroom accident and dies. The rest of the movie focuses on her completing a to-do list of sorts before she can get a shot to a permanent place in heaven.

Ever heard of a ghost movie that’s actually a comedy? No? Yes, well Afterlife of the Party is exactly that. Or at least, it promises to be.

Afterlife of the Party stars the once-famous child actor from Nickelodeon’s hit show Victorious, and of course, there was a lot of hype building up to her so-called comeback to mainstream cinema. But is it worth the wait? That’s a grey area, and we’ll tell you why.

The movie is quite Disney-esque. Shiny, idealized and so very colourful, Afterlife of the Party is life a PG 13 version of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Well, more or less. It involves Cassie dying and then coming back on earth to resolve her “unresolved business”, which basically just code for her resolving all her emotional issues with all her loved ones.

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Surprisingly, the movie, despite seeming quite childish, makes a few philosophical points you can appreciate even as an adult. Apart from these, however, it is much like one of those movies you would have enjoyed watching as a teenager during summer break.

The acting seems juvenile and there’s nothing particularly spectacular about the script either. The overall concept was interesting, and if I may be bold enough to say, strong enough to make the film a one-time watch.

All in all, the movie is best described as “not bad”. It isn’t amazing, but it isn’t unwatchable either. I wouldn’t truly recommend it to someone, but if they really really wanted to watch it, I wouldn’t stop them either.

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Final Verdict: Afterlife of the Party

Afterlife of the Party is the kind of movie you’d watch with your 12-year-old cousin and lie about not enjoying it. Although it was marketed as a comedy, nothing really seems all that funny, but the strong concept carries a viewer’s interest well enough. It may get a tad bit boring towards the middle, and it definitely is one of those movies you can predict the ending of.

It’s a Disney-esque movie alright, but who said that’s a bad thing, right?

Afterlife of the Party is now streaming on Netflix.

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