Jay Roberts Jr. | Through the Shattered Lens

It’s the future and society has collapsed. America is now controlled by the evil Commander Eastern (Richard Lynch) who, with the help of a propagandist known as Big Sister and a paramilitary leader named Oliver Queen (John Saxon), rules with an iron hand. Colonel Slater (Christopher Mitchum) is the leader of the revolution that threaten to overthrow Eastern’s regime.

Two revolutionaries, Wille (Jay Roberts, Jr.) and Danny (Chuck Jeffreys), are stuck in one of Eastern’s prison. Every day, they fight for their lives and they wait for a chance to escape. That chances come in the form of Sabrina (the beautiful Elizabeth Kaitan), an alien who lands on our planet under the mistaken assumption that Earth is an utopia.

When Sabrina, Willie, and Danny finally manage to escape, they have to make it to Slater’s headquarters while avoiding the bounty hunter (Chris DeRose) who Queen has been sent to capture them.

A fairly standard rip-off of the Mad Max films, the most interesting thing about Aftershock is the cast. I already mentioned Mitchum, Saxon, Lynch, and Elizabeth Kaitan but there are also appearances from Russ Tamblyn, Michael Berryman, Matthias Hues, and Deanna Oliver. For a movie that looks cheap and doesn’t really bring anything new to the postapocalyptic genre, there are a lot of very talented people in this movie. (Even talented people have to pay the bills.) Most of them are only on for a few minutes. The instantly forgettable Jay Roberts, Jr. and Chuck Jeffreys are the actual stars here. Jeffreys was a stunt man who was famous for his resemblance to Eddie Murphy. He looks good in the action scenes but otherwise, he and Roberts don’t make much of an impression.

At least Elizabeth Kaitan gets a decent amount of screentime. Kaitan appeared in a lot of movies in the 80s and 90s. None of the movies were very good. She got stuck with roles like the girlfriend in Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 and a victim in Friday The 13th Part VII. Kaitan got roles primarily because she was beautiful but she had a likable screen presence and more than a little talent. In Aftershock, she gives a convincing performance as a stranger in a strange land, one who has her own eccentric way of viewing things. Her performance is the best thing about Aftershock and the main reason to watch.

Thin Ice, a short film from 1988, tells the story of Vince (Jay Roberts, Jr.).

Vince is a college student. He likes to party and drink and basically do all of the stuff that, if we’re going to be honest, people are supposed to be doing in college. I mean, yes, it’s true. College is about getting you ready to enter the adult world. But it’s also that last chance that most students will have to truly enjoy all of the stuff that’s typically frowned upon by the adult world. College is supposed to be a time of experimentation and Vince has certainly been experimenting! Good for him!

His parents, of course, disagree. When Vince comes home the winter break, his parents insist that he go to church with them. Vince is all, “I’m too cool for church!” but he goes anyways because otherwise, he might have to stay at a hotel. He meets some other college students at the church and he ends up getting invited on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe. Vince loves to ski so, of course, he says yes.

Vince is stunned to discover that his new friends are actually being sincere when they say they’re Christians and he struggles to adjust to hanging out with them. However, he soon discovers that they’re not as a weird as he thought they were. Of course, Vince and everyone else is soon more concerned with Shawna (Amy Lyndon). Shawna is the type of bitter atheist who always shows up in movies like this. From the minute she first appears, she’s complaining about religion and accusing all of the members of the youth group of being hypocrites.

A good deal of the movie is literally this:

Youth Group Member: “Hey, Shawna, good morning.”

Shawna: “YOUR GOD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CREATING THE MORNING!”

Youth Group Member: “I think I’m going to get some skiing in, if you want to come.”

Shawna: “YOUR GOD ALLOWS TOO MANY PEOPLE TO DIE IN SKIING ACCIDENTS!”

Youth Group Member: “Okay, well, let me know if you change your mind….”

Shawna: “MY MIND BELONGS TO ME, YOU HOLLY ROLLER!”

Yes, Shawna is pretty spiteful and, most of the time, pretty annoying. But she’s ultimately so extremely hateful that it becomes oddly fascinating to listen to her. As a character, she really is the epitome of what most Christians think of when they think of an atheist. She’s intolerant, angry, condescending, and self-destructive. Admittedly, there’s quite a few atheists who are like that but there are others who simply don’t believe in God because they don’t and not because they’re angry at the world or consumed by self-loathing. Just as secular films always seem to struggle with the idea that a normal person can go to church, Christian films can never seem to accept that some people just don’t believe in God. Instead, the assumption is that everyone secretly believes in God but they’re just not willing to admit it.

Anyway, a character eventually falls through some thin ice (hence, the title) and nearly drowns. This leads to everyone having a religious epiphany so I guess the lesson here is that, if you’re confused about what you believe, just wait for a casual acquaintance to have a near death experience.

Anyway, Thin Ice is a pretty typical 80s Christian film. It’s not quite as slickly put together as the films of the Christiano Brothers but, at the same time, it also doesn’t have the mean streak that runs through a lot of the early Christiano films. Shawna may be an obnoxious atheist but she’s not threatened with Hell or anything like that. For the most part, though, this is a pretty low-key and forgettable film. It’s a bit of a time capsule of the time in which it was made but otherwise, Thin Ice is almost as forgettable as an ice cube melting in the summer.