Skip to content
Afterlife of the Party centres around Cassie (Victoria Justice – who unwisely starred in the 2016 TV movie version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I’ve so far managed to avoid), who wants to celebrate her 25th birthday big-time, while her flatmate, Lisa (Midori Francis – Dash and Lily), is a nerdy bookworm.
However, despite all of the lead’s enthusiasm about her plans, they do just end up in a rather average ‘dance round your handbag’ bar, where the former plans to get very drunk and then hang out with the popular crowd, while Lisa thinks she’s being quite shallow.
The next morning, a quick stumble in the bathroom causes Cassie to shuffle off her mortal coil with an astounding lack of blood onscreen (it is a PG, after all), after which she wakes up in the afterlife with her temporary guardian angel, Val (Robyn Scott).
From that point, she has five days to attempt to reconnect with family members and Lisa, before she can move on, whilst also figuring out a way for the living to be able to see her dead self, including trying to set up her former flatmate for a date with her shut-in of a British neighbour, Max (Timothy Renouf).
So, yes, it’s that film about the dead person having to fix stuff on Earth before they move on, like… Ghost Dad, except without Bill Cosby. Hey, it’s not a bad film if you forget the fact that the man is a ghastly pervert.
Meanwhile, for Cassie’s parents, strangely, while Adam Garcia plays her Dad, Howie, and Gloria Garcia plays her Mum, Sofia, the two Garcias are not related!
Overall, Afterlife of the Party should be something brilliant – especially in the directorial hands of Stephen Herek, who brought us the iconic Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure – because we all want to know what the afterlife would be like, but for the most part, it’s remarkably dull and… lifeless.
On the plus side, at least someone in Hollywood has managed to make a film that parents can let their kids watch without any swearing in it.
Afterlife of the Party is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 109 minutes
Release date: September 2nd 2021
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Rating: 2.5/10
Director: Stephen Herek
Producers: Deborah Evans, Vlokkie Gordon, Robyn Snyder
Screenplay: Carrie Freedle
Music: Jessica Weiss
Cast:
Cassie: Victoria Justice
Lisa: Midori Francis
Val: Robyn Scott
Howie: Adam Garcia
Max: Timothy Renouf
Sofia: Gloria Garcia
Emme: Myfanwy Waring
Koop: Spencer Sutherland
Morgan: Atarah Vecchione
Raj: Kiroshan Naidoo
Dr. Redding: Adrienne Pearce
Piper: Bianca Oosthuizen
Barking Dog: Bentley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.