‘Sound of Freedom’ Studio’s New Movie Is Getting Rave Reviews

The studio that brought the world Sound of Freedom has found success once again with its follow-up film.

Angel Studios nabbed the rights to distribute the film about the efforts of former Homeland Security officer, Tim Ballard, to end child sex trafficking and became the surprise box office hit of 2023.

The independent studio is gearing up to release After Death, a Christian-centric exploration of what happens when we die based on the testimonies of people who have had near death experiences.

Set to hit cinemas on October 27, one critic described it as a “provocative, well-edited, fair and balanced documentary about the afterlife.”

“Regardless of whether you’re religious, agnostic, spiritual or atheist, you’ll have plenty of food for thought throughout this illuminating documentary. At a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, After Death finds just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking the audience intellectually as well as emotionally. It opens nationwide via Angel Studios,” wrote movie critic Avi Offer on his website.

While Mike McGranaghan from the Aisle Seat movie website wrote that After Death provides an “uplifting contemplation” on its subject matter.

“Regardless of where you land on the issue, listening to the stories related in After Death is consistently captivating. Your opinion on the concept of an afterlife will be challenged and brought into greater focus. You come away with enough thought-provoking ideas to keep your mind active for days,” he wrote.

After Death’s early critic reviews are an improvement on Sound of Freedom’s overall critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which sits at 58 percent. But much like the film’s box office success, the movie’s audience rating is a whopping 99 percent from more than 10,000 verified ratings.

The documentary also seems to be following in the footsteps of its studio stablemate at the box office and has achieved 87 percent of its presale target by selling almost 146,000 tickets ahead of its release.

Sound of Freedom is the 10th highest grossing movie at the U.S. box office this year, beating major Hollywood franchises such as the 2023 releases of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

But the film has faced a number of controversies, including criticism from child trafficking experts about its portrayal of the issue and was linked to QAnon conspiracy theories. Ballard’s organization, Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R), which he founded after leaving Homeland Security, was the subject of a 2020 news investigation accusing it of conflating the truth of its missions and had its operations slammed by government agencies for not following best practice guidelines, according to Vice News.

One expert told Newsweek, “there’s a lot of misunderstanding around what the nature of human trafficking looks like.”

Rachel Lovell from the National Crime and Justice Research Alliance explained there was plenty of evidence to show domestic trafficking within a person’s own country is much more common as is “sex tourism” where people travel somewhere to where “children have less protection,” rather than trafficking children across international borders.

“I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, because we know it does,” Lovell said, adding “it’s just so sensational” to portray it the way Sound of Freedom has.

Ballard is also facing legal troubles as five women are suing him and have accused him of coercing them into sexual contact when they worked with him on child rescue operations.

He left O.U.R following the revelation of the allegations and was denounced as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Ballard has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the claims as “baseless inventions designed to destroy me and the movement we have built to end the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable children.”

More recently, one of the film’s producers and actors threatened the LGBTQ+ and other communities in a social media video.

Eduardo Verástegui, who is hoping to run for president in Mexico, shared a video to X, formerly Twitter, where he showed himself shooting a firearms in target practice.

“Look at what we are going to do to the terrorists of the 2030 agenda, climate change and gender ideology,” read the caption, which was written in Spanish. “I’m reading you [your comments].”