Reading up on this Canadian horror film by first time
directors (and stars) Derek Lee and Cliff Prowse, I wasn’t
surprised to learn that the earlier premise of this was not to make it a “found
footage” horror film, but rather into a web series.
Initially it would’ve appeared as if this was a legitimate video blog
chronicling a trip across the world by the two filmmakers…but then slowly
things would start to change and it would become evident something was horribly
wrong with Derek. In the film itself,
that’s actually what we get and it’s told so convincingly, that had it been an
actual web series, I think it would’ve seriously blown the minds of those
watching it – at least those who might’ve thought it was all legit (up until a
certain point anyway).
The movie opens by introducing us to both Lee & Prowse
as they are preparing to start a year long trek across the world. Derek is someone who loves to travel and
craves adventure over sitting in his cubicle at work. His close friend, Cliff, is a filmmaker and
wants to document the trip every step of the way and post their journeys onto a
website for all to follow. There’s only
one hitch to their plan. Derek has been
diagnosed with a cerebral arteriovenous malformation (or AVM), which in short
means he could have a brain aneurism at any point which could kill him. Despite warnings from his doctor and his
family pleading for him not to go, Derek presses on with the trip anyway.
After arriving in Paris, Derek meets an attractive woman at
a local club, who returns with him to his hotel. Upon discovering Derek has finally gotten
lucky with a lady, Cliff decides to pull a prank on him by charging into his
room. However, upon doing so, he
discovers Derek in a state of unconsciousness and bleeding from his head and
arm, with no sign of the woman anywhere.
When he comes to, Derek has no memory of what happened after he left the
club, but decides he’s not in need of any medical assistance and would rather
forget about it. Could this memory loss
be a part of his condition or has something far worse befallen him?
Soon after though, Derek starts finding himself drained of
any energy in the daytime, while at the same time his body rejects any type of
food he ingests quite violently (there’s one scene where after trying to eat
his lunch at a restaurant, he projectile vomits it all over the floor – which I’ve
actually seen this clip many times before as a GIF on Tumblr, not knowing it’s
source). It becomes pretty clear that
what Derek has become “afflicted” with is not some kind of Ebola virus or the
like, but rather he is slowly morphing into a vampire.
I know there are many detractors of the “found
footage”/”shaky cam” sub-genre (though I myself am not one of them) and just
the mere mention of it is enough to turn people away from a film. However, “Afflicted” is quite well put
together and somewhat unique in its approach to the whole first person
narrative. By rigging up the actors with
cameras on their chests for example, we see some truly great visuals of Derek
leaping from building to building as he’s testing out his new found powers (in
a scene that very much felt like “Chronicle”) in what looks to be some
fantastic stunt work (especially for a film that only cost $300,000 to
make). Some of the other action
sequences seen later in the film feel very much like a first person shooter
game brought to life, with characters shooting at the camera while Derek is
racing through hallways trying to dodge them.
I also dug some of the very effective jump scares used in the film by
the placements of certain actors in a way that not only startles the viewer, but
also communicates the further devolution of Derek’s state (as opposed to just
throwing in a jump scare for the sake of a jump scare).
The other thing I think worth mentioning are the
performances by both leads. In
particular Derek Lee, who manages to convey a sympathetic character that is
struggling to hang onto his humanity, even in the face of impending trans-formative changes that are going to ultimately make him into a voracious
monster. I felt for his plight and
wanted to see him work his way through this nightmare by finding some kind of
cure for himself. The film really pulled
me in that regard, which is hard to do for a found footage kind of film, as
usually the main actors are behind the camera which inhibits their performances
(see my review of “Nightlight” as an example).
Here though they have found a way to place the cameras in multiple
places to where we can actually see the actors’ faces for a change and witness
the emotional toll everything that is transpiring is having on them.
If I have any complaints, I do think the idea of carrying
over the blog site posts from their initial web series concept didn’t quite
work for me. There were times I was
questioning the logic of why Cliff would post certain vampiric events on this
site for others to see (especially some of Derek’s more…”illegal”
activity). I think if it had remained a
web series, it would’ve worked better within that format, but as a feature film
it starts to strain credibility somewhat.
Overall, I found “Afflicted” to be a fun ride from beginning
to end. I loved how it seemed to be
paying homage to “An American Werewolf in London” (though in this case it would
be “An Asian Canadian Vampire in Paris”) and doing so in a rather resourceful
and inventive way. For everyone who argues
that they’ve exhausted the “found footage” sub-genre over the last five or so
years, something like this comes along and demonstrates there’s more than one
way to skin a cat (or in this film’s case, “drink a pig”).
8 out of 10 for me.
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