"Afflicted" (2013)

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.

"Devil's Backbone, Texas" (2015)

Truth be told, I had not heard of this film before it popped up as a suggestion for me from Netflix.  As soon as I saw the cover art, with it’s upside down pentagram featured prominently on a Texas state flag, I went right ahead and added it to my queue without really reading the plot description (I guess I’m just a sucker for any film that has cover art featuring pentagrams on state flags).  This proved to be very problematic to me once the movie got underway.   Essentially,

"Devil’s Backbone, Texas” is another kind of mockumentary/”found footage” type film (a sub-genre I actually enjoy when done right), but without knowing anything about the background behind the production, there was actually a point where I started to wonder if I was watching a full-fledged documentary instead?

See, the film is about an actual filmmaker, Jake Wade Wall (who wrote the screenplay for the lackluster “Cabin Fever: Patient Zero”), who, at least according to the film, had an estranged relationship with his late father, the real-life Bert Wall and wants to do a documentary about him.  Bert Wall apparently owned a huge section of land in central Texas that is known as the “Devil’s Backbone”, and supposedly he claimed that he had many encounters with ghosts, as well as experienced all kinds of paranormal activity while living as a hermit in this barren wasteland.  In fact, the movie includes a clip from an actual episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” where they interview Bert Wall and recreate his experiences, at which point I was thrown a curveball and began doubting what I was watching.  The next 40 minutes or so goes into Jake’s journey of discovering who his father really was with actual interviews with Bert’s family & friends, and because none of it felt like it was building up to anything remotely scary, I had to stop the film and double check how it was tagged by Netflix.  Sure enough it read a “horror film” and not a “documentary”!

Once I resumed the movie, it was at that point that it actually started veering more into “found footage” territory, with Jake and his friends trekking deep into the Devil’s Backbone, both to spread his father’s ashes, but also to find the secluded cabin where he lived to try and learn what was going on with him in his last years?  As you would expect, strange things start to happen to the group, and without getting into anything specific (to avoid spoilers), I’ll just say that none of it was in any way eerie, let alone interesting.

Part of the reason for that is Jake Wade Wall himself.  He’s not a very convincing actor and his performance consists of him walking around with this smug look on his face throughout the whole film, which didn’t make him the least bit sympathetic in my eyes.  Plus, there’s never any sense of urgency or concern from him, and he quite often laughs events off as they happen, thus reducing any possibility of building suspense.

The other reason why this film falters is because of…well, Jake Wade Wall, being that he is also the film’s writer/director.  It becomes apparent going into the third act that he really lacks any clear concept of what it is that is supposedly going on around these characters.  Is it ghosts, demons or even aliens?  Or is it just a group of locals who don’t want him finding something out and are trying to scare them away (ala “Scooby-Doo”)?  I can’t honestly tell you and I don’t think Wall could either.  “Blair Witch Project” (1999) worked precisely because of its ambiguity, but there was always a sense that the filmmakers knew exactly what was playing out, even if the characters (or the audience) didn’t.  Wall, on the other hand, seems to be ambiguous in his methods of storytelling, not to elicit fear (as there’s none to be found in the film), but rather because he doesn’t know anymore about what’s going on than his screen alter ego does (I won’t even mention how awful the very end is, which not only gives credence to my theory, but also made me regret sitting through this film to begin with?).

Overall, the first half that centers on his father felt very genuine (mostly because a lot of it was based on real people and events), but the minute the film tries to blend in its fictitious storyline, it reads so false that I’m left to wonder why he didn’t just make a documentary about his father and the history of that ranch instead?  Why even make this into a “found footage” film at all?  Maybe somewhere Bert Wall is looking down on all of this from another plain of existence and is quite pleased with his son’s tribute to him.  On this plain though, I found it all to be pointless.

3 out of 10 for me.

"Alien Abduction" (2014)

Finally watched the rest of "Alien Abduction" (2014) on Netflix. What can I say, other than this is just your standard "found footage" film, with zero character building and shitty acting. Basically it's nothing more than characters running around in the woods screaming until a light shines down on them from above, abducts one of them, followed by more running around screaming again. If you want an alien abduction film that actually has solid acting, a spooky vibe and isn't a "found footage" film, then watch "Honeymoon" (2014) instead. 2 our of 10 for me.

"Mr. Jones" (2013)

Watched the mumblecore horror comedy "Summer of Blood" (2014) by writer/director/actor Onur Tukel. I always find it awkward recommending comedies to anyone because humor is so subjective, but for me personally I found much of this film to be hysterical. Picture a Woody Allen film about Larry David becoming a vampire and that's about what you get with this. Tukel plays a selfish, insensitive prick who can't commit to anything and has no clue what he wants in life. Once he's bitten by a vampire and becomes one of the undead, this only amplifies his indecisiveness, as he can't decide if he wants to continue being a bloodsucker or go back to his ex-girlfriend. All of these scenes provided me with fits of laughter, but unfortunately the film runs out of steam going into the third act. It's almost as if Tukel had no idea how to tie everything up, thus the end feels forced and lacking any real closure - then again, for a film about a guy who can't make up his mind, maybe that's fitting. 7 out of 10 for me.