AfflictedWhen the shadow of death looms over you, sometimes the best way to enjoy the time you have left by completing that "bucket list". Derek (Derek Lee) is afflicted with an "AVM"--arteriovenous malformation, a blood condition--in his brain, a fact which is addressed by him and his documentarian friend, Clif (Clif Prowse) in the prologue for their video travelogue across the world, titled "Ends of the Earth". Their mission is a year-long trek across the globe, seeing and doing all those things which Derek considers that his condition will cut short at any moment. Neither Derek nor Clif could have anticipated the very real horror about to be inflicted upon Derek on their journey in the old world.
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Afflicted is an independent horror film--directed by the two stars of the movie, which is appropriate as they are both behind the camera at different intervals. In the vein of other low-budget indie horror films--like The Blair Witch Project--Afflicted makes up for in creativity what it lacks in budget; and like The Blair Witch Project, it is presented as a "found footage" movie, a collection of video shot by the two principal characters on their tour across Europe. Like most found footage movies of this kind, the movie starts off with events which seem more mundane than what they evolve into. But Afflicted uses the idea that the footage is taken to serve the purpose of showcasing the great adventure of Derek across the world, a project conceived between two friends who seem genuinely at home in each other's company, and the cinematic direction reflects this. Sure, it makes sense to take footage of Derek, because the story depends on him, and is about him; Clif is capturing what might be his friend's last go around before his AVM suddenly prevents him from taking on such a daring task again. And when Derek is obligated to take the helm as director, his recording and his focus is designed to be one of capturing the moments, the facts, the confessions; and while it is subtle, there is a distinction in their camerawork, their respective direction, which gives the film more personality by that contrast. As a horror film, the events in Afflicted go from jovial to tense to shocking as the adventure turns dark, and as the mysterious aftermath of one portentous night with a girl named Audrey (Baya Rehaz) alters the focus of the trip to one not of life affirmation, but one of supernatural terror, and Derek and Clif are tasked with trying to discover a means to cope with the new found affliction before it gets any worse.
Afflicted is a vampire movie, with many of the recognizable mythological tropes of that gothic horror genre--even an almost missable acknowledgement of a vampire's aversion to garlic, via pasta...they are in Italy, after all. Afflicted is also a travel film, with moments which would be perfectly at home in a documentary about one's travels across the globe, something which might get airtime on the Travel Channel; the scene where Derek and Clif visit the vineyard would be perfectly at home on one of these...I did resist the urge to say, "I never drink...wine", but not very well. As Derek and Clif discover the initial after effects of the vampiric affliction--at this time still unknown--they are puzzled, the symptoms are baffling...it is something not like any kind of other sickness or condition--an odd combination of what appears to be food poisoning and also the introduction of seemingly superhuman strength and speed. Clif decides they should document this experience, and thus the video travelogue continues. It is by happenstance that they diagnose the condition accurately, when after a fight, the introduction of blood makes the hunger subside. Their efforts to deal with the vampirism are mostly trial and error, but a legitimate and rational escalation of increasingly extreme methods to find the real means to subdue the blood curse. Afflicted also falls into the "jump out at you and scare you" style of horror movie, with lots of creeping shots through dimly lit garages and basements, where something lurks with glowing eyes, poised to strike. In part thanks to the strap-on camera rig, the perspective occasionally shifts to the lurker in the dark, rather than just the hapless victims; that camera rig also serves somewhat as a justification for the multiple cameras at times in the movie, something which would otherwise be odd in legitimate "found footage". The idea that this footage is being uploaded to a website serves as another kind of justification for the edited composition from multiple cameras and what must be assumed to be audio and music added after the fact. Afflicted is an interesting hybrid, both a video record of a man suffering from a chronic condition living his life to his fullest at what might be the end of it, and the transformation of one who begins that final descent into a wholly undiscovered country, beyond the pale river, where the disease is far worse because you cannot die from it.
Recommended for: Fans of scary movies with creeping and lurking terrors in the peripheral of the camera's eye, of the bait-and-switch of movies like "found footage" flicks, where the set up jarringly changes as the unknown terror becomes apparent; a rather unorthodox portrayal of how one inevitably copes with the onset of a terminal condition.
Afflicted is a vampire movie, with many of the recognizable mythological tropes of that gothic horror genre--even an almost missable acknowledgement of a vampire's aversion to garlic, via pasta...they are in Italy, after all. Afflicted is also a travel film, with moments which would be perfectly at home in a documentary about one's travels across the globe, something which might get airtime on the Travel Channel; the scene where Derek and Clif visit the vineyard would be perfectly at home on one of these...I did resist the urge to say, "I never drink...wine", but not very well. As Derek and Clif discover the initial after effects of the vampiric affliction--at this time still unknown--they are puzzled, the symptoms are baffling...it is something not like any kind of other sickness or condition--an odd combination of what appears to be food poisoning and also the introduction of seemingly superhuman strength and speed. Clif decides they should document this experience, and thus the video travelogue continues. It is by happenstance that they diagnose the condition accurately, when after a fight, the introduction of blood makes the hunger subside. Their efforts to deal with the vampirism are mostly trial and error, but a legitimate and rational escalation of increasingly extreme methods to find the real means to subdue the blood curse. Afflicted also falls into the "jump out at you and scare you" style of horror movie, with lots of creeping shots through dimly lit garages and basements, where something lurks with glowing eyes, poised to strike. In part thanks to the strap-on camera rig, the perspective occasionally shifts to the lurker in the dark, rather than just the hapless victims; that camera rig also serves somewhat as a justification for the multiple cameras at times in the movie, something which would otherwise be odd in legitimate "found footage". The idea that this footage is being uploaded to a website serves as another kind of justification for the edited composition from multiple cameras and what must be assumed to be audio and music added after the fact. Afflicted is an interesting hybrid, both a video record of a man suffering from a chronic condition living his life to his fullest at what might be the end of it, and the transformation of one who begins that final descent into a wholly undiscovered country, beyond the pale river, where the disease is far worse because you cannot die from it.
Recommended for: Fans of scary movies with creeping and lurking terrors in the peripheral of the camera's eye, of the bait-and-switch of movies like "found footage" flicks, where the set up jarringly changes as the unknown terror becomes apparent; a rather unorthodox portrayal of how one inevitably copes with the onset of a terminal condition.