Afflicted first caught my attention when I saw a trailer for it; said trailer reminded me a lot of another film we had seen quite recently at that time, Chronicle (not a horror movie per say but a damn good movie regardless; a superhero journey via found footage). An interesting premise and some good use of found footage (a genre that even I have to admit is getting more and more ground into horse glue as we go on) - what's not to love? And after my last review showed us just how many ways to make a vampire film boring, I figured it might be a good time to look at how a film took an original twist on the vampire film and made it far more entertaining.
Yes, I guess that is a spoiler, but as the film reveals it about a third of the way through itself it's hardly a major one (and possibly not even a spoiler at all if you're paying attention before that and your mind works in that way).
So, Afflicted tells the story of two best friends, Derek and Clif, who are going on a year-long round-the-world trip and video blogging the whole thing. They're not doing this solely for the lulz, however; Derek has recently been diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain condition and is really trying to do as much as possible of a "bucket list" in case he hasn't got much longer to live. In Paris, however, Derek meets a woman named Audrey and takes her back to his hotel room - later on his friends find him bitten and covered in blood and with Audrey nowhere to be seen. Derek doesn't want to go to the hospital and seems fine, so he and Clif continue their journey, but Derek soon begins to exhibit strange symptoms and new abilities - such as the ability to punch through walls and jump 15-20 feet in the air. He also develops a severe allergy to sunlight and finds himself unable to digest anything but blood; human blood to be exact. The duo's video diaries then become a chronicle of what is happening to Derek, how they try to deal with it, and the eventual quest to find out just why this has happened to Derek (and there are no prizes whatsoever for figuring out Audrey's motives here).
Aside from the obviously telegraphed reason as to why Audrey turned Derek into a vampire, Afflicted is a pretty smart film. Just about every question I had about events or plot points in the film got answered by the end of it (what happens to people killed by vampires; do bodies have to be disposed of in a certain way; is there any way to actually kill a vampire) which is a refreshing change from all the films that leave plot holes large enough to drive buses through. It even comes up with (moderately) sensible reasons as to why Clif and Derek keep filming all of this even as things spiral further and further out of control - first it's all part of their video blog; then it's documenting Derek's new abilities and changes; and by the end it's one part confession and one part proof for Derek as he seeks out Audrey. They even address the end result of posting footage of yourself trying to rob a blood bank and apparently assaulting people on the internet - yes, your family and Interpol will come looking for you if you're stupid enough to do that.
The main characters of Derek and Clif come across as refreshingly normal in the film; average best friends and 'bros' who have no idea what to do when one of them starts turning into a vampire. I liked Clif in particular as the sympathetic audience substitute - watching and recording Derek's changes and trying everything he can to help his friend, even though he really has no idea what he's doing. Derek is maybe a little less likable as the film goes on, mainly because he does some really dumb things (posting his exploits online, for example) and not really thinking about the consequences of some of his actions, but he's still "ordinary" enough that the audience can still relate to him and his reactions to what's happened to him.
Afflicted also manages to (mostly) avoid one of the most common pitfalls of the found footage genre - shaky-cam. Clif, the primary cameraman, is a filmmaker, so they get to have an excuse for why scenes are so steadily shot; they also employ the use of body cams, which while not able to completely eliminate the motion-sickness judder-cam, certainly reduce it considerably. Overall, Afflicted is a pretty fresh take on vampire films, and even manages to inject a bit more life into the found footage genre while keeping its audience engaged and on their toes throughout.
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