Afflicted (2013)

Maybe I'm starting to show my true colors but I hope it isn't too much of a secret how big of a horror fan I am. Well here's another one for you... Afflicted. Following in the ever popular and constantly growing found footage genre, Afflicted luckily has a few tricks up its sleeve that you may not be expecting to separate it from the pack. It's also a remarkably difficult movie to talk about in terms of its story because most of the fun with this film is seeing how it plays out. While Afflicted is not a perfect movie and has a fair number of flaws I think it is one of the better found footage films of the last couple of years. Afflicted is a fast paced, fairy violent, creative and interesting horror movie that is held back from being great by some unfortunately poor acting weakly fleshed out plot points.

Like I already mentioned, Afflicted is a very hard film to not spoil but I will do my best and keep it basic. Ultimately this movie is about two friends (who have known each other almost their entire lives) who plan to go on a year long vacation around the world to explore and film the entire experience for a website. They are doing this partially because one of them has a potentially life threatening brain disease. Derek and Cliff are the two leads and they quickly set out on their journey to see the world and start in Paris where Derek has an encounter with a local woman and wakes up with a strange bit on his body. As the journey goes along it is clear something is wrong with Derek and he is infected with some sort of ailment that may either be the worse thing that has ever happened to him or the best. For the most part I think the film is straight forward and makes it's increasingly fantastic story as believable as possible.

One of the best things about this movie is how quickly it moves along. A lot of the time found footage horror movies will spend a good 30 minutes or more developing characters and simply dropping tiny hints at the horror they will face in the future. Afflicted doesn't really do that and starts getting intense withing 15 or 20 minutes and never lets up. There aren't needless characters added or anything either and the focus remains on Derek and Cliff. After Derek starts to get sick the movie really takes off and is successful in introducing new elements that keeps it from being boring. That is a major plus in a film like this. However the movie is so fast paced at times that it becomes a bit silly with how quickly our two lead characters jump to conclusions that they never question. Of course this a movie so I give it a pass but at the same time there were a few moments I asked aloud “really?” Not a huge complaint but one that keeps this from being even all the way across. Also the acting from the two lead actors (who also directed the film) leaves a LOT to be desired.

What helps Afflicted stand out from other found footage horror films is how innovative it is with its camera movements. Instead of being ridiculously shaky and incomprehensible to hide things this film establishes the characters as semi-competent filmmakers who are more than talented enough to properly film things in an interesting way. As a result the movie definitely feels like “found footage” but still keeps everything in focus (including scenery and night time shots). There is great use of a camera that attaches to one of the main character's chest that makes some of the scenes incredibly tense. Again I'm trying not to spoil anything but there are scenes where one character is running through the streets of Paris and jumping around buildings and we see it all from this first person perspective. I was on edge the entire time and found the overall results extremely entertaining. The violence and gore effects aren't super extreme here but what we do get is effective which adds to the visual style of the film in a positive way as well. This is a movie I can see more casual horror fans enjoying as well if they can suspend disbelief enough. Frankly I'm surprised this wasn't given a wider release.

Afflicted was a nice surprise. I had heard sort of mixed things from different people about it but I'm really happy to have given it a shot. It is a surprisingly confident and attractive found footage movie with a really fun, quickly-paced plot that is only ridiculous sometimes. Thanks to a very creative and fun use of first person cameras and consistently creepy imagery I think Afflicted is sure to satisfy most fans of horror films. It may not do anything spectacular with its plot and has some admittedly terrible acting but I hope more found footage films come out of the gate like Afflicted does. There is very little time wasted in this film. Highly recommended especially if you want to watch a good horror movie with a big group of people.

8/10