Afflicted (Movie Review)

Afflicted excels is in its story telling and how it uses the first person camera format to add an unsettling air its tale.  The setup sees our main character Derek having a run in with a woman in Paris, which launches him on a metamorphosis over the coming days as the duo moves on to Italy.  At first, the change is gradual, tying nicely back into the beginning of the movie.  As the days advance, so does Derek’s condition, and soon he’s shown turning into a completely animalistic creature.  

Afflicted takes a page from the playbook of Chronicle as we get a video account of Derek’s experimentation with his new condition.  It helps to round out the character while allowing us to connect with him as we make the discoveries along with him.  Things progress and devolve as you might expect, leading to a gruesome turn of events.  The biggest difference between this and  Chronicle  however, is that this film's third act begins in the same place that Chronicle ends.  This leaves us with an entire third act to explore Derek's character as he comes fully to terms with not only what he’s become, but what he has to do. 

“Afflicted” also excels in its special effects department, as we see the breakdown of Derek as he goes through his change.  The effects feel sufficiently brutal and a bit more base than one would normally expect in this common type of horror creature origin story.  I’m being intentionally vague here, so as to not spoil anything; it’s safe to say though that there is a common formula for these types of origins and Afflicted manages to make it feel like something new, while keeping enough elements to make it feel familiar all at the same time.

Best of all, Afflicted avoids many of the pitfalls of the subgenre.  You won’t catch them breaking the fourth wall, or leaving you wondering why they would have any of this footage in the first place, although at times they do lay on the melodrama fairly thick. It’s understandable that you might feel fatigued over watching first person horror, but Afflicted feels unique in a sea of sameness, and that's reason enough for me to recommend it. Фильтр по онлайн займам Zaymdeneg.com Без отказа мгновенно