(Canada/USA, 85 min.)
Written and directed by Derek Lee and Clif Prowse
Starring: Derek Lee, Clif Prowse
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| Photo: eOne Films. |
Vampire movies and found footage films might be two of the
most tired offerings on the current film scene. Put them together to make a
found footage vampire movie and the result doesn't play like fresh revisionism.
It still feels tired.
Said found footage vampire flick is Afflicted. Afflicted, one of the buzziest Canadian titles from last year's Toronto International Film Festival (it earned a special citation from the Canuck jury), is one of the better technical achievements of late as far as bloodsuckers and mockumentaries are concerned, but it's almost impossible to give the film a plausible recommendation even if one overlooks considerable shortcomings. It's a phenomenally assembled film, yet the generic malaise of Afflicted is hardly one of its chief defects. There are just so many fatal holes in this film that it as if Dracula himself sank his fangs into it and drained away the life.
The premise, for one, is utterly ridiculous and the
execution never really convinces. Writers/directors Derek Lee and Clif Prowse
star as variations of themselves as they go on a trip around the world and
document every step of their adventure. The trip hits a bump when Derek picks
up an exotic lady of the night (Baya Rehaz) at a bar, and Clif and company
return to their hotel to find Derek unconscious with a gaping bite mark on his
body. Derek, despite spending a considerable bit of the introductory number
outlining his potentially life-threatening brain condition, opts to skip a
hospital trip and implores the team to keep on trucking. Clif, on the other
hand, pleads that Derek seek medical attention and them nags him at every turn.
Then strange things start to happen in a series of daily
video diaries that see Derek self-combust, remove his eyes, and doing all sorts
of crazy Exorcist vomiting. Clif,
instead of being concerned, diagnoses Derek as a vampire. How on earth Doctor
Clif makes this interpretive leap is never clear—nor is it credible—and Afflicted becomes increasingly loony as
Clif becomes Derek's enabler and eggs him on to do all sorts of silly vampire
tests that he can record and put on their travel blog. Vampirism leaves a trail
of victims and the evidence of it is freely available for the cops to see on
Clif’s blog. There just isn't a single turn in Afflicted that doesn't feel false, forced, and ludicrously
illogical.
It's in this regard that the found footage/mockumentary
premise/form makes Afflicted a noble
misfire. DP Nino Li constructs the style capably to maintain a documentary
aesthetic, although the POV cams rigged onto Clif and Derek give Afflicted a reality show vibe and
frequently undercut the tension of the horror elements. Whereas found footage films
like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, etc. use the style
to raise questions of the reality of the sinister and the supernatural, the
form of Afflicted highlights the
contrivance of the film. Who on earth assembled the found footage into a
slickly assembled/Amazing Race-ish
feature is never made clear. It makes even less sense that all Derek and Clif’s
friends are watching the diaries and never leave comments on the videos along
the line of, “Fuck, dude, you're a vampire!”
Afflicted actually
does the vampire thing fairly well as far as toothy menace goes. It's old
school vampirism with Clif rhyming off the symptoms of being a night crawler as
Derek morphs before the camera. Lee does a sensational job covering the physical
turns of his character as he contorts his body into a myriad of everything
postures. He is less successful, though, with the confessional moments in which
a fearful Derek voices his crumbling psyche. Clif, on the other hand, spends
much of his screentime mugging at the camera, but he thankfully spends much of
the film holding the camera. The performances don't really do the form of the
film any favours.
Afflicted might
have been a decent vampire pic without the mockumentary conventions. Derek's
metamorphosis is rooted in old school vampirism: his powers and insatiable
thirst, for example, are aspects of the creature that have strayed in the days
of Twilight, but Clif's incessant
documenting of Derek’s symptoms plays everything out a little too on the nose
to be creepy or entertaining. (The film is also awfully long even at 85
minutes.) There is also the grating question that underlies the logic of why
Clif would stay in the hotel with Derek when his friend so obviously wants to
eat him. An absence of logic, it seems, is the legacy of contemporary vampire
flicks.
Rating: ★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Afflicted is currently playing in limited release.
