What do you do if your best friend starts transforming into a monstrosity before your eyes? Keep the camera rolling. At least in Afflicted, a conceptually adventurous, technically impressive but not overly frightening addition to the found footage horror canon.
Vancouver directors Derek Lee and Clif Prowse also star as fictionalized versions of themselves embarking on a year-long trip around the world. A comprehensive travel blog serves as their excuse to pack an arsenal of camera gear and record their every move. Meanwhile, Derek’s recently diagnosed neurological disorder lends their trip a degree of peril even before he’s preyed upon by a Parisian fling who leaves him with puncture wounds, an aversion to sunlight and an appetite for blood.
As Clif documents his friend’s metamorphosis, Afflicted seems uncertain about what form it should assume. Thanks to Lee’s uncanny contortions and the seamless incorporation of subtle effects, there’s the solid basis here for an absorbing body horror film in the vein of The Addiction or Habit, both of which explored vampirism’s allegorical possibilities. Unfortunately, the directors also insist on using GoPro cameras to share Derek’s POV as he tests his new supernatural abilities, often leaving his initiation into the undead resembling the ultimate extreme sport.
The collaborators’ real-life friendship ensures an easy chemistry and convincing sense of distress once events take a macabre nosedive. However, the climax is burdened by unsatisfying explanations and violent encounters that rattle the eardrums rather than the nerves. While there’s plenty of promise, the rewards are rather modest.
