Afflicted (2013)

Director – Derek Lee, Clif Prowse
Writers – Derek Lee, Clif Prowse
Production Company – Automatik Entertainment, IM Global, Telefilm Canada

Stars – Derek Lee, Clif Prowse

IMDB Page

I think anybody who writes, directs, and stars in their own movie is pretty fantastic.  I thought Derek Lee and Clif Prowse were quirky, passionate, and super energetic.  They’re pumped in this flick, and it spilled over to me, which makes me sad that I got really bored about a quarter of the way through.

Spoilers

Derek receives some bad news health wise (AVM - Arteriovenous Malformation!) and he and his best friend Clif are off to see the world, I think it’s a great excuse.  Derek exudes this excitement and passion which really made me love him in like 5 minutes.  Clif, Derek’s best friend, is also super passionate about helping his friend in the geekiest of ways - blogging the hell out of it. 

So by blogging their journey, we of course have the built in excuse of having footage – Clif is no slacker, he’s a pro, so there’s no horrible camera work here.  Slick shots and cool energetic music make up the first part of this movie, all shot in a more documentary type style.

So enter moment where Derek happens to be infected/afflicted with something that starts taking a horrible effect on him.  Derek starts sleeping the days away and Clif is naturally concerned that Derek’s AVM is the culprit.  Unfortunately Clif can’t talk Derek into seeing a doctor at any point, and soon Derek is showing more peculiar changes like superhuman strength and speed..did I mention he’s not fond of sunlight anymore?   This is where I got really, really, really bored. I don’t need tons of footage showing off Derek’s new talents, give me a couple of minutes and we’re golden.

Something that soon becomes apparent to the two is that Derek needs to consume blood to fend off all the nasty’s he experiences.  I did like how they both worked their  way through what type of blood worked for him, but seriously once you’ve both come to the conclusion that your a vampire it’s time to reach out for some professional help.  It’s funny because in the movie Contracted I completely defended Samantha’s reasons for not reaching out for help more seriously – but here it made me a little angry.  This is straight up supernatural shit!!  Call the Today show for heaven’s sake, they’ll protect you since you’re new superhuman strengths will surely make you a billionaire…or perhaps a science experiment – guess I should be realistic.

I also forgot to mention, lots of this is finding its way on to the pairs travel blog, which I kind of dug.  I like the twist of blog followers watching some of the craziness from afar, unable to physically assist.  Eventually Derek finds himself alone, and on a mission to go back to the source of his issues – his one stand.  He manages to hunt the lady down, and this is where it picked back up for me…just hate that the middle bored me to tears.

Derek meets with Audrey and she gives him the scoop on what he is and what he’ll need to do in order to survive, let’s just say he’s not happy about it.  She explains to him something that I really loved – and wish a whole sort of love horror story could be made out of it.  She explains to him that she didn’t really want to turn him because he was some asshole or criminal, he was a mercy kill.  She thought he was dying, and that she was being kind…Ioved this part of the story.  I would like a movie based around this, much better then us watching Derek run fast and jump high for 40 minutes.

So what am I saying - Something was missing for me.  I loved the two main characters, loved the overall energy, just hated where that energy was spent!  I think I’ll be watching out for the two filmmakers, though I wasn’t quite knocked off my feet with the movie overall – their intense energy is infectious!  It’s found footage with a twist of lemon – I just wanted lime.

I have to give this one a 5 - Sorry Derek and Clif!!