Afflicted (2014)

What do you do when you are stuck far from home and your friend needs help? In April 2014, Clif tried the best he could, but the help he needed, he couldn’t get.

Directing this 85 minute horror/thriller is Derek Lee and Clif Prowse.

Starring in this adventure is: Derek Lee as Himself, Clif Prowse as Himself and Baya Rehaz as Audrey.

Clif and Derek are childhood friends that have been planning this trip for a long time. Together, these guys are going to travel the world and film everything for their web series, Ends of the World. With everything ready, Clif and Derek set off for adventure, and everything is looking great, that is until Derek becomes ill. Clif becomes increasingly concerned about Derek as his sudden illness becomes worse. As more and more symptoms pop up, Clif and Derek fight to figure out what this illness is and how to stop it. At this rate neither of them know how this trip will end.

I was completely unaware of what I was getting into when I caught this one. So when it started up and I realized it was a found footage film, I wasn’t too happy. So I settled in and prepared myself for a long, painful road since I really don’t like found footage movies. For 85 minutes I watched the movie unfold, then the credits rolled and there I was thinking… man that was a good movie. This just became the second found footage film I’ve actually liked!

First off, I have to say these two guys, Derek Lee and Clif Prowse, deserve a huge thumbs up on everything they did here. Not only did they direct, star and write the movie, they also pulled off a huge win (in my opinion) on their first feature film.

I really liked the way they did the footage for this one. Norm Li pulled off some nice cinematography. Yeah it does have some shaky/spinning moments, but not a lot of them. That in itself was a huge bonus to me, but also the film moved smoothy with good scene transitions. The storyline wasn’t bad at all, as a matter of fact, I liked the simplicity of it. Two friends taking a trip and filming it. For once, not hunting for anything or trying to raise spirits to prove to the world they exist. Of course the trip goes south on them, it wouldn’t be a horror if it didn’t right? At which point the storyline picks up and everything starts to unfold.

The special effects that Daniel Acon did looked really good and Tamar Ouziel’s make-up skills were a great addition to the film. Even though the playthrough is a little slow in the beginning, it eventually picks up and it held my attention. Especially because I wasn’t quite sure which way the film was going to go. I mean, like your typical “everyone dies or the hero prevails”, here they keep the end pretty uncertain. So I was actually waiting to see how everything was going to playthrough.