It’s the trip of a lifetime: one year, six continents, more than 30 countries, and the ultimate act of catharsis after too long sitting behind a desk in a post-college funk. So goes Derek Lee’s plan, with his best friend Clif Prowse along for the ride. They’ll film their experiences, post footage to their site as they go along, create a web series, and have a great time. Lee’s medical condition, a mass of abnormal arteries and veins in his brain diagnosed shortly before they set off, looms as the only potentially complicating factor.
That’s the conceit of Lee and Prowse’s feature Afflicted as well as the way it is constructed, the duo toiling away on screen and off. The slick yet casual polish of the intended in-narrative final content, an online travelogue, dictates a flippant and informal approach of the type everyone’s seen multiple times before. Alas, theirs is no ordinary exploration of overseas sights, after a standard quest for female company in France sees Lee unwell and undergoing physical changes. Relating their experiences in tourist-focused sound bites falls by the wayside as they cope with the fallout of Lee’s transformation and newfound blood thirst.
Playing with the proliferation of the found footage gimmick in horror filmmaking without taking it too seriously, Afflicted shoehorns the whole gamut of the format’s uses thus far into one 85-minute package, from the plain to the purportedly inventive. The running and screaming of The Blair Witch Project; the capturing superhuman skylarking of Chronicle; the embrace of technology of Paranormal Activity; name an influential appropriation of the genre, or one of the many derivations, and they’re certainly accounted for. The filmmaking pair’s mission focuses on making the familiar remain interesting and amusing, both in style and in story. For the latter, a trace of John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London is evident, as strange things happen to visitors in a foreign land.
Drawn from the current supernatural trend du jour and all the mythology that goes along with it, the source of Lee’s conversion dictates an evolution in the feature’s content as it progresses, morphing from a tourist video set-up into a murky mystery, before relishing the character’s new reality. It’s a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none way of showing yet more variation; however given the slightness of the tale, it’s needed. Jumping from wondering what is happening to showing its extent also helps hide the limitations of the script and the performances, both flimsily sketched. That’s not to say that neither is engaging, with Lee a warm, likeable presence given much to do, just that the screenplay and acting play as convincing pastiches rather than conjure up their own surprises.
Imagination best manifests in Lee and Prowse’s direction, every twist, trope and terror-stricken face in the service of showing off their confidence behind the lens. Their debut is the culmination of years making shorts together, some of which are used to great effect to set the scene for their story within a story in Afflicted, and of the same time clearly spent planning what they would do on a larger scale. It is here that that flitting from one idea to the next pays off, visual thrills abundant and experimentation rife in the hand-held and chest-strapped camerawork. The feature becomes a showcase for their helming, yes, but still offers an enjoyable and enthusiastic ride through many a horror staple, complete with the necessary scares and laughs.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Afflicted
Director: Derek Lee and Clif Prowse
Canada / USA, 2013, 85 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
www.miff.com.au
31 July – 17 August
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