I hadn’t made it a point to see this one before now because it’s a found-footage movie, and I am *so* over found-footage movies. It’s to my regret that I waited, because AFFLICTED can take its place alongside such films as LET ME IN, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, THE TRANSFIGURATION, and BYZANTIUM as one of the greatest vampire movies of the past three decades. It’s that bloody good.
Two friends are traveling the world and recording it all for posterity with their trusty video cameras. One of those friends, though, has a terminal illness, and wants to get as much living in as possible before his far-too-young demise. He picks up a hot chick one night at a club and thinks he’s gotten lucky…and he has, though “lucky” in a way he never would have intended. After being bitten by the vampire babe—it isn’t immediately obvious that that’s what she is—he begins to slowly transform into something superhuman, and terrifying. With two leads you instantly like and root for and solid performances to anchor the craziness, this one is tops, man. A+. Let us all just hope that MORBIUS is this good when it finally comes out. (By the end of AFFLICTED, you’ll see why I made the reference to that other film.)
