Afflicted - A ‘found footage’ film which actually has a few good bits

Let’s face it... ‘found footage’ films have been pretty terrible of late.  Yes, historically, there have been a few good ones.  However, with so many wannabe film-makers trying their hand at the (cheap) genre, there are an awful lot of ‘duds’ out there in the ‘straight-to-dvd’ market.

I’ll say right away that ‘Afflicted’ isn’t anything THAT good.  It’s hardly revolutionary and most of it you’ll feel like you’ve seen a hundred times before (I’m assuming you’re familiar with the ‘found footage’ genre).  The first third is all about introducing us to the characters.  Basically, a – possibly – terminally-ill man decides to go on a trip around Europe and therefore his mate has to film every last second of it to put up on the internet.

Unfortunately, our heroes who like talking into the camera fall foul of a local when one gets bitten by... you’ll see.  Anyway, bad – supernatural – things start to happen.  Expect plenty of the usual found footage stuff – running, screaming into camera, falling over, shaky camerawork and yet more screaming.

However, there are a few ‘set pieces’ which actually left me wondering how they do that.  Well... probably with the help of computer–generated technology, but, just because I know how they did it, doesn’t mean I wasn’t impressed with the results.

There’s just enough here to warrant a watch if you’re (a) not totally bored of found footage films and (b) generally don’t mind horror films in general.  But, don’t be fooled, it’s hardly anything special.  Much of it you can sort of have on in the background while you idly surf the internet and you’d still ‘get’ what’s going on.  Just be sure to be watching when the really cool stuff comes on.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights