On first appearance, ‘Afflicted’ plays out like a parallel version of ‘Chronicle’. A backtracking trip to Europe sees Derek (Derek Lee) gains supernatural strength he makes fun of what he has and uses his abilities for jovial quests. This soon comes to an end as he soon realises that his new found life is fuelled off the one thing that will make him inhuman… Blood. You guessed it folks; this is a blood soaking vampire movie for the found footage generation.

While Clif (Clif Prowse) pains to see his friend go cold turkey, his resistance to help him soon falls through and while Derek’s thirst becomes more and more insatiable, the level of brutality increases until it’s concluding scenes.

Throughout ‘Affliction’, the scenes of blood splatter are both shocking and well played, without falling into spoiler territory, there are a lot of gun related scenes and one in particular that will stay with you however it’s not the blood and guts that make ‘Affliction’ entertaining. In between scenes of hunting and hiding together with the emotional turmoil the “turning” creates for Derek, are some breathtaking scenes of parkour that do well for an otherwise defunct first person perspective.

At times it feels as though the film is treading the seen it all before found footage tropes but manages to keep itself afloat with some impressive chase sequences and the star performance from Lee. Despite a, quite frankly, irritating opening, both Clif and Derek manage to win you around even more when they are in peril than their comedic adolescent selves.

So while ‘Afflicted’ may be the love child of ‘Chronicle’ and ‘REC’ with some parkour added into the mix, its ability to be an entertaining thrill ride give it an advantage over other found footage tripe that has flooded the market of late. Production values, despite using the hand held cameras, seem bigger than most of the genres other siblings taking advantage of the idyllic surroundings of Europe rather than the dormant woods or other cliché. Stars and directors Clif Prowse and Derek Lee should be proud of this blood thirsty monster they’ve unleashed and with hope can follow up with something a little more original yet just as entertaining.