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AFFECTION (2025)
4 stars
Blue Finch Film Releasing. Digital. 8th June
A woman (Jessica Rothe) awakens in a bed. Next to her, to her surprise, is a man sleeping. She leaves the bedroom and goes downstairs but she seems confused. Agitated even. As if she doesn’t know where she is. When her husband Bruce (Joseph Cross), comes down to see if she is okay she doesn’t know who he is. He tries to calm her down but she swings at him with a poker. Then a voice ‘Mummy…’. It is her daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) frightened. Or is it?
She doesn’t even recognise herself. She claims her name isn’t Ellie. She is having some kind a memory lapse brought on by the accident we have seen in the opening. After this trauma – her mind pulls information from things she has seen through her life and creates false memories which seem real. So Bruce tells her.
She is convinced she is Sarah Thompson and she has a son and a different other half. Bruce assures her none of that is real – but is he telling the truth? As things progress, and she tries to rebuild her memories odd things start to happen. Nightmares. Convulsive fits.
You think you have figured out where this is going as you have seen these movies before with a level of gaslighting — however, you haven’t as part way through the narrative goes left field into science fiction territory. I will say no more so as to not spoil things.
A horror movie with a sci fi twist, this is fundamentally a B movie with a modern skin. The film is buoyed by the excellent Rothe, who is becoming something of a scream queen with the HAPPY DEATH DAY movies under her belt. She is well supported here by Cross and yes, even the little girl is good! There are some suitably icky practical make up effects along the way.
Steve Kirkham
