Ellie Carter (Jessica Rothe) has never met the man who claims to be her husband (Joseph Cross), does not recognize the young girl (Julianna Layne) who calls her mommy, and has no memory of the life being presented as her own. Suffering from violent epileptic seizures that erase her memory without warning, she is trapped in a cyclical nightmare, fighting to uncover the horrible truth of her existence before she forgets everything all over again.
With Affection, BT Meza delivers a body horror that attempts to imagine a world where biotechnologies lead mankind as a creator into a dark place of its own being.
Between Cloning and IT
When making a film that relies on science fiction, you can get away with a lot of fake science, and it can work as long as it remains credible within the universe created. When the action is set in the real world, you have to respect certain rules, otherwise the viewer risks losing interest. This is exactly what happens with Affection.
Cloning has often been used in cinema. But now that the technologies behind it are better known than before, it is very difficult to venture into it without falling flat on your face. In his film, BT Meza takes the risk of pushing science to give a dark side to technology. There are some interesting ideas. However, you are left with the impression that he mixes too many concepts for it to work. Cloning that produces an adult body, as if it were made from a 3D printer or born directly as an adult, just does not hold up anymore in 2026. Despite a successful look regarding the egg (or the cluster of cells) in which the human grows, you do not really believe it.
The director adds information technology to the mix, a field used to implant DNA and memory into the created humans. I am aware that we are talking about science fiction. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this section, it has to remain credible. In this case, it is not. A universe that sets itself further apart from our current reality would have been necessary for it to work well.
Lack of Originality
Although some ideas are interesting—like the machine on which the bodies are created—the film cruelly lacks originality. You get the impression of seeing a callback to certain films from the 80s and 90s in which a man tried to recreate life using a computer and a few syringes. Except here, the syringes are replaced by a kind of 3D printer.
Ellie Carter (Jessica Rothe)
Let’s be clear, the film is not entirely boring. The first half is pleasant and offers good entertainment. On the other hand, once we reach the biotechnology phase and see how the character creates his world, we lose interest. The “hows” and the “whys” do not align, and logic is tossed aside to reach the desired conclusion.
One of the things we learned in film production classes is that to deliver a good ending, you have to set it up. If the elements leading up to the final moment do not respect the logic of the universe presented to us, the audience will not buy into it.
A little more…
If there is one thing I have understood, but continue to refuse to accept, it is that horror cinema coming from the United States almost never yields good results. For every Deadstream, there are 100 bad films of this genre produced. And yet, I keep getting fooled.
Besides, Fantasia is approaching and, once again, I will be watching a good number of films, including some from the United States. And I will probably be disappointed by 90% of them.
