The Afflicted

I really should have known exactly what kind of things were to go down in this film, and for the most part I did. I love horror thriller's of all kinds but this film fell between the crack's of genre's in a way. You know that there will be an offensive abusive mother doing horrible & abusive things to her children, except for the son who is shadowed in the background in a lot of the scenes as for his reasons as for how he acted they never really explain.He doesn't even get a line.

Well as the film begins the normal & balanced father walked out on the family(and I don't blame him a bit as the film progresses) and this completely ruins the already abusive alcoholic mother. As to what follows, the things the mother says & does are just offensive to watch, even though you already know to expect the worst from her. There was nothing interesting, exciting, entertaining or fulfilling about this film, it just leaves you disgusted period! I highly recommend avoiding this waste of film & what will be a waste of your time. 2.5/10

A bad horribly done movie. I can't believe it's even advertised to watch. It's so horrible. The story deserved better writing and better acting. I can believe this kind of garbage is on the air.

Maggie (A great, if slightly manic performance from Leslie Easterbrook, aka Callahan from Police Academy!) is a god fearing Christian woman, married to Hank (A nicely done cameo from Kane Hodder). When their marriage fails, due to Maggie's uncompromising fire and brimstone style views, Maggie becomes bitter, resentful and beset with financial woes. Taking to the drink, she begins endlessly watching the public access TV show of the Cowboy Preacher (JD Hart), who comes to visit at times. Spare the rod and spoil the child, the family must stick together, is what the cowboy preaches from Maggie's TV.

As the financial difficulties worsen, Maggie begins to fancy she can converse with God, and that her children should pull together, and chip in anyway they can. If that means doing things they normally wouldn't do, then so be it. And if any dissent ensues, well, Maggie is more than willing to dispense her own quite vicious brand of discipline, because spare the rod, and spoil the child, after all...

The Afflicted is a well shot and well acted horror, with good performances all around, from a nice cameo from Hodder to an excellent (if again, slightly ott) performance from Easterbrook.

It's also pretty grim, with a bleak tone, and will probably inevitably draw comparisons with The Girl Next Door. However, my main beef with this was that it requires serious suspension of disbelief, and I'm actually wondering if it really is based on a true story as it claims or if this is just a marketing ploy, the way Wolf Creek was supposedly based on a true story, when in reality it was simply loosely influenced by a number of true life cases.

The kids, who are all between 17 and 18, one of them a guy, have ample opportunity throughout the film (at least by default anyway) to either escape, report or even overpower Easterbrook, yet don't. This detracts from any tension, and makes it hard to take the whole thing seriously. Most if not all of the supporting characters outside the family are stereotypical rednecks, and towards the end, you're just kinda waiting for things to finish.

The Afflicted isn't precisely a bad film, it's more of a flawed one, but overall, I found it neither stand out or substandard. It just failed to leave a lasting impression on me, well made and well acted that it was. 5/10 probably worth a look actually, to make one's own mind up.

How do none of these GROWN children restrain their trash mother?

Meanwhile, restraint would not have been my choice.

The son is a WHOLE failure.

There is NO character development.

This movie is loosely based on a true story from the 80s, and the real children covered for their trash mother as well. I can only imagine them growing up to be abusive adults.

Pretty enjoyable movie overall. The story is interesting enough and the cinematography is actually pretty good overall, especially considering the budget. The acting is well above average in this budget range, Kane Hodder makes an interesting appearance in essentially a cameo role, it would of been nice to expand more on the back story and give him more screen time but that might of been a decision made for budget reasons. The Good Overall acting - Leslie Easterbrook was really good when she wasn't way over the top, all in all a real solid performance the type that should bring her a lot more opportunities. J.D. Hart was fantastic, again some of the script called for him to be over the top but he really did a great job. Michele Grey and Sims Holland both did a great job with very challenging rolls, I expect to see more work from them in the future. Cinematography - overall very good, some real nice shots, most of the film is visually interesting. Some of the hand-held was a bit to choppy for my taste, but that's a taste issues more than anything else, overall great job. Story - the story itself is interesting. The Not so Good Nothing that will ruin the movie experience but a couple glaring problems. The Whys - why they didn't take action sooner or attempt to do something will baffle you, you might even find yourself yelling instructions at the TV as I did. More pre-production time ironing out the whys would of gone a long way. More back story - so we care more, are more invested in the characters and have a better idea of what caused everything. Again this may of been a matter of the budget restraints with some of the actors and time to shoot. All in all a good movie, a pleasant Netflix find for me. Might not be something you would watch more than once but definitely worth your time the first time around.