AFRAID (2014) (DVD Review)

AFRAID (2014) 

Label: Well Go USA

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 80 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen

Director: Jason Goldberg

Cast: Alanna Masterson, George Byrne

Now if I am being totally honest when I see a movie like this with the night vision image on the cover with the words/warning "from the co-creator of Punk'd" emblazoned across it, well it doesn't exactly warm my horror heart or instill me with some great confidence. There are so many found footage type films out there, and this green tinted night vision cover is well played out by now, but maybe it plays well with Redbox users or catches the eye on streaming services, but I associate it with bland cookie-cutter low budget horror movies, the kind I would usually skip right over without a thought. 

In Afraid (2014) we have a young 20-something couple arriving at a secluded house in some remote pine forest, the boyfriend has rented the place online and it looks like quite a nice place to rest, fornicate and kick-back away from the stress of whatever it these two do when they're not vacationing. While we the viewer know what's happening thanks to an introductory montage, they are unaware that the house has been wired with hidden surveillance equipment and they're every move is being recorded by some unknown person, though presumably you could surmise it's the owner of the place they rented it from. The guy seems alright, he's totally in love with his lady friend, a bit too much, but unknown to him is that she's carrying on with an ex on text all the while, right under this poor sap's nose, making plans to rendezvous with him in the Fall when the new college school year begins, her leaving for school seems to be a point of contention with her boyfriend throughout the film. 

The film is not found footage in the traditional sense, we have a traditional narrative film intercut with the video surveillance footage and the POV of the lurker watching them, also transitioning to a PC screen of whoever the culprit is hacking into the girlfriend's insurance records, Facebook account and her phone, even mimicking the phone of the other guy she's talking to to have his own conversation with her, and she's none the wiser. 

For most of the film the couple are completely unaware that they are on camera and being watched, but eventually they get wise when the lurker makes his presence known, he having scrawled the message  "I am watching you" all-over the bedroom walls while the couple slept. They try to leave but find they're car has been sabotaged, things get desperate as the lurking intensifies and then ...things fizzle out.

I probably buried the lead on this review at the start, but this invasion of privacy film has no suspense whatsoever, the boring conversations we sit through with the couple as they lay about the house doing nothing lead up to absolutely nothing in the end, the "big reveal" was not so much a surprise as a "oh come on, really?", it actually made me angry.  Calling this a slow-burn would be way too kind, slow burns culminate with some sort of incendiary resolve, but this one just barely begins to smolders when someone pisses on it, leaving behind the smell of urine.

Afraid (2014) feels like a movie where they came up with the last image and then tried to tie-on a proper story, it didn't work. While I'm being all cynical about it I have to wonder if the fact that Alanna Masterson (who plays Tara in The Walking Dead) is the reason that this film from 2014 got a home video release at all. It probably sat on a shelf until someone thought they could roll it out and ride TWD gravy train, which is more cynical than I would like to be but this is bad stuff, avoid it unless you are one of those special people who watch every damn found-footage film that comes along, if you're that non-discriminating by all means have a watch.