How far would you go to keep the memory of a loved one alive? Sci-fi thriller Affection makes grieving a thing of the past when a man uses science to “recreate” his wife and daughter. But love and life cannot bring back the past, and he and his creations turn from doting family members to empty beings searching for survival.
Ellie confronts a disturbing condition resetting her memory, unable to recognize her husband and daughter. Each reset disorients her, leaving haunting recollections of an unfamiliar life.
Affection, IMDB
The woman we come to know as Ellie (Jessica Rothe) has survived a car crash. As she writhes on the ground suffering from convulsions and inhuman croaking noises, we suspect something is off about the wreck. Cut to her in bed, at home. Greeted by her husband, Bruce (Joseph Cross), she appears to be in a manic state, thinking she is someone else and that she has been taken away from her previous life. Their daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) is terrified of her erratic behavior, but comes around once Ellie accepts she may have brain damage and some sort of amnesia. Days pass and Ellie relearns her place in the world, learning about her past with Bruce, their life together, and finally, that their idyllic life in the countryside may be a front for something sinister. Bruce is hiding something, and Ellie’s “false memories” may actually be something more.
Knowing nothing about the movie beforehand, I wasn’t sure which way Affection would go. At first, I was thinking an alien was involved. Then I thought it was some sort of kidnapping scenario. And finally, it came to be a science experiment gone wrong. And that made all the difference — it wasn’t some otherworldly presence or even a run-of-the-mill crazy husband, it was something in between the two. Affection kept me guessing, kept me wondering, and made mundane lifestyles all the more frightening. Ellie was relearning her whole life, how she acted as a mother and wife, all while wondering if this previous version of herself would eventually be lost to time. I cannot imagine how it would feel to lose my identity over and over like that.
When the big reveal happens, everything comes together. Affection does involve some sci-fi aspects with computers, genetic modifications, memory transfer, and even some sort of unknown biological material that sprouts new lifeforms, but it isn’t too hard to follow along. You don’t need to understand the science behind it, just that what is happening is a horrible process that doesn’t recreate life, it only mimics it. The addition of Bruce’s slow descent into murderous rage puts another level of fear on top of that, especially because children are involved. We come in in the middle of the action and have no idea how long this has been going on either.
As Affection is a horror sci-fi mashup, we do have some crazy effect work, both in realistic injuries as well as fantastical, alien-like growth pods that made me squirm and gasp for air. A slimy, sickeningly orange skin births clones with terrifying efficiency, making us doubt our own uniqueness in this world. But as much as these sequences were eye-catching and awful, it is always the human actions that come to light when we are sad that cause the most destruction.
Affection is anything but — it’s a love story about the power to create and never let something go, even if it wants to be forgotten. Ellie aims to teach Bruce that not only does he need to grieve properly, but that these creations are in no way a replacement for real, human connection. It’s too bad that his experiments worked.
Affection is releasing to select theaters on May 8th.
