Jessica Rothe Solidifies Scream Queen Status in “Affection”
This review was originally published on Film Obsessive.
A person’s mind is a delicate thing. It can be fundamentally unmooring if you reach a point in your life when your brain isn’t processing things as it should be. What and who do you trust if your mind isn’t feeling right? That’s the root of BT Meza’s Affection, which is having its world premiere as the Opening Night Film at ScreamFest before playing at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Affection is a science-fiction horror movie with a small cast of three characters who are all dealing with a loss that has the ability to consume them.
Ellie Carter (Jessica Rothe) wakes up in a house that doesn’t feel like it belongs to her. There’s a man sleeping next to her, but she doesn’t recognize him. As she tries to make an escape, the man tells her that he’s Bruce (Joseph Cross), her husband. The house that Ellie is in belongs to both of them and they live there with their daughter (Julianna Layne). Bruce tells her that they moved to this secluded house after Ellie was injured in a car accident. Her doctors recommended isolation to help with Ellie’s recovery. As calming as Bruce tries to be, there’s something within Ellie screaming that this situation is not right. That this is not her home, her husband, or her daughter.
Courtesy of Superconductive Productions
It’s such a difficult position that Ellie has found herself in. She wholeheartedly believes that this is not her life,and the audience is in a similar boat. As Ellie is the first character we’re introduced to, it’s her worldview that we inherently trust. Even though Bruce is telling her and the audience that everything is normal, there’s something in the back of the viewer’s mind that’s a little suspicious. Affection plays with this gray area exceptionally well. We’re given no reason to distrust Bruce, but we’re also not really given a reason to believe that Ellie is wrong. Is there a world where they’re both right? Affection pulls on the heartstrings of both main characters until it fundamentally shifts into something new when the audience finally gets a peek behind the intentions of the main characters.
Rothe broke out in Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U. The time-loop films showed off Rothe’s ability to make every scene, no matter how many times you’ve seen it, feel fresh. There’s a similar looping quality to Affection, with her character’s memory loss and confusion, but where this film differs from her breakouts is the physicality the role of Ellie requires. Rothe has rightly been crowned as a Scream Queen for her previous roles, but Affection allows her to really plumb the depths of what that title entails. Her Ellie is full-bodied and visceral, frighteningly out of control at times. Where the Happy Death Day movies have an edge of campiness to them that Rothe effortlessly leans into, Affection plays things more like a straight drama with sci-fi elements. Rothe is a force in Affection, both in the physical nature of the role and as the emotional heart of Ellie.
The definition of “affection” speaks to a gentleness when referencing a connection between two people. How Affection relates to this definition is a card best kept close to the film’s chest, but, without spoiling anything, this is about a family dealing with the aftermath of an accident. There’s loss echoing through the small group because Ellie is experiencing memory issues. Even if there’s nothing nefarious happening, Ellie’s memory loss still creates an unease in the family. Their daughter struggles to understand why one of the constant figures in her life is now acting in a way that doesn’t make sense. When we lose a way of life or a person fundamentally changes, we often revert back to memories of before. When things were good and rose-colored. Affection looks at the pain nostalgia like this can inflict on the present day and at how chasing the past will never bode well for the future.
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