AFFECTION -- Jessica Rothe: The Forgetful Scream Queen

Jessica Rothe began to earn her title of “Scream Queen” with the hit horror\comedy Happy Death Day back in 2017. She has made her mark in other films like her co-starring role in Boy Kills World, her supporting role in La La Land and the star of a short lived MTV show Mary + Jane, but her horror work is where she thrives. While it has been 6 years since the last Happy Death Day movie, Jessica has still been thriving in the horror genre and she landed her new starring role in Affection.  In Affection, Jessica plays Ellie/Sarah a woman who wakes up with no recollection of the husband and daughter that she wakes up to, but actually remembers an entirely different life with another husband and son. As she starts to recover from her condition, Ellie begins to discover different oddities about her newfound life; she uncovers the secrets behind it all.

First off, major props on the feature film debut of writer/director BT Meza with a solid new addition to the horror/sci-fi genre. Affection is mainly centered around grief and how damaging obsession can be to a person’s mental faculties. The characters Meza wrote here are fleshed out and keep the story interesting with the incredible performances from Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross and Julianna Layne. Seeing Joseph annually deal with grief in the Christmas classic Jack Frost, this was an interesting role for him to tackle so many years later. In the beginning, Ellie is freaking out about her sudden new reality in this farmhouse with strangers and Bruce (Cross) has a calming yet untrustworthy aura about him that leaves you uneasy immediately. Julianna is a very talented young actress and her reactions to the scary moments felt quite authentic, but Jessica Rothe is the star of Affection. Rothe acts almost animalistic when she wakes up in a stranger's home. Throughout the movie, she also has physical muscle spasms and seizures and makes them look so real and unsettling. Her almost possession-like movements could rival Linda Blair back in The Exorcist.

As Ellie starts to peel back the curtain and sees what’s happening, the visuals darken, the audio drops and prepares to force urine to exit your body. While speaking on the visual look of Affection, the practical effects and makeup team are the shining stars of this project. When the climax reveal comes, Ellie has some physical changes that will sear themselves permanently into your brain and disturb you to the core. While the story is a bit too predictable at times, the eerie visuals and the plot reveal at the climax do the heavy lifting. 

In the end, Affection may have some familiar plot elements to other films in the genre, but it has a unique visual identity that is unforgettable. Affection shows the audience the importance of working through your grief, rather than trying to distract yourself or substitute the void. BT Meza created a creepy world puppeteered by a madman trying to create his utopia using people like avatars. Jessica Rothe has become a sci-fi/horror queen and she has rightfully earned such a title with performances like Affection. Don't order a bunch of food or popcorn before walking into your theater, because while the title may sound like it may, Affection does NOT care about your feelings. 

Affection is playing in select theaters starting May 8th! 

Rating: 3.5/5