Indie films. I can usually find something I like about almost all of them because they represent the willingness of a storyteller to take risks and experiment with new ideas. The nice thing with Infliction is that I don't have to dig for nice things to say.This isn't a big budget Hollywood film, but really, that's a blessing these days. I miss story, I miss films that ask tough questions, and I miss stories about characters. Infliction delivers in all of these areas. It's a hard film to watch sometimes because it asks hard questions and makes you as the viewer answer them yourself. There's also no soundtrack to lead you down a breadcrumb trail to "How should I feel about what's happening?"This film embraces the "challenges" associated with making an indie film on a tight budget and turns them into benefits. Innovation comes from being forced to solve problems, and the filmmakers and actors of Infliction are up to the task.The actors feel like a family - more so than many big budget offerings - and that makes this a film that pulls you in and makes you truly uncomfortable in that way films about such a heavy topic must.Yes, it's entertaining, and there are definitely things about the movie that are fun, but at its core, Infliction is a powerful film designed to make you think and ask questions. It has great acting in many, many scenes, and a slow reveal that might just have you rethinking the way you see society and families.

In Stephen King's seminal examination of the horror genre Danse Macabre, the author writes that horror can be divided into two distinct groups: One where horror "results from an act of free and conscious will…to do evil" and the other where horror is "predestinate, coming from outside."King is referring to "inside evil", where the evil emanates from within and "outside evil", where the evil comes from another force – in King's analysis mainly the supernatural. But what about when outside evil is visited on one, not by a ghost, spirit or monster, but by another ordinary, everyday human being. And what if that human is one you would ordinarily look to for protection? Going further, what then if that outside evil committed by one causes the other to then manifest their own inside evil?These are some of the weighty themes pondered in Jack Thomas Smith's existential serial killer "assembled" footage film Infliction. Ostensibly a tale of two brothers, John and Kenny Stiles, who go on a killing spree and of course record everything, Infliction moves from the arterial (in this case, spraying blood) to the intellectual.The film begins in 2011 when the brothers receive word that their ailing father's health is worsening. They get in the car and head home to North Carolina, but instead of just seeing the old man and bringing some flowers or a get-well card, they decide to do some slaughtering along the way.They begin by waiting outside a courthouse until a judge exits. They follow him home then break into the house. Soon we see the judge bound and gagged. John, the more verbose of the two, removes the tape from the judge's mouth, and as the magistrate is pleading his case, John shows him some court documents then slits his throat. As the man's head turns to the camera while his severed jugular pours out plasma, we know we're not in the territory of ghouls and goblins but instead in the realm of the evil that men can do.The spree continues and we learn that these are not random homicides. Rather, each victim is connected to the brothers' pasts somehow. Eventually, their big sis Andrea joins in and the film culminates in their parents' home. We even learn just why the brothers are recording all that they do, which is appreciated as many found footage films don't give a plausible reason for the ever-present handhelds.Because the victims are all connected to the brothers, more heady issues are examined in Infliction than bodies are buried. Issues as profound as action and/or non-action vs. consequence, free will vs. destiny, and nature vs. nurture. Furthermore, when bad things are visited upon us, how much victimization must we carry and how much should we let go of? Or are we even capable of doing so? Finally, do two wrongs make a right and is it within our moral sphere as humans to make those who have visited evil upon us pay, and in doing so, when is the line crossed where we become just as evil as those whom we perceive as such?Infliction is not a perfect film. For instance, it's saddled with many of the logical inconsistencies that much of its found footage ilk suffers from (just who is holding the camera in this scene and how is that angle achieved. And who is lighting and miking this stuff?) At times too, it does get slightly heavy-handed in its piling of traumas upon its protagonists. Nonetheless, a good horror does more than just scare the viewer. It unsettles and makes one confront societal and philosophical issues that we would otherwise choose to ignore. In watching the murder spree of John and Kenny Stiles, we – the viewers- are forced to do just that.

I admit that I am a fan of "found footage" or "assembled footage" type films. The problem is, there are too many of them, and for the most part, they all fall into the same trap which is, "Why would you be holding a camera when there's such chaos all around you?" Well, finally, there is a found footage film that manages to avoid this trap and deliver a smart, gritty horror film. Actually, I consider it a dark drama, with horrific elements, as writer/director Jack Thomas Smith certainly does not shy away from the violence.John (Jason Mac) and Kenny (Elliott Armstrong) Stiles are two brothers who are on a murder spree, which, they have decided to document on video. Why they decided to make the choice to record their mayhem is an integral part of the film which I will not divulge other than to say that it is one of the smartest conceits I have seen in a film in a long time.Along the way, the story of how they got to this point slowly unwinds, with scenes of graphic violence peppered throughout the film. However, this is NOT a "torture porn" film by any remote stretch. The violence makes perfect sense in the context of the film and I like the fact that Smith does not shy away from it. The film is gritty, intense and very realistic during these sequences.One of the things I liked best about the film is that it takes time to explore the human emotions behind the violence. The two brothers become much more than hyper-violent monsters, and, as odd as it my seem, I found myself rooting for them more than once. At the very least, the viewer begins to come to some level of understanding and even empathy for the brothers as they attempt to come to terms with their past.Another great facet of the film are the many psychological levels to it. Are we born evil, or does our environment make us that way, or is it some combination of the two? It's the time honored nature vs. nurture debate taken to a high level. "Infliction" is a film that is well written to the point that it could probably be used during a Psychology class and no, I am not kidding about that.If you are looking for a horror movie that is just a pile of cheap scares and gore, then I'm sorry, "Infliction" is not for you. This film is more a study of how people can be driven to unspeakable acts of violence, and it's a very effective study at that. It also explores notions of justice and revenge-as-justice, and tries to answer the question, "Is there a difference?" Following John and Kenny Stiles forces us to really think about how we can come to terms with our past, or if it's even possible to do so. The two actors playing the brothers have amazing chemistry and the dynamic between the two is extremely believable. In fact, all of the characters in the film, even ones that display monstrous behavior, are believable. (I must point out there that actor Don Henderson Baker, who plays the boys father, does so with a level of intensity that would make me pay very close attention to him if he lived next to me!) Overall, "Infliction" is the found footage film I have been waiting for. The fact that it's an indie film is all the more amazing. This is a well written, well acted, and well shot film that is one on my favorite films of the year.

Infliction is the story of two brothers,in 2011, who documented their murder spree in North Carolina. This is the actual assembled footage. The question is what prompted this spree, and why did these two brothers feel the need to document it? Well to get those answers you will have to watch this one for yourself!What I will say about is Infliction is this... Infliction is a story of failures, failures of the communities we live in, failures of the agencies put in place to help protect us, and failures of personal responsibility we all have to make things better (or worse) for the people we see every day. Its a dark look at what happens when we fail to do what is morally right because we either don't want to get involved or don't know how to through the bureaucracy of systems set in place. When you look at the film there are a lot of interesting things going on, some of which may really get under your skin, enraging and depressing you all at once. Its a well written story with a focus on the culmination of the choices made by others and the effect they had on these two brothers, not just for the day but everyday of their lives there after, how they shaped and molded them, in turn eventually setting into place the decisions that they make to exact retribution. It could easily be set in any area of the country, on any given day. Its a film that once seen, we realize we watch some portion of in every newspaper on news broadcast, almost daily, and that is part of the force behind this film and what makes it so powerful, and disturbing. I have no doubt that this is a story that will resonate with many viewers.Infliction boasts performances that are above average for small budget indie films, all the main players are easy to watch, some stronger than others, but all in all well rounded. I felt like some of the dialogue was slightly over scripted, taking away from the organic feel that you want a found footage film to have, but the story was strong enough to make it easy to look past that when it happened. Personally I found Ana Shaw to be a huge standout in this one, she is spot one. She feels very organic, delivers some stirring, raw emotional scenes, and has a very complex character that she just plays to a tee. She steals the scene when on screen with her very powerful performance, making it hard not to watch her regardless of what else is happening around her. The role played by Don Henderson Baker is also one worth special mention. He plays his part a as callous, cold and completely unsympathetic character so well I found it hard not to enjoy him in a villainous sort of way, hes just a mean cantankerous SOB that your going to love to hate.Infliction starts a little slow, but if you stick with it you are rewarded quite handsomely with a film that really comes together, answering the deep questions in a way that's a bit more twisted than you'd probably guess. The action and pace get ratcheted up at about the mid point making the last half just fly by, with consequences for our characters that are farther reaching than we could have imagined going in, and ending in cavalcade of bloodshed that was really quite well done. And once the credits roll, that's when you see the testament to the films success (or failure), because this is a film not meant just to entertain. Infliction is a film that is meant to make a statement, and only you can say whether it spoke to you, inspired a conversation, or left you reflecting on the choices you have made, or would like to believe you would make given similar moral dilemmas in your life. Just remember the choices you make when the time comes will affect generations, so make them carefully! *HeatherOmen*