AFFF log

Man's fear and search for existential questions knows no limit
Links: AFFF / imdb

(here be spoilers)

I am not sure whether the phrase "existential horror" has been coined before. This is it. What starts as a raw "torture victim hunts her agressors" story slowly changes into a portrayal of man's fear of death; a group of people intentionally try create martyrs by chaining them in dark cellars and submitting them to the most gruesome of pain and torture. The state of a martyr is such that she doesn't fear anything in this world. Her body is beyond pain, her very being beyond this world. There is no limit to the horror mankind is capable of inflicting onto his fellow man to find answers to existential questions of what lies beyond this life. The fact that these are without exception answered sooner or later for everybody adds an even more gruesome aspect; Impatience can be the sole reason for inflicting these most horrendous kinds of pain. Impatience, and fear.

The film keeps an impressively fast pace throughout and though many horrible scenes are showed in gory detail they never indulgenced. I am deeply impressed and was merely doubting between an 8 and 9 because the latter has an air of "recommend it to everybody!". Which is certainly not the case here. I am not even sure I'd like to watch it myself again any time soon.

Rating: 9