Affection (2025) Film Review - Amnesia Horror with a Sci-fi Twist

Imagine waking up one day to a bedroom unfamiliar to you, with a stranger lying on the bed beside you. Sounds like a normal Saturday morning? Well, what if that stranger claims to be your husband, yet you haven’t even met that person ever in your entire life until now? Jessica Rothe finds herself in such an unusual situation in this sci-fi horror from writer/director BT Meza in his feature debut, Affection (2025).

In the film, we follow a woman (Rothe) who wakes up in what seems to be a car crash on a lonely, desolate road. After the intriguing opening scene, she wakes up to find herself in bed with an unknown man. As she panics out of confusion, the guy tells her that her name is Ellie Carter and that he is her husband, Bruce (Joseph Cross). They have a daughter named Alice (Julianna Layne), and she was involved in some traumatic accident, leaving her suffering from horrifying and erratic memory resets, leaving her unable to remember her husband or child. However, she is sure that’s not her—instead, she remembers her name being Sarah Thompson, with a husband and a son.

She also doesn’t recognize her own face. Soon, she realizes that they live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, with no neighbors or direct communication to the rest of the world. Haunted with vivid memories of a life she supposedly never lived, Ellie is determined to get to the truth, no matter how gruesome the real tale may be. Penned and directed by BT Meza, this sci-fi horror flick seems to be your typical abduction tale. But the script has a few tricks hidden up its sleeve and will surprise even the most demanding fans of the genre.

There have been many amnesia-themed thrillers before that deal with characters suffering from memory loss who try to unravel the mystery behind their real identity—the last ones I can remember were the 2014 mystery psychological thriller Before I Go to Sleep featuring Nicole Kidman and the more recent one, the Amazon Prime series We Were Liars, based on the novel of the same name by E. Lockhart. But while the subgenre has been saturated with many films and shows recycling the same concept over the years, BT Meza adds a unique and interesting twist on the tired trope, making this latest sci-fi horror film a refreshing watch.

Despite the small cast and its contained setting, Meza manages to effectively build up the mystery and paranoia all throughout the film. Its first act is admittedly slow, taking its time to build up the mystery behind Ellie’s real identity. It focuses mostly on how she comes to terms with the nightmarish situation she is in. But halfway through the film, it switches gears and reveals its cards to the viewer, jumping into Cronenbergian territory. Meza gives us just enough details to make sense of everything, leading us into its gripping third act. The film also looks pretty good despite its low budget, with the practical and special makeup effects by Monsters and Makeup Effects LLC, with works by Dan Rebert and Nick DeRosa, deserving some praise.

Jessica Rothe, who has made a name for herself as a modern-day scream queen after starring in Happy Death Day and its sequel, delivers a finely tuned performance here as the confused Ellie. Her portrayal here further cements her status as one of this generation’s scream queens. This is perfectly complemented by an effectively chilling turn from Joseph Cross, playing her husband, who may or may not be hiding a secret from her.

Despite this being his first feature film, BT Meza serves us a polished and slickly made genre-bending flick that makes him a talent to watch out for in the horror scene. Bolstered by Jessica Rothe’s all-in performance, this high-concept horror with a sci-fi bent offers just enough surprises for those willing to give it a little love and affection.