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Year three of the Big Bad Film Fest and the question was simple: how do you top two years of big-screen beatdowns and severe ass-kicking mayhem for hardcore action addicts? This year already came out swinging—action icon Scott Adkins throwing down a martial arts master class in Prisoner of War, the Martial Club crew detonating old-school, jaw-dropping fight design in Gladiator Underground. The third outing was already a bruiser, packed with future cult bangers we were lucky enough to see before the rest of the world. So how do you close a festival like that? Simple. You unleash the Chilean Dragon.
So it’s only right that Adkins’ brother-in-arms, the Chilean Dragon himself Marko Zaror, steps into the spotlight as the international extreme martial arts icon finally makes his English-language leading man debut in Brandon Slagle’s full-throttle love story Affinity. Over the last few decades, Zaror has headlined a string of savage action gems out of his native Chile and carved out his legend in Western projects like Undisputed 3: Redemption, John Wick: Chapter 4, and most recently Diablo, which reunited him with Adkins. In Affinity, Zaror is front and center, reminding everyone why he’s one of the absolute best in the business at dishing out cinematic punishment. Zaror is having a monster year, and this movie is the icing on his skull-cracking cake.
Affinity is a straight-up passion project for Zaror and a blood-soaked love letter to the fans who’ve been saying for years that he belongs in the same pantheon as Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Norris—an elite trailblazer in adrenaline-drenched action cinema. Zaror has bled for this industry for decades, and now those hard-earned scars are finally paying off; with any justice, this is just the beginning of a run of Western action vehicles with his name above the title. Behind the camera, Brandon Slagle takes his seat as the resident action maestro, a filmmaker who has quietly built a reputation as the go-to guy for indie carnage. With Affinity, he once again understands the assignment, framing Zaror like an avenging war god and staging several brutal set pieces that let his star’s physical genius explode off the screen.
It doesn’t hurt that fellow action stalwart and filmmaker Louis Mandylor jumps into the fray and delivers one of the tightest, most hard-hitting action beats of his career. Co-star Brooke Ence rolls in as the ultimate femme fatale, backing up Zaror with serious firepower and presence, while action auteur Brahim Chab (Monkey Man) steals scenes as the volatile henchman Krieger. He dishes out savage punishment in multiple bare-knuckle clashes before throwing down in a gravity-defying, bone-shattering showdown with Zaror—protagonist and antagonist trading air and impact in a finale that lights up the screen with jaw-dropping technique.
Speaking of Ence, she brings a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense edge to Fitch, covering Bruno’s six like a seasoned operator. When the bullets fly and fists start flying, she commands the frame, selling a “one of the boys” energy without ever losing her own presence or power. She looks right at home in this world of gunfire and broken bones, and someone needs to hand her a full-on starring vehicle yesterday—I’d happily watch her bring more pain in whatever title she takes on next.
Let’s just say it out loud: Louis Mandylor might be the best kept secret in the action business. On both sides of the camera he’s such a force that it borders on ridiculous. Calling him “versatile” barely scratches the surface—his charisma, fight chops, acting range, and filmmaking instincts make him the kind of weapon more companies should be unleashing when they need a killer indie actioner on a budget. As Joe, Mandylor brings a grounded, funny, and genuinely sincere performance as one of Bruno’s only real family members, and their chemistry sells that bond from the jump. He’s been wheeling and dealing behind the lens for years, so it’s a genuine thrill to see him step up and go to work again in front of it.
As Athena, Jane Mirro plays things with a reserved, quiet intensity, hinting from the start that there’s more under the surface than a standard damsel-in-distress routine. She’s the beauty to Bruno’s beast, and while I’m usually not big on the romantic angle in modern action movies, here it actually matters—it deepens the stakes, fuels the emotional core, and drives the story rather than dragging it down.
Story-wise, Affinity centers on Zaror as Bruno, an ex–Navy SEAL haunted by crippling PTSD after losing his brother in a mission gone horribly wrong. Broken and guilt-ridden, Bruno isolates himself in Thailand, holed up in a waterside hideaway where he slowly drinks himself into oblivion. The only things keeping him tethered to the world are his allies Joe (Mandylor) and Fitch (Ence), his lone lifelines and battle-scarred companions.
Everything changes one fateful night when a mysterious woman washes up on the shoreline outside Bruno’s home, barely clinging to life. The soldier in him kicks in, and he drags her in from the water, nursing her back to health and trying to piece together who she is. She eventually tells him her name is Athena—but something about her story doesn’t land, and Joe is quick to warn Bruno to proceed with extreme caution.
Once Athena recovers, she and Bruno fall into a fragile, unexpected love, and for a brief moment it feels like this tortured warrior might finally get his shot at peace. But in true action-movie fashion, if it seems too good to be true, it absolutely is. Athena is carrying a dark secret—she’s on the run from some truly nasty people, and her arrival drags a storm of trouble right to Bruno’s doorstep. With enemies closing in, Bruno has no choice but to dust off his lethal skill set, turn the pain back into purpose, and go to war to protect Athena and survive the onslaught, with Joe and Fitch as his only backup.
Affinity springs from an idea by Zaror and the late indie action filmmaker Daniel Zirilli, which gives the whole project a bittersweet undercurrent. You can feel from frame one that Zaror wanted this to be something special, and to make that happen he teamed with one of the best in the game for orchestrating large-scale mayhem on lean resources: Brandon Slagle. Known for standout indie action titles like Breakout, Arena Wars, The Flood, and Battle for Saipan, Slagle is the definition of a go-to director when you need to turn limited tools into something explosive. He understands what fans crave because he’s clearly one of us, and that perspective shows in the way he shoots and cuts the fight scenes—camera and editing working in sync to showcase the performers doing the damage instead of hiding them.
Right out of the gate, Affinity plants its flag as a no-nonsense action ride by dropping us into a gnarly first-person-shooter-style sequence that sets the tone perfectly. From there, Zaror and Slagle keep the pressure on, stacking the film with exhilarating action design courtesy of Zaror himself, who also serves as action director. His talents are put to lethal use here—every brutal, meticulously choreographed fight escalates from the last, building towards a sensational climax where Zaror goes full one-man-killing-machine mode and tears through the opposition like a force of nature.
No spoilers here, but the film laces its bone-crunching mayhem with a sci-fi twist that leans into a Frankenstein-style concept, giving the story an unexpected genre-bending jolt. It’s a wild swing and a bold choice, and it sets Affinity apart from your standard revenge-driven love story. Most viewers won’t see it coming, and when it hits, it sends the movie into uncharted territory while still reveling in the classic action bravado and heroics that fans show up for.
Shot in Thailand, the film looks flat-out gorgeous, with the cityscapes and lush landscapes becoming a character of their own. The sweeping visuals give the movie a cinematic scope, perfectly counterbalancing the ugliness and violence churning within the story. The environment becomes the calm eye in the middle of the storm. Layered over that is an old-school, pulverizing synth score that pulses with cool retro energy, supercharging the action and giving every frame a propulsive, neon-soaked vibe.
Action is king, and flawless fight design is the one true god—and on that front, Zaror, Slagle, and the entire crew show up like true believers. They pack the tight, lean running time with as much blunt-force trauma and high-level trickery as possible. Zaror is savage poetry in motion, and every time he cuts loose it becomes a brutal ballet that’s hard to match. The film delivers ferocious Gun Fu, razor-sharp bladed-weapon close-quarters encounters, and general, glorious bad-assery around every corner. Zaror is the main attraction, but he generously gives Mandylor and Ence room to rack up their own body counts, with Mandylor getting one of his best knife-fight showcases to date—tier-one technique on full display. When the finale hits, though, it’s pure, undiluted Zaror, reminding everyone exactly why he’s the one front and center—how dare we ever forget.
To wrap it all up, Marko Zaror’s English-language leading man debut is a full-throttle love story detonated with severe martial arts punishment and carnage. Mixing bladed weaponry, a blast of Gun Fu, and a whole lot of chest-thumping bravado, Zaror delivers in blood-soaked spades while director Brandon Slagle once again proves he’s the go-to elite indie action filmmaker.
A pulverizing synth score and beautiful, cinematic Thailand vistas crank this already insane action extravaganza into the stratosphere, proving without a shadow of a doubt that Zaror is a full-fledged action icon. And as a vicious bonus, action star and filmmaker Louis Mandylor slices through one of his most savagely choreographed fight sequences, flashing some seriously sick skills along the way.
Add this one to your must-see action film arsenal—no hesitation, no mercy.
VERDICT: 4 Out of 5 Stars
Affinity is Marko Zaror at his savage best—an adrenaline-pumping, full-throttle love story fused with ruthless, finely tuned martial arts action design.
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