Absentia (2011)

Top comments

1. 

   the3rdman

   Not brilliant but subtly disturbing and very effective for a low-budget creeper. One of the better horror films I have seen this year. 10 years 4 months ago
2. 

   creamypouf

   Slow start in my opinion, but escalated well, and quickly became deeply disturbing. Very creepy and eerie. Not at all a gore/slasher. 11 years 4 months ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   Mike Flanagan's first feature film, Absentia, is a low-budget affair, but succeeds despite its limitations, especially when it only evokes the existence of its monster (though actual manifestations are brief - I'm not as bothered by them as some) and the "ghosts" it creates. The aesthetic here is part mumblecore (the image treatment and evident speed of shooting) and part letting figures go out of focus in the background, so that a ghostliness is always around the corner. Anyone could disappear from view, forever, at any time. And that's the premise. A pregnant woman (Courtney Bell actually carrying her director's child, no fake bellies here) and her drug addict sister (Katie Parker - a lot of these actors would show up in Flanagan's sophomore effort Oculus and beyond) finally get a death certificate for Bell's husband, missing for the part 7 years. But this is a neighborhood where people disappear all the time, and are taken... SOMEplace. There's some play with the idea that not knowing what happened to a missing person keeps them alive, present, and even sinister, but I also enjoyed that, unlike a lot of horror films, we do see the cops' point of view. We often wonder in these films just how any of this will be explained to the authorities after the credits roll. But not here. Absentia is a pretty bleak film, chilling and suspenseful, and you might also develop a fear of underpass walking tunnels from it (nah, I was already kind of afraid of them). Flanagan would go on to bigger and better things, but this isn't a bad starting point at all! 3 months 2 weeks ago

See all comments

Friends

Login to see which of your friends have seen this movie!