no-lolita-683-244070 Absentia was a big surprise, actually one of the better horror movies I've seen in a while. Not a typical creature feature, perhaps more of a psychological thriller... you really don't get introduced to what is hiding in the dark, only given just enough of a suggestion to make your hair stand on end and get that imagination working overtime. The story is intriguing, and suspenseful at all the right moments, and the ending was perfect! Great acting, decent script, plausible characters. I will watch this one again some time.

morrison-dylan-fan Whilst waiting to find out if anything else would come from Mike Flanagan after Oculas, I read a review by Kim Newman highly praising the release of Flanagan's first (non-student or short) feature Horror movie,which led to me making a note of the title for a special viewing. Knocked out by Flanagan confirming himself as an auteur with the hat trick of Before I wake,Hush and Ouija: Origin of Sin,and coming up to my 1,500th review,I decided to stop being absent for Absentia.The plot:After holding onto hope for seven years that her husband Daniel will re-appear, Tricia Riley gets his death certificate signed in absentia. While Daniel's been missing, Tricia has gotten with Det. Ryan Mallory and is now seven months pregnant. Living on her own,Tricia welcomes back her sister Callie. Going for a jog whilst Tricia reports of seeing Daniel's "ghost",Callie jogs to a tunnel near their home,and finds a path to the "ghost" of Daniel.View on the film:Working on a very low budget, (1/3rd of which was crowdfunded) editor/writer/directing auteur Mike Flanagan shows a remarkable confidence in making the origins of the overarching themes across his credits feel established. Giving the future Oculas mirror a cameo, Flanagan makes his first visit to a suburban home one where the walls shake,as Flanagan & Oculas cinematographer Rustin Cerveny pull the scenes at home (shot in Flanagan's own house) with an extended eerie silence, that shatters as Callie and Tricia find someone (or something) else in the house. Whilst not able to roll out his highly stylised tracking shots, Flanagan keeps the chilling mood alight with scratched faces, (a major visual motif in his future work) crystal blue lighting, and a keen ear for sliver of sounds coming out of the tunnel.Appearing five years after he had made anything, (2006's short Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan) the screenplay by Flanagan has an impressive freshness,as the casual exchanges between Tricia and Callie highlight the major themes which has since driven all his work,from a fractured family unit grieving over a loss, to an unseen historical evil, secretly festering in the heart of the town. Proudly making Absentia its own thing, Flanagan gives the tale a large dollop of dark Fantasy, as the unseen creature slithers around and tunnels into a mysterious, unhappy ending.Joined by Flanagan family member James as an on-edge Jamie Lambert, Courtney Bell (who would join co-star Dave Levine in Oculas,and also appear in Before I wake) gives a gripping performance as Tricia,who along with expressing the care she has for Callie,is also given a calculating side by Bell over finding out the secrets of the tunnel. Filmed whilst she was seven months pregnant with her and now ex- boyfriend Flanagan's child, Catherine Parker gives an excellent performance as Callie,with Parker making Callie scream in desperation for a rational solution,as Callie and Tricia look down the tunnel to absentia.

cjbad9 Very re-watchable. The score is great and will stay with you. Hella eerie the entire time. The soundtrack is so way creepy and some movie nerds might even consider it a character in its own. Very similar use of music as that of Requiem for a Dream. O man the very ending is so shockingly awesome. Nothing really jump out thrills but all around very horror suspenseful. I now get some thrills in public by asking people if they can see me. Its hard to tell if its real or not, much like most stories about awesome torture daemons. See it yo! With the lights off!"Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them." ― Charles Bukowski

Lars Bear It's unusual to see a horror/supernatural movie that isn't packed full of clichés, but Absentia makes a good attempt to be something a little different. The plot is simple enough: a woman has her husband declared legally dead after an unexplained absence of seven years, but then he mysteriously reappears, apparently with little memory of events. Unfortunately, he seems to have brought something nasty back with him.What makes the movie different, is that the 'nasty' -- whatever it is -- is seldom apparent. We get just the occasional glimpse. It seems to be associated with a spooky tunnel, but in ways that never become clear. In fact, at the risk of being a spoiler, I think I've just summarized the entire movie.This isn't an action movie, and it has few outright scary moments. Very little happens that is out of the ordinary -- most of the story focuses on the odd, rather strained relationships between the central characters, all of whom have things to hide and may -- or may not -- know more about events than they let on.From start to finish there is an atmosphere of brooding menace, which becomes increasingly intense as the story unfolds. Everybody is scared of something, although it is never made particularly explicit whether the nasty thing actually exists in objective terms, or is just a figment of one or other characters' overwrought imagination.Unlike many modern horror movies, this one does actually have a proper ending; that is, events come to a clear conclusion. It's not a conclusion that makes a whole heap of sense, in narrative terms, but at least I didn't get the impression that the film-makers just carried on until they had enough stuff for a movie, and then went home.All in all, one of the best horror/supernatural movies I've seen for a long time.