Absentia

Absentia

Absentia is one of the best horror films of the year.  It may even be one of the best films of the year.  But you’re probably not going to watch it.  And nobody is really going to write about it.  A few horror nuts.  Maybe.  But nobody big.  Nobody mainstream.  Absentia’s going to slip past most of you, unnoticed and unloved.  It has no stars, no budget, no huge set-piece action scenes, no CGI robots, no gory violence, no crowd-pleasing deaths, no found-footage gimmick, no hip genre deconstruction.  But give it a chance and it’s going to climb inside your head and haunt your dreams.

Seven years after her husband Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) disappeared without trace, Tricia Riley (Courtney Bell) is finally ready to move on with her life.  Heavily pregnant by the police liaison officer who investigated Daniel’s disappearance, Tricia has begun legal action to have Daniel legally declared dead ‘in absentia’ and her estranged, ex-drug addict sister Callie (Katie Parker) has found God, got herself clean and sober, and has moved in to support Tricia and help out once the baby arrives. 

But visions of an angry, emaciated Daniel haunt Tricia’s dreams, bleeding into her reality.  She catches fleeting glimpses of him out of the corner of her eye, experiences violent, terrifying visitations.  Callie meanwhile is drawn to an ominous tunnel near their home where she has a strange encounter with the badly beaten and hysterical Walter (Doug Jones) who babbles about hostile creatures living in the walls. 

As Callie discovers the missing Daniel is just one of a string of mysterious disappearances over the years, all connected to the tunnel, it becomes clear that something very unnatural is going on in the neighbourhood.

Crowd funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Absentia is an eerie, deeply unsettling little chiller that’s as much a study of love, loss and grief as it is a horror movie with monsters roaming the streets.  While it has its fair share of jolts and hide behind the sofa scares, it’s a subtle slow-burner that’s very normality feels alien and threatening.  Essentially an urban fairytale, Absentia’s vision of suburbia is as dangerous and threatening as any deep, dark wood, the creatures that lurk there as malevolent and unforgiving as any witch or troll from folklore. 

Flanagan’s script and direction are tight and economical and the relative newcomers Courtney Bell and Katie Parker are fantastic as the two estranged sisters grappling with a force beyond their understanding.  Their performances have both the awkwardness and the easy intimacy of real siblings, a lived-in quality that’s familiar, normal.  As the pregnant Tricia, Bell’s fragile vulnerability belies her inner steel while Parker’s Callie is hesitant, unsure of herself, a reluctant heroine plagued by the inner demons she thought she’d laid to rest.  They’re ably supported by Dave Levine’s tough but sensitive cop and the desperate and creepy Brown as Daniel Tricia’s husband while Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth star Doug Jones makes the most of his pivotal cameo.

While it does at times betray its miniscule budget, Absentia is a chillingly minimalist little horror flick that will have you sleeping with the lights on.  Dark, brooding and intense, it deserves to be appreciated by as wide an audience as possible.

David Watson

Written, produced, directed by:

Mike Flanagan

Starring:

Courtney Bell, Katie Parker, Dave Levine, Morgan Peter Brown, Doug Jones

Genres:

Horror

Language:

English

Runtime:

87 minutes

Certificate:

15

Rating:

5/5