ABSENTIA (2011)

Studio:       Phase 4 Films
Director:    Mike Flanagan
Writer:       Mike Flanagan
Producer:  Morgan Peter Brown, Mike Flanagan, Justin Gordon, Joe Wicker
Stars:     Katie Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Morgan Peter Brown, Justin Gordon, James Flanagan, Scott Graham, Doug Jones

Review Score:

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Summary:

Two sisters discover that a strange tunnel near their home may be connected to a series of unexplained disappearances.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

A recovering drug addict, Callie Russel moves in with her sister Tricia Riley in Glendale, California. Regularly plagued by recurring nightmares and haunting visions of her husband Daniel in ghostly form, Tricia makes the final preparations to have Daniel declared dead in absentia, as it has been seven years since he inexplicably disappeared. Tricia is also seven months pregnant, although she does not reveal the father’s identity to her sister.

Callie goes jogging through a tunnel across the street from the apartment. On her way back, she comes across a disheveled man she presumes to be a derelict. The mumbling man appears shocked to discover that Callie can see him. He tells her that his name is Walter Lambert and asks to trade. Perplexed by the situation, Callie leaves after promising to bring Walter something. Walter calls out about his son Jamie.

Callie comes home to find her sister in conversation with Ryan Mallory, the detective assigned to Daniel Riley’s disappearance. Callie realizes that Ryan and Tricia have been secretly seeing each other and that Ryan is the father of Tricia’s baby. Callie later remembers her promise to Walter and leaves a Tupperware container of food for him by the tunnel entrance.

After another jog, Callie finds a pile of trinkets on the doorstop that remind her of the one she saw in Walter’s hand when he asked to trade. Callie takes the trinkets back to the tunnel and leaves them at the entrance. Before leaving a trash bag at the tunnel entrance himself, an unidentified man warns Callie not to leave the items there. While preparing to go to sleep later, Callie pulls back her covers and finds the trinket pile in her bed. The police are called, but they find no sign of forced entry.

With her husband officially declared in absentia, Tricia finally decides to move forward with her life and agrees to a formal date with Ryan. As they walk out to the street, Tricia sees Daniel stumbling towards them, but assumes it is another vision. Ryan and Callie look on and realize that Daniel has in fact returned. Daniel is unable to recall what happened to him. He suffers from a lack of sunlight exposure yet is wearing the same clothes he had when he disappeared. Everyone notices that he behaves like a changed person.

Ryan comes over to talk outside with Tricia about their relationship. Meanwhile, Callie listens to Daniel’s incoherent ramblings about an insect-like creature that lives in the walls. He tells Callie that she should not have traded with it. The creature ends up pulling Daniel into the shadows and then back into the tunnel where he disappears again. Callie is the only witness, but no one believes her story because of her drug use.

To prove she is telling the truth, Callie begins researching related unexplained disappearances and presents the findings to her disbelieving sister. Callie connects that Walter Lambert disappeared in the same tunnel and that several similar incidents were related to whispers of a mysterious creature.

Walter’s mangled corpse is discovered at the tunnel entrance. The unidentified man from before is revealed to be Walter’s son Jamie, who had been stealing pets from area residents and leaving them as offerings to the tunnel creature for his father.

While going upstairs together, Tricia and Callie hear odd noises in the darkness before Tricia is pulled into the shadows and taken away to the tunnel. The police do not believe Callie’s story regarding her sister’s disappearance and warn her not to leave town before they conclude their investigation.

Callie prepares an envelope for Ryan that includes all of the information she uncovered, as well as a copy of “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” and leaves it on her bed. She then goes into the tunnel and screams at the wall that she wants to trade. She panics when she hears strange sounds and runs back towards the entrance, but she suddenly disappears. Detective Lonergan speculates that Jamie Lambert killed the sisters, but Ryan begins putting up missing posters asking for information about Tricia or Callie.

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Review:

Recovering junkie Callie comes to California to reconnect with her sister Tricia as Tricia puts the finishing touches on putting her past behind her.  It has been seven years since Tricia’s husband Daniel inexplicably vanished near the gloomy tunnel underneath the highway across the street.  Tricia is now pregnant with another man’s baby, making the timing even more appropriate for moving on to a less uncertain future.

Except that the tunnel is not quite as ready to let go as the sisters are.  It turns out that Daniel is not the first person to go missing inside its walls.  Strange whispers hint at an age-old entity lurking within.  Its purpose is unknown, but its pull is undeniable.  And when the moment that Tricia wished would happen for seven years finally takes place, it comes with horrifying consequences for everyone involved.

“Absentia” is a monster movie without a tangible monster, evoking tension from psychological dread rather than from visceral shocks.  The way it weaves this atmosphere is through a demonstrable restraint that is almost maddening in how it purposefully refuses to bowl over the pins it puts in place for establishing horror.

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The Lasser Glass mirror from "Oculus" makes a cameo appearance in "Absentia."

Early in the film, there is a bathroom scene featuring Callie brushing her teeth in front of a shower curtain.  The eye cannot help but fixate on the fabric as it looms ominously behind her in shot after shot.  The angle changes, yet nothing happens.  The curtain flutters subtly, but nothing jumps.  Callie at last moves in for a slow peek behind, and still she finds nothing.

“Absentia” creates textbook setups for jump scares like this and then makes the moments even more unnerving by deliberately not pulling the trigger.  It is a technique sure to make unhappy campers out of viewers who require the immediate payoff of a physical jolt.  But what is actually taking place by never thrusting that anticipated hand from the shadows is that “Absentia” plants the notion of a threat always lurking silently somewhere offscreen.  Because the visual fright hasn’t happened yet, it could happen at any time.  That the creature and the film have this kind of unnatural patience to toy with everyone inside the movie as well as those watching it is what makes the feeling deeply unsettling.

With only one or two takes to get a scene in the can due to time constraints, and with the majority of the cast having never acted in a feature film before, the edges of inexperience are often visible on the performance side of “Absentia.”  The acting engages regardless, with Katie Parker as a noteworthy standout for the way she captures a Jennifer Carpenter-like tomboy charm.  Yet rarely are there many moments where the cast truly melts into character and you can forget that what you are watching is acting.

But what is remarkable is that the portrayals do not suffer from an inability to believe that a particular actor is a seasoned police detective, for instance.  The performances are so committed and so earnest that they still connect the emotional beats laid out through intelligent dialogue and plotting.  The material itself and the spirit behind its presentation more than make up for the missing finesse, and the lack of refinement ceases to matter in the wake of a mood that grips so tightly.

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Dave Levine of "Absentia" and Will Sasso: Separated at birth?

“Absentia” should be required viewing for any aspiring micro-budget filmmaker.  Inventorying available assets first, and plotting how to craft a project around what one has in hand, is hardly a novel concept in independent film.  And that is exactly what writer/director Mike Flanagan did when he took the tunnel across the street, an idea suggested by his brother, and then convinced family and friends to push past the limits of previous experience to create an exceptional Lovecraftian thriller.

Too often in genre filmdom specifically, ambition impedes realistic goals and a movie goes too far while trying to achieve impossible results.  Finished products are forced to resort to corner-cutting measures and special effects distractions best described as unconvincing, and that is a charitable adjective.  “Absentia” is a movie made for a five-figure sum because that is all the money they had, yes.  But it turns out to be all the money they needed, too.

This is how a movie with passion and purpose makes the most out of limited resources.  By concentrating on strong scripting and well-plotted design that can outmatch the restrictions of its performers and production scope, “Absentia” never steps outside the reach of its modest capabilities.  And the quietly creeping chiller that ultimately takes shape is successful and effective because of that fact, not in spite of it.

Review Score:  80

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