THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN (2014)

Studio:       Millennium Entertainment
Director:    Adam Robitel
Writer:       Adam Robitel, Gavin Heffernan
Producer:  Bryan Singer, Jeff Rice
Stars:     Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang, Ryan Cutrona, Anne Bedian, Brett Gentile, Jeremy DeCarlos, Randell Haynes, David Hains, Lee Spencer

Review Score:

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Summary:

A documentary profile on an elderly Alzheimer’s patient uncovers a secret connection to sinister serial killings.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

October 12, 2013 – Exuma, Virginia – Medical student Mia Hu, her producer Gavin, and their cameraman Luis meet with Sarah Logan as they prepare to film a documentary about Sarah’s mother, Alzheimer’s patient Deborah Logan. Deborah has second thoughts about participating, but Sarah convinces her that they need the grant money to pay their bills.

One Week Later – Production begins. The crew meets Deborah’s lifelong friend and neighbor Harris Sredl. They also learn that Deborah made her living in the early part of her life by operating an answering service switchboard out of her house.

Luis observes Deborah with a snake in her garden. Deborah attacks Gavin in a fit of dementia when her gardening spade goes missing. She then claws at her own throat. Deborah is admitted to the hospital where her neurologist Dr. Analisa Nazir discovers that Deborah’s disease is advancing rapidly.

Day 15 – Deborah returns home. Luis observes Deborah speaking into her bedroom mirror.

Day 18 – The crew spends more time with Sarah and learns of Deborah’s disappointment when she discovered that her daughter is a lesbian. Fearful of an intruder, Deborah nails windows shut before disappearing during the night. Sarah and the crew find Deborah stabbing at the ground in her garden. When Gavin reviews surveillance camera footage later, an inexplicable jump in the video makes it appear as if Deborah briefly levitated.

Day 24 – Deborah attacks the crew suddenly during an interview. Doctors run additional tests on Deborah but are unable to understand the anomalies in her disease’s rapid advancement. Deborah also claws at herself again as a scaly infection spreads all over her skin.

Day 41 – Sarah and Harris have to restrain Deborah during a fit. After finding a snake in the house, Gavin superstitiously places a cross pendant on a windowsill. Gavin is startled by the sudden appearance of Deborah as the window mysteriously opens by itself. Gavin also finds a series of images painted by Deborah depicting a shadowy figure approaching the house.

Everyone is woken during the night by the ringing of Deborah’s old switchboard. They find Deborah in the attic, seemingly possessed and operating the switchboard while nude. Sarah realizes that her mother is trying to recall a specific memory related to the switchboard.

Day 43 – Gavin pulls the sound from the switchboard and finds audio of Deborah speaking in French about serpents, blood, and rivers. Harris tries convincing Sarah to send the documentary crew away, but Sarah refuses.

Sarah and the crew look through the switchboard records and find that the page is missing for 337, the account that Deborah was fixated on during her trance. Luis rubs charcoal on the next page to identify 337 as having belongs to Henri Desjardins, a local pediatrician suspected of murdering four girls before disappearing in the 1970s.

Sarah shows the crew a news documentary on Desjardins. Suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the documentary speculates that Desjardins sacrificed the young girls as part of a Monacan blood ritual to gain immortality, as the victims were found with serpentine carvings on their foreheads and rattlesnake venom in their blood. However, the ritual requires five women and only four victims were found, leading authorities to believe that Desjardins vanished before completing the ritual.

Sarah asks Deborah if she remembers Henri Desjardins. Deborah claims that Desjardins is dead before coughing up earthworms.

Day 45 – Harris continues acting strangely. Mia theorizes that Harris murdered Desjardins to save the young girls and Deborah possibly helped cover it up. Harris arrives at the house and shoots up the production van with his gun. Sheriff Linda Tweed takes Harris away, but in the wake of the ongoing incidents, Gavin decides to leave the project the following morning.

Day 47 – Deborah leads a little girl, Cara Minetti, from the pediatrics ward to an abandoned room in the hospital, but staff recovers Cara without a major incident. Sarah asks a priest about exorcising Deborah. Harris starts paying Deborah regular visits in the hospital.

Sarah and Mia meet with Dr. Ernst Schiffer, the professor of anthropology who appeared in the Desjardins documentary. Schiffer relays his suspicions that Deborah thinks she has become Desjardins.

Day 60 – At her request, Harris tries smothering Deborah in her hospital bed, but the television flies off the wall and incapacitates him. Harris confesses to Sarah that she was to be Desjardins fifth victim before Desjardins was buried alive. Sarah digs for the body in her mother’s garden, but finds only her mother’s hand spade. Sarah realizes that Desjardins is possessing Deborah and got to his body first.

Sarah, Mia, and Luis search the attic and find Desjardins’ remains. Before they can burn the bundle of bones in the fireplace, snakes emerge from the cloth sack. Sarah and Mia set the sack on fire. A fireball erupts and the trio flees the house. They see a man in the window as they flee outside.

Sarah is called to the hospital and brings the remains with her. Deborah kidnaps Cara again and kills a security guard who tries stopping her. Sarah tells Sheriff Tweed that her mother is taking Cara to Monacan Mill to complete Desjardins’ ritual.

Sarah, Mia, Luis, and the police find Deborah and Cara in the forest. Deborah spits venom on the officers who attempt to restrain her and escapes with the little girl. Luis escorts an injured officer down the mountain while Mia takes the camera.

Sheriff Tweed, Mia, and Sarah continue their pursuit of Deborah. Sheriff Tweed is killed. Sarah and Mia follow Deborah into a cave where they interrupt her as she begins swallowing Cara in a snakelike manner with an elongated jaw.

Sarah burns Desjardins’ remains in Deborah’s presence and seemingly breaks the possession. Cara is returned to the hospital. Deborah is arrested for kidnapping and murder, but ultimately declared mentally unfit to stand trial. In the aftermath, Cara’s leukemia unexpectedly goes into remission. While being interviewed for the local news, Cara hints that she has a plan for her future, intimating that Desjardins now inhabits her body.

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Review:

Whoever put up the grant money for medical student Mia Hu to make an Alzheimer’s documentary receives much more than bargained for when Mia coerces Sarah Logan and her elderly mother Deborah into participating.  What starts as an earnest look inside one family’s struggle with dementia turns into an even more harrowing ordeal as Deborah grows closer to unlocking a memory that might be better off forgotten.

“The Taking of Deborah Logan” double dips into the bottomless abyss of heavily-used horror ideas and comes up with “found footage” first-person and supernatural spirit possession as a two-tiered template for tired terror.  Or it would be under different circumstances of less creative stewardship.  Instead, director Adam Robitel and co-writer Gavin Heffernan douse their diving board in a quality cast, an imaginative story, and high caliber creeps to concoct an original take on both tropes.

Before weaving in serpent symbology, serial killings, and a ghastly twist, “The Taking of Deborah Logan” kicks off under the pretense of examining something that is a different kind of frightening.  Alzheimer’s has a tendency to spread its disease in myriad ways that affect more than just the afflicted.  And as Deborah’s descent into dementia moves from gradual to rapid, put-upon daughter Sarah finds that she doesn’t need a reminder to visit a bottle in between each hospital stay.

Jill Larson as Deborah and Anne Ramsay as Sarah could not be a more perfectly humming battery.  Daily trials facing the Logan ladies are accurately captured in relatable performances as characters who feel genuinely “lived in.”  The way their relationship is played and staged sets up mother and daughter as believable people whose connection existed before the camera turned on and persists when it is off.

Something else the production does to sell its setting is to toss out plenty of quick setups illustrating the Logans’ travails.  Deborah visits a plant nursery, fumbles with an umbrella, paints in her studio, and receives a sponge bath.  Sarah calls a friend, drinks on a porch swing, and has her blood pressure taken.  “The Taking” isn’t always furthering its story, but it is consistently focused on advancing its characterizations and furthering the illusion of being a true in-depth exposé on Deborah and her disease.  Many movies don’t take this kind of time or put in this kind of consideration to give their framework such authenticity.

Eventually, it becomes clear that Deborah’s increasingly maddening outbursts may have less to do with Alzheimer’s and more to do with a twisted secret in her past.  Specifics would be spoilers, but it suffices to say that the script puts an intriguing mystery behind its paranormal possession tale.  This is not your average devilish demon wreaking hellish havoc while looking for a human host cliché.  A clever origin story accompanies Deborah’s mania and the supporting players in her life are woven into its fabric very well.

One item to note is that snake-related mythology plays an important role.  Anyone fearful of slithering shapes will have double the reasons to find the film’s imagery terrifying and its climactic scene uniquely disturbing.

Something else deserving a mention is how the film’s characters are written to behave with rational thought.  When inexplicable events and increasingly deadly circumstances reach an intolerable point, one member of the documentary-making trio says enough is enough and abruptly exits, never to be seen again.  Common sense is hard to come by in horror films, especially in “found footage.”  Seeing someone hit the eject button for once is so refreshing that you mentally cheer the smart decision, even if the character is a bit of an ass.

Given all the intelligent behavior everyone generally exhibits, it is nearly comedic how routinely Deborah disappears during the night from both her bed at home and her bed at the hospital.  Yet no matter how often it happens, or how life-threatening her behavior becomes (for others as well as for her), no one ever thinks to put someone in the room with her or monitor her door to finally stop the supernatural somnambulism.

Now I’m nitpicking.  Above all, the film exhibits an exceptional level of quality in most respects.  With an above par screenplay, acting, and production values, “The Taking of Deborah Logan” is just different enough as “found footage” and just different enough as a demonic possession thriller to carve a memorable place for itself inside both subgenres.

Review Score:  85

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