Absentia

Absentia

USA, 2011

In English

Directed by Mike Flanagan

Starring Courtney Bell and Katie Parker

Greetings, Scarers,

I've returned to a Maison choking on dust and mildew, moldering in disarray. Gauzy sheets obscure thoughts, and rotting boxes full of ideas cover the floors. Years have passed since I last visited, and the house is foreign and unwelcoming to me after my long, neglectful Absentia. My own recent state of being is reflected in this 2011 film by Mike Flanagan. Let's pull off the sheets and see if any ghoulies are hiding underneath.

Absentia is an ambitious little spectacle. A prodigal sister, Callie, allegedly swearing off drug use, arrives at the home of her sister, Tricia, who is filing for her husband's "death in absentia" seven years after he vanishes.

Both sisters have disconcerting encounters with mysterious figures- Tricia is haunted by the shade of her missing husband Daniel from every dark corner of her house, and Callie encounters several strangely behaving people in a mysterious underpass nearby. The house and sisters are soon under siege by odd forces, but do their supernatural adversaries exist in the real world, or are they simply the products of stress, depression, and hallucinogens?

The film disappoints only by coming so close to brilliance, and not quite delivering. Some excellent moments will surprise as the denouement approaches, and several fierce little twists in the end will force their tendrils into your mind, but the truly original nuggets become eventually root-canal bare due to classic "discovery" monologues that pander too much to an unsophisticated audience.

I award the movie 2/5 for gore, and 3/5 for scares- the latter because after I watched it, on my trip to the toilette, a shadowy figure crossing my path caused me palpitations as I swore and grabbed the wall, before I realized it was a cat, not a many-legged hellspawn.

Thus ends absentia. The wind howls through Maison near twilight as I pause to mop a cold sweat from my forehead. My neck prickles guiltily as I feel the glare from the other blackened boxes littering the floor. As my dread intensifies, I feel the grip of ancient terrors take hold me again, and I'm not sure if I'll be leaving Maison any time soon....