Absentia

This is one of those movies where you watch it, and you’re going to have a reaction to it, and if it’s positive, you still may not be able to say you enjoy it. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just … it’s a raw movie, in a lot of ways. The plot is simple enough. 7 years after Tricia’s husband, Daniel, disappeared without trace, she’s filing to have him declared dead in absentia. The night she files, he shows up, disheveled, freaked out, and mumbling crazy stuff. That’s as much of the story as I want to give. It’s a very slow burn movie about suspense and emotion and dread and moving on and being held back. The movie was funded by crowd funding to the tune of $70K, and it shows in both good and bad ways. The bad ways are that the direction is plain and can look a little too much like a home movie. It was edited with the kind of software YouTubers use, and it feels that way too. There’s a very basic, inexpensive, working-within-our-limitations feel to it. Sometimes, it feels like it’s choking the movie. You want to see more, you want the movie to have more of a visual palate, you want it to not feel so much like a bottle episode of a TV show. But it also works in the movie’s favor. The limited range of scenery really pushes the focus onto character development. Tricia and her sister Callie feel like real people, and not just “real people” in the way of a movie. There’s a gritty, earthy normalcy to them. Their little corner of the world feels like a normal corner of the world. It all has a down to earth feel to it. And the small budget means that, when tension has to be built, it’s done so through mood and atmosphere, and this movie is DRIPPING with that. Mike Flanagan, who directed Oculus and the excellent Hush, knows how to ratchet up the dread and the tension, and because he can’t give you flashy CGI or practical effects, he uses acting, lighting, the score, and the tone to do it. It’s masterful work. But it’s also a depressing movie, and the final 30 minutes are unrelentingly harrowing. This is not a movie you watch for a thrill ride that builds to an exciting climax. This story ends the only way it could, but not everybody will be pleased (there’s a visual clue in a comic book someone is reading at one point that I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it’s on the nose). If you don’t like it when movies don’t build to a crescendo and instead just play out, or if you need a happily ever after ending, just don’t bother. I’m glad I saw this. I don’t know if I’d watch it again, as it’s a heavy one. This isn’t a date night movie. But it’s well done and hides it’s imperfections well enough. Not really horror, but definitely tense and suspenseful.