Absentia (2011) [REVIEW]

How frustrating is it to try to watch a movie on Netflix when you’ve never heard of it before? SUPER FRUSTRATING, OBVIOUSLY. There are a lot of choices available and most of them are more independent, which can sometimes be good, other times can be awful. Netflix kept recommending I check out Absentia and even claimed I was give it a really good rating. You really think you know me that well, do you Netflix? You think you really know anything about me?! Well, since I had time to kill and the movie was relatively short, I figured I could give it a shot. Worst came to worse, I would shut it off and just make fun of the movie for having such a cliché poster. A woman on the ground seemingly being pulled backwards? You’re not off to a good start, Absentia! Luckily, because of this film being a smaller release and not having to appeal to a large audience, the filmmakers were able to make a really weird movie about what might actually be happening to people who are kidnapped in a small neighborhood. I know I can be sarcastic at times, but I genuinely mean that I liked how weird this movie was.

What’s so creepy about this? He’s just making sure she does a good job praying!

It’s been almost a decade since Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) went missing, but that doesn’t stop his wife Tricia (Courtney Bell) from hanging up just a few more missing person posters. This isn’t to say that she hasn’t moved on from the disappearance, as she’s actually invited her younger sister Callie (Katie Parker) to stay with her for a little while as Tricia files to have Daniel reported dead. Tricia has even started seeing a new guy, who also happened to be the detective working on the case of her missing husband. While on a jog over a nearby footbridge, Callie has a strange encounter with a seemingly homeless man who acts surprised that he can be seen by her at all. Wanting to help him, she comes back to try to leave some food for him, but sees no trace of him. Shortly after leaving things behind for this homeless guy, Daniel shows up! Whoa! He’s wearing the same clothes he wore when he disappeared, he still has his wallet, and someone has clearly made sure that he was fed. Daniel isn’t around for long, but no one really believes Callie when she claims to have seen why he left because she has a history of drug use. Doing some research on the neighborhood, Callie finds that Daniel’s not even close to being the only person to have gone missing in this way. Are these strange, other-worldly events actually taking place or are they all part of the hallucinations of a former drug addict? How about you watch the damn movie and find out for yourself!

Oh yeah, just a totally normal-ass tunnel to go running through when you’re a small lady. Nothing weird could happen here!

I LOVE WHEN SHIT GETS WEIRD. I won’t go into all of the details of the possibilities of what’s been happening to some of these people, but there are insect demons and interdimensional travel and, well, I guess those are the two big things. But boy, those are wacky ass things to hypothesize. Luckily, and I would assume due in some small part to the smaller budget, you never really get too good of a look at exactly what’s happening anytime these creatures do show up. And even when they do, it’s in flashbacks, so you could see how the characters could dismiss all of Callie’s claims as being hallucinations. The cast was pretty decent and had a good chemistry together, which really helped sell the whole story. Seeing Tricia trying to move on while also being hesitant about leaving that part of her life behind her was really what helped drive the story forward in those segments where there weren’t insect demons around. The movie’s score was also pretty good at adding emotional weight to the dramatic sequences as well as the paranormal ones. I could see how this movie might be a stretch for some people to go along with and how weird it is, but I think they find the balance of questioning what really happened to these people that I could really enjoy the weirdness of it all. If you’re weird, which you probably are if you’re reading my reviews, then I think you might dig Absentia.

Wolfman Moon Scale