In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Saturday 2 March 2013

ABSENTIA [2011]

Writer/director Mike Flanagan's spooky low-budget thriller Absentia never would have happened without the success of a Kickstarter campaign.  
Flanagan does a great job at naturally revealing the main characters of the sisters and their troubled pasts.  With it's tight budget, the film could have easily crumbled but the strong writing and performances from Katie Parker & Courtney Bell hold it all together quite gracefully.  It made me think of a setting just on the edge of a David Lynch world with traces of a Guillermo Del Toro ghost story (me thinks the small role by Doug Jones isn't a coincidence). It's not necessarily scary but provides enough startling scenes and creepy atmosphere to fully absorb my attention, considering it had little to work with.

3 tunnels out of 5

2 comments:

Borderline said...

Heard about this awhile back in a few horror mags. They recommended it pretty highly for an indie horror. I rented it from Redbox but unfortunately the film was a disappointment. Especially what the evil presence turns out to be at the end.

cuckoo said...

I didn't know a thing about it so I had next to no expectations.

The ending was a little wobbly but I like the journey getting there enough to not mind too much.

My only real qualm with it is the bizarre opposing "spiritual beliefs" thing the sisters had. I don't really think it served much purpose to anything.