Absentia (2011)

A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.

Director:

Mike Flanagan

Writer:

Mike Flanagan

Stars:

Catherine Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine

12 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Catherine Parker	...	Callie (as Katie Parker)
Courtney Bell	...	Tricia
Dave Levine	...	Det. Mallory
Justin Gordon	...	Det. Lonergan
Morgan Peter Brown	...	Daniel
James Flanagan	...	Jamie Lambert
Doug Jones	...	Walter Lambert
Scott Graham	...	Psychiatrist
Connie Ventress	...	Ruth
Ian Gregory	...	Mitch
Mark Dumonski	...	Dr. Carpenter
Elisabeth Adwin	...	Lawyer
Erin Cipolletti	...	Uniformed Officer
Jonathan Fisher	...	Uniformed Officer
Brandon Valley Jones	...	Uniformed Officer

Storyline

Tricia's husband Daniel has been missing for seven years. Her younger sister Callie comes to live with her as the pressure mounts to finally declare him 'dead in absentia.' As Tricia sifts through the wreckage and tries to move on with her life, Callie finds herself drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house. As she begins to link it to other mysterious disappearances, it becomes clear that Daniel's presumed death might be anything but 'natural.' The ancient force at work in the tunnel might have set its sights on Callie and Tricia ... and Daniel might be suffering a fate far worse than death in its grasp.

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Plot Keywords:

tunnel | dead in absentia | grief | missing husband | sister sister relationship | 

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Taglines:

There are fates worse than death.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 April 2013 (Argentina)

Also Known As:

Nestali

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

FallBack Plan Productions, Blue Dot Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1 / (high definition)

Did You Know?

Trivia

(at around 36 mins) When Tricia and Callie go looking at apartments around the midpoint of the film, the first empty apartment they visit was actually the very apartment that director Mike Flanagan lived in (with four other people) when he moved to Los Angeles in 2003. It was a complete coincidence; the unit just happened to be vacant, and Flanagan had no idea they'd be filming there until they arrived on location that morning.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 5 mins) When Callie and Tricia are reading the news about the three missing students, the text of the columns corresponds to an article about the music group One Ring Zero (written by Susan Carpenter and published in "Los Angeles Times" in June 10, 2004).

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Quotes

Callie: Tricia, every culture in the history of our species has had mythology about creatures that spirit people away, that take them into some unreal underworld, enslave them, brutalize them...
Tricia: ...easier to embrace a nightmare than accept how stupid, how simple reality is some times...
Callie: The Scandinavian Vinder-folk Troll legends, the Egyptian insect demons, the Banshee, the Wendigo, there's a common thread to all of this...! They're just... finding... 'kay. Dark Matter. Tangential dimensions. If ...

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Soundtracks

Only Everything
Written and Performed by Beezle

User Reviews

Deeply Unsettling!

This somber yet deeply unsettling film managed to give me the willies even in the less-than-ideal Horrorhound Weekend screening.

Not soon after a pregnant woman (Katie Parker) declares her missing husband (Morgan Peter Brown) legally dead, she begins to having terrifying visions that hint that maybe she spoke too quickly. Writer/director Flanagan pulls off an incredible feat with this film. He manages to reinvent the ghost story, then takes it to an unexpected, even creepier place.

Don't be fooled by the show-burn pacing, because the almost-suffocating tension had me squirming in my seat, forgetting to breathe.

It's been almost a year since I've seen ABSENTIA. What haunts me most is not the disturbing visuals or even the deeply unsettling story line. It's the mood. When I simply think about the title, I hear in my head its stark, two-note funeral organ score and my chest wells up with emotions not usually incurred by watching a horror movie: grief, loss and perhaps the most terrifying of all…the dread of inevitability.

Toss in a pitch perfect cast, including a heart-wrenching cameo from the always delicious Doug Jones, and BOOM! You've got my favorite horror movie of 2011.