Delayed Reaction: Absentia

The Pitch: One step closer to understanding the filmmaker behind Oculus and The Haunting of Hill House.

A woman's husband, who has been missing for seven years, mysteriously returns and  something clearly isn't right with him.

Wow. You can really trace a throughline in Mike Flannagan's career. In 2006, he made a short film called Oculus: Chapter 3. He adapted that in the feature film Oculus in 2013 (one of my three favorite horror movies). Before he could make Oculus, he got attention for Absentia in 2011, which he funded through Kickstarter. Absentia is about a mysterious location that's been causing people to disappear since the beginning of recorded history. Whenever anyone gets close enough to solving the mystery of this location, something bad happens to them. By the end, the audience is offered numerous plausible explanations for everything; reasons that aren't supernatural. Oculus is about a mysterious mirror that has caused people to die suspiciously for over a hundred years. No one knows where the mirror came from. Even when people try to outsmart the mirror, it comes out ahead and offers outsiders explanations that, while extreme, aren't supernatural. Fast forward a couple year to The Haunting of Hill House. Even though that's based on an per-existing book, it's still about people battling this inanimate object (a house) that causes all sorts of death and tragedy but only leaves behind perfectly explainable evidence. It's not hard to see his recurring themes. He's big on unprovable phenomena that people try to control rather than defeat (see also, Before I Wake), ancient, mysterious, seemingly harmless evils (see also, Ouija: Origin of Evil), and people backed into a corner trying to survive using their wits (see also, Hush, Gerald's Game). I love the fact that you can actually trace how he's working through different ideas over time. His brand of horror relies on skeptical people who have their understanding of things challenged. He has smart horror protagonists, for the lack of better word.

Absentia is pretty rough. It's repeatedly let down by lack of a budget. Nearly every element of the movie - the acting, the photography, the production design - is about 70% as good as it needs to be to really work. It's easy to see how this led to more work for Flannagan though. It's well written (by Flannagan). The story is open-ended and mysterious. He writes good characters and doesn't over-explain. It's well edited. I love horror directors that know how to edit too. It's an under-appreciated element of good horror; knowing when and how to cut something for maximum effect and tension. It's always clear that he knows what he wants out of a scene. He just doesn't have the resources to pull it off.

The movie really feels like a Rosetta Stone for Flannagan's filmography. Ideally, I could've started with this movie and moved sequentially, but I can still appreciate it now as a stepping-stone. A lot of horror movies are great despite being rough (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity). Those movies work expertly around their limitations. Absentia doesn't, and that's where it comes up short.

Non-judgmental thought: I don't think Mike Flannagan has a found footage movie in him. His strengths don't mesh with that style. He's an editor and needs good actors.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend