Film Review: Absentia

Some bridges are meant to not be walked under because you don’t know what the troll that lives under it will do.  Absentia is a fairy tale very much like the story of the three goats who once walked over the bridge with a very nasty troll under it, but it’s also a tale of loss and where those people who just go missing may really go.  Get ready to be haunted.

Tricia lives a haunted life with the memory of her husband who disappeared one day and never came back.  Missing for seven years it’s now time for her to declare him dead “in absentia” and Tricia’s sister comes to visit to give her strength and help her through the process of emotionally dealing with the process of giving up on him coming home.  Haunted by strange visions of Daniel her husband things turn from strange to worse as the terror escalates and her sister becomes obsessed with a tunnel that seems to hold a lot more than just a short cut under a busy road.  Just what happened to Daniel and others who have gone missing and is Callie her sister in danger from whatever is lurking in the tunnel?

Absentia looks to scare the hell out of you; it messes with your mind and puts you right in the middle of the events that are to take place.  Tricia is mentally troubled by the leaving of her husband and you would think that her sister would be the calming influence in the household.  With a film that looks to mess with your mind though, this is never the case.  I found that all characters in this film that played an integral part to the plot all have their issues, even the police that are trying to help.  It’s the fragility of human nature that is manipulated by the supernatural elements of the tale that makes the story haunting.  You can almost feel the fact that there is a growing threat, all up until the point where it finally explodes and truths are revealed, or not depending on the interpretation of events.

What makes Absentia entertaining for the horror fan is that it is unrelenting.  Many more main stream horror films will look for a way to relieve some of the tension of the plot, and add some morality to the tale.  With Absentia this is not about redemption, it’s not about saving the world from the big bad monsters; it’s about a dark world where people don’t come back.  It’s hard to think about living in a world like that because it’s human nature to want things to be ok, for those missing people to come back and of course in real life that does not always happen.  Absentia looks to the reality of the missing people and gives a phantasmagorical reality where something is actually behind the disappearances, something that is so subtle and stealthy that it’s easier to believe in more realistic reasons instead of the strange.

As with some of the most effective horror tales Absentia works because it tends to look at the audience as people who are actually intelligent.  Instead of spoon feeding you the truth it likes to show you what is going on then create questions about what you actually saw.  In having to question everything you see based on the frailties of the characters that are put in front of you it leaves you confused but also haunted with not only the conclusions that are found, but also what it is you actually saw.  I’m sure Absentia will be seen as a classic of the genre and it fully deserves it.

Absentia is being released 9th July courtesy of Second Sight.

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