Absentia is a 2011 horror film written and directed by Mike Flanagan. It follows two sisters who begin to link a series of mysterious disappearances to an ominous tunnel near their house. The film’s principal photography phase was funded by way of the film’s project page on crowd funding website Kickstarter.
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 that might also be connected to other neighborhood disappearances. Soon it becomes clear that the ancient force at work in the tunnel might have set its sights on Callie and Tricia … and that Daniel might be suffering a fate far worse than death in its grasp.
“Central to the film’s success are the cast – naturalistic, convincing and far removed from the one-dimensional pretty people normally found in genre movies, the characters and their relationships seem entirely genuine. Worth mentioning too is the soundtrack – a low key, creepy, unsettling score that hints are horror without hammering the point home. Absentia is that rare thing – a restrained, realistic horror film dealing with supernatural fears. Leaving more questions than it answers, it’s a real gem that deserved better than a relatively unheralded straight-to-DVD release.”
David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening
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Categories: 2010s, American horror, haunting, supernatural
Tags: 2011, Absentia, award-winning, horror film, Mike Flanagan
