Rapid Review: Absentia (2011)

“Don’t underestimate the attraction of oblivion… not ’til you’ve lived a little longer.”
– Tricia

SYNOPSIS: 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. – via IMDB

This was freaking excellent! Alright, so I read a review about it a while ago over at The IPC, and I just never got to it after that. After some extremely terrifying threats gentle nudging from the chief Chop, I figured it was time. Well, between him and Seth, they both got overly excited, and I was soon let into the fold of why. Absentia was a phenomenally beautiful movie that had so much going on in its favour. I never suffered from one minute of boredom, and the movie progressed at a perfect pace, and definitely gets to giving you the heebie jeebies. The score was fantastic, as it was really subtle, and complemented the movie on so many levels. It never took over, it was never too loud, it was ever-present, and it worked really well. It was haunting. The film itself was well acted, and for the life of me I can’t explain it, but I thought Detective Ryan Mallory’s partner Detective Lonergan, played by Justin Gordon, was a real cutie. I loved his glasses and how he chewed his gum. It was pretty hot. Don’t judge me monkeys, I said I couldn’t explain it. I have no idea why this movie scored so low on IMDB, I thought this was one of the best laid out and chilling movies in this type of genre. I was thrilled endlessly when I did not see the Big Bad (or more like not in its entirety), because as I have said before, that is where you usually lose me in a film. Give the atmosphere! This movie definitely had tons of that. The cast worked really well together, and brought all these scenes home with a beautiful resonance that is haunting and lingers long after the movie is over. It is a slow burn, but never does the film drag. It was also shot stunningly, and was incredibly atmospheric – eerie and chilling – perfect. I also really, really liked the way they presented the “theory” scenes – all the different scenarios. If you have not seen Absentia, like myself for some unknown reason before this, don’t waste time, get to it immediately! I have no idea why it took me this long to get to it, it is well worth the watch in every sense!