ABSENTIA (2011) movie review

Absentia (2011) d. Flanagan, Mike

Seven years after the disappearance of her husband, grieving widow Courtney Bell is in the process of legally finalizing his “deceased in absentia” status when he begins to appear to her in increasingly disturbing visions. At the same time, her drifter sister Katie Parker has a number of strange encounters with individuals (including genre fave Doug Jones) in and around a creepy underpass tunnel. Writer/director Flanagan conjures an intriguing horror story with some serious smarts and well-conceived characters going for it, mostly balancing out any obstacles that accompany its clearly diminutive budget.

Fool's Views (4/30 – 5/6)

Hey kids,

Once again, I find myself completely blessed by the company I keep and their adventurous, idiosyncratic tastes in cinema. Several of the newer horror features were sneaked via peeking over Film Monthly.com regular Jason Coffman’s shoulder as he winnowed his way through a pile of screeners, while a couple more were among the score of flicks smuggled home courtesy of Belgian blood brother Gert Verbeeck. There was also a mixed bag crop multiplex harvesting contributing to the pile; not nearly as much ripe fruit this time out, but to everything there is a season, I suppose.

Also managed to polish off my HorrorHound articles and get those turned in, so that’s off the to-do plate. Next up, memorizing my lines for this summer’s production of Inherit the Wind with Festival Theatre and shooting a potentially nifty student film about the notorious “MK Ultra” experiments of the 1950s. Good times and never a dull moment. Keep you posted!

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!