Absentia

To tell the truth I did not expect much and actually hesitated to enter it at all. Luckily I did. The creepy atmosphere was well achieved and both sisters acted brilliantly. After the first half the story clicked and we entered to more risky part. Fortunately the director managed to collect himself towards the end. Despite the low budget the package was nice entertainment indeed. Cannot wait to see more horror films from him.

A creepy atmosphere and a few good scares sucked me in for the first half. It's refreshing to nót have that 'LOUD SCARY SOUND' blaring when something creepy suddenly shows up. It almost falls apart after the halfway point but won me over again with a decent finale that might be unsatisfying for others. Some interesting ideas here, though you need to look past the limitations of the minimal budget.

Finally. A good horror film that DOESN'T show us the monster. I've grown really sick and tired of the in your face FX monster films of late. This is a great throw-back to the pre-CGI days when horror and acting, and not computers, where the star of the film.

If you plan on seeing this let me save you the time and effort by telling you absolutely nothing happens in this fucking movie. You have two boring basic fat chicks overacting and a boring fat cop talking about nothing. Then some student film level horror camera tricks happen. Then nothing happens in the end. This was about as scary and interesting as a trip to home depot. It tries to build atmosphere but fails miserably. Suburban L.A. is not scary at least set this up in the hood or something.

Develops some interesting themes, and it could probably be argued that the whole thing is allegorical. It all seems mostly well thought out, and it shows some effective style, although the shock elements are a little too repetitively deployed. The finale seems intended to convey the sense of a permanently unsettled world rather than delivering a more conventional explanation or grand reveal.

A character driven drama that pays attention more to the grounded fears, anxieties, paranoia, and loneliness of having someone close to you taken from you, than to the creature you didn't even expect it to have. If you go into this expecting a straight laced horror film, you'll definitely be disappointed.

Mmm. Lovecraftian. Not that bad.

Does exactly what a microbudget horror film should do: suggests more than it outright reveals. Props also to the acting of both the leads.

Good low budget horror with good acting and--even more important--good taste: none of that banging or loud sped-up beats or sinister music to tell you when to be scared--just blankness, followed by suspense, followed by quick brutal horror, and then back to blankness and suspense again. The second half of the third act drags a little, but it prepares us for the unsettling conclusion.

Good horror, with a few more bucks, I think Flanagan would have mad a great film.

I'm all for ambiguous endings when they have meaning, but this is one 90 minute cock tease that doesn't work as drama OR horror. Take a pass.

Interesting concept, didn't care all that much for the execution. The lead's performance was good.

A pretty amazing film for such a low-budget first movie. It does well with the atmosphere and the cinematography, but the writing does drag in places and I wasn't entirely on the edge of my seat, even if the concept was interesting. Also, one thing I've noticed recently with movies is that at times, it's just better to have silence instead of all the music, all the time. Don't really need the same, repeating theme dragging on and drowning out some of the speech when characters are just talking.

Ideas are clearly two steps ahead execution here, but already present Flanagan's melodramatic ways to convey trauma as a family/communal experience through horror. Little story about husband who disappears and returns years later, bringing home an entire history of cases like his and an evil entity that shows itself as a giant bug willing to randomly kidnap people from the suburbs. He would get better with more talented casts and bigger budgets. Loved the pessimistic, speculative ending.

As a drama it was pretty bland, as a horror film, it was very frustrating. It was almost an hour into the movie before anything even remotely interesting happened. The worst part was that it ends right when things started to get good, it's like the prologue you never wanted to a series you never got.

Absentia is a nice mainstream beginning for Mike Flanagan. What it lacks in budget, it more than makes up for with committed performing, absorbing atmosphere, nice camerawork and a unique and emotional story to anchor through the stranger moments.

Rather slow pace and not that scary. The indie feel can be quite refreshing and it feels grounded which makes it better.

58.2.

Lolwut

Very well done, and is only dragged down by the lack of any production value.

The ending was so, SO! bad, but everything leading up to it was pretty awesome. Way better than Oculus at least.

Clearly lynch-fluenced and does so much right. The metagoricals were pretty obvious so attempting mis-direction half-way seemed a waste of time. Had fun.

Leaving the monster off screen enabled this movie to be far more effective than it would have been otherwise. Although still I can't say for sure rather I would recommend this movie or not.

Absentia is more of a stretched-too-thin drama played out as a horror flick. The movie glimpses a monster under the muck of dialogue, but sadly the budget didn't allow such a monster to be seen on camera. Absentia has some good ideas, but sadly those ideas don't dazzle and stick in the viewers mind.

Absurd script with bad taste of music. I don't know who wrote it but if it came from Flanagan's mind he should not write anything else again, totally nonsense. The title ''Absentia'' is great tho.* Casting, Acting : 3 * Script : 1 * Directing, Aura : 2 * Ease of Viewing : 3 * Naked Eye : 2

Sometimes having no money means there is a problem, like not being able to form a script worth a crap, not being able to hire people who can act worth a crap. The only surprising thing here is not that this movie was made and it sucks, but that some people are to pompous to realize it.

Mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There is a real consistency in the work of Flanagan. Absentia + Oculus arguably = The Haunting of Hill House, really.

This movie was awful... I have no idea why people are rating this so high.

Folks, don't make a monster movie unless you have the budget to include an actual monster. Absentia has this indie drama vibe that you can really tell it's falling back on, and after a few "implied" scares, it becomes obvious that the film has nothing at all up its sleeve and its subsequent tries have no impact.