Very well executed

Am I Missing Something?

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

It is amazing what a decent plot, managed by a creative and imaginative writer+director can do with minimal resources. Fine camera-work, amateurish if any, can pull a mysterious and eerie ambiance out of a boring urban area. Two homely and rather overweight women (one pregnant) plus a sprinkling of the most ordinary actors you can put together, who look like anyone you might see on a city bus, through decent direction and personal acting effort, manage to give you a spine chilling show that leave you with goose bumps for a long spell after the movie end.Kudos to director/writer Mike Flannagan for a fine job! Wish Hollywood could crank these quality of films with their vast resources.

SO...I don't know how many of you have had the misfortune of watching this movie, but if you haven't...DON'T! If you have, I am wondering how you felt about this film. I understand that the dynamic of things are changing these days, but c'mon. This movie had NO story line, minimal dialogue, and there was no who, what, where, when, why facts answered even after throwing 2 hours my life away. I know that some may truly enjoy this element of Absentia because its open ended and you can put together your own ending and story line, but I look at it as being lazy. I mean, if this is the way that movies are going to be made now a days, my untalented ass may as well thrown some low budget crap together and trick you all in to watching it while giving me your money to do so at the same time. There was NOTHING scary about this movie. NOTHING was suspenseful. I guess maybe it DOES contain mystery but only because it is difficult...almost IMPOSSIBLE to understand. This movie gets a 2 from me only because when the 2 ladies in this film DID act, they did it wholeheartedly and their crying was believable.

This film is about missing people. While there are several plausible explanations for most disappearances, there are a few that just sound too unnatural... So, what if some evil force is stalking, hiding itself where we can't look, like just behind the corners? And what a better corner is there to hide than on the edges of our limited three-dimensions (or four, if one wants to count in the time)? This is not a new story, with examples coming from the Asian dream-eaters to H.P. Lovecraft's inter-dimensional terrors and the contemporary cenobites, but amazingly, there are not many good pieces exploring this subject, at least, not on the horror shelves. There are many fantasies, like "Labyrinth" and "The NeverEnding Story", comedies, like "Ghostbusters" and "Beetlejuice", science fictions, like "Doctor Who" series and "Event Horizon", and even some thriller/dramas, like "The Adjustment Bureau". On the horror genre, there are films like "Phantasm" and "Poltergeist", the latter actually more entertaining than scaring, and a lot of not so successful ones, like the "Hellraiser" series, which carry some good new ideas, but doesn't manage to "raise hell".In "Absentia", the actors start cold, the first lines sounding very rehearsed and unconvincing, like people on reality shows pretending there are no cameras on them. As the film goes on, though, they gear up to a more steady pace.Shot using photographic cameras 5D Mark II and EOS Rebel T2i, "Absentia" isn't the kind of film meant to jump scare (although there are some), it's more on the psychological build up, what it does well. The short depth-of-field given by the cameras intensify the dramatic visions of "evil". The plot could be more elaborated, having a lot of drama filling in-between action scenes, making it less enjoyable for those looking for more scares.

It's unusual to see a horror/supernatural movie that isn't packed full of clichés, but Absentia makes a good attempt to be something a little different. The plot is simple enough: a woman has her husband declared legally dead after an unexplained absence of seven years, but then he mysteriously reappears, apparently with little memory of events. Unfortunately, he seems to have brought something nasty back with him.What makes the movie different, is that the 'nasty' -- whatever it is -- is seldom apparent. We get just the occasional glimpse. It seems to be associated with a spooky tunnel, but in ways that never become clear. In fact, at the risk of being a spoiler, I think I've just summarized the entire movie.This isn't an action movie, and it has few outright scary moments. Very little happens that is out of the ordinary -- most of the story focuses on the odd, rather strained relationships between the central characters, all of whom have things to hide and may -- or may not -- know more about events than they let on.From start to finish there is an atmosphere of brooding menace, which becomes increasingly intense as the story unfolds. Everybody is scared of something, although it is never made particularly explicit whether the nasty thing actually exists in objective terms, or is just a figment of one or other characters' overwrought imagination.Unlike many modern horror movies, this one does actually have a proper ending; that is, events come to a clear conclusion. It's not a conclusion that makes a whole heap of sense, in narrative terms, but at least I didn't get the impression that the film-makers just carried on until they had enough stuff for a movie, and then went home.All in all, one of the best horror/supernatural movies I've seen for a long time.