Movies
Absentia (VOD)
“Absentia, Mike Flanagan’s Kickstarter-funded horror flick, takes its time setting up a scary and somewhat realistic scenario dealing with uncertainty, loss and the psychological implications of being overwhelmed by both at the same time. And yet, it still finds room to competently squeeze in a supernatural element.”
People always say that the most common fear of the entire planet is that of the unknown. We’re afraid of what we don’t understand, how people could potentially react to things we do and whether or not we should take that next job offer; it has applied to everyone and everything at one time or another. Absentia, Mike Flanagan’s Kickstarter-funded horror flick, takes its time setting up a scary and somewhat realistic scenario dealing with uncertainty, loss and the psychological implications of being overwhelmed by both at the same time. And yet, it still finds room to competently squeeze in a supernatural element.
The film’s title is Latin for “in the absence”, and is a legal declaration stating that a person is considered deceased if their whereabouts have been unknown for an extended period of time. Such is the case with Tricia’s (Courtney Bell) husband, Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown), who’s been gone for almost seven years. Living everyday with false hopes of his return, she’s had a hard time coming to terms with her closure and abandonment issues. Helping her move on is her sister Callie (Katie Parker), a former junkie who needs a newfound sense of stability just as badly. Taking the final step needed to start her new life, she signs her husband’s death certificate and agrees to begin dating again. Well, that is until Daniel shows up later that evening, confused and afraid of his own shadow.
His reappearance shocks everyone, but is only as bizarre as the other frightening occurrences as of late, including a break-in and the brief appearance of another missing person (Doug Jones) in the crime-ridden tunnel down the street from the two sisters’ place.
The two leads share excellent chemistry, making their relationship seem natural, even if there are chunks of awkward dialogue that aren’t. The themes are explored competently and even though they run through the expected range of depressing emotions, it never feels like the film is being drawn out. The psychological and other-worldly elements are paired fairly well, giving the film a sense of palpable dread without the use of blood or much death and destruction. Absentia does use its fair share of jump scares, but the ghostly flashes feel more creepy than anything.
The low-budget nature of the film sadly hurts it in a few ways. There’s enough emotional exploration in the film to compensate for its physically limited scope, but shoddy lighting puts a damper on a few scenes, mostly involving the more fantastical elements. A creature – or concept of one, rather – makes its presence known early on in the film, but it’s hard to ascertain whether or not it’s left ambiguous in the shadows because of the lack of funds to properly conceptualize it onscreen or simply because that’s the way it was intended to be shown. There’s enough exposition for the audience to piece together what it is themselves, but the constant teasing leaves you wanting more. Its presence would’ve been better personified as actual darkness, rather than a muddy CGI-something lurking around in horribly under lit sequences.
Still, Absentia is a genuinely creepy melting pot of the supernatural and psychology. It has a fairly good amateur cast, a fun cameo by a genre favorite and few scenes that will make you stare around in the dark.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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