Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has made quite a career for himself in horror, having now racked up an impressive filmography as a writer, director, editor, and producer. His credits include a pair of well-received Stephen King adaptations and some excellent single-season television shows. He began, like many other artists, from humble beginnings. Flanagan’s first feature-length film was Absentia, which had a budget of around $70,000, and was partially funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Absentia follows sisters Tricia and Callie (Courtney Bell and Katie Parker). Life hasn’t been easy for the two. Callie, in desperate need of stability, is a recovering drug addict who has come to stay with Tricia in Glendale, California. Meanwhile, Tricia is married, but her husband, Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown), has been missing for the past seven years, and it’s time to have him declared dead in absentia so she can collect on his life insurance policy, get the creditors off her back, and move on with her life. Oh, she’s also into her third trimester, the father being Detective Mallory (Dave Levine), who has been handling her husband’s missing persons case. That is some drama.
But, this is a horror flick, and not a Lifetime movie. Creepy shenanigans have been plaguing the neighborhood. People and pets go missing with disturbing regularity, all centered around a pedestrian underpass beneath the Ventura Freeway (located here). It turns out the tunnel is home to some creature that can take living things and inanimate objects into a hidden netherworld. There, it abuses the people it has kidnapped, and keeps them alive on animal scraps. Wouldn’t you know, the day after Daniel’s 
death certificate arrives, and Tricia has decided to pursue a real relationship with Detective Mallory, Daniel staggers out of the underpass, bloody, pale, and malnourished.
What seems like a miracle turns out to be anything but. The creature pursues Daniel, putting both Tricia and Callie in danger.
Flanagan came up with a hell of an idea for this movie. Being dragged into the walls by a monster that may or may not be supernatural is creepy stuff. The atmosphere of the film is oppressive, and the way the plot plays out is believable, despite the unbelievable premise. What holds this film back from greater glory is the humble nature of its production. Seventy grand doesn’t buy much in the movie business, and that’s shown mostly in the cast.
It’s not that the cast is filled with a bunch of unknowns. Unlike most movies made for this little money, much of the cast has their headshots on IMDb, instead of the generic avatar that paints one, fairly or unfairly, as a film nobody. The point is, these folk have careers. But, one can’t help but notice the age range of the cast is narrow. It feels like everyone involved was a personal friend of Flanagan’s and he convinced them to be in his movie.
Many scenes feel like first or early takes, which is a necessary restriction for films made on the cheap. One will need to get used to the same musical riff repeated over and over again throughout the film, again a function of budget. As is the limited location work, and, amusingly, a scene where Tricia’s living room gets trashed, but nothing is broken. Over and over again, I was struck by how much this film felt like a first draft, or Flanagan’s audition to the studios (as evidenced by the fourteen film festival badges on Absentia’s poster). There is a fine horror flick lurking within this film. Flanagan didn’t get to make that, as he moved on to bigger and better things. What viewers are left with is a film that is somewhat frustrating in its unfulfilled potential, but still an interesting watch.