Hey folks, and welcome back to another exciting and mind-blowing Marvelous Videos episode. Put on your scare gear, because we have got one of the scariest movies for you today. The plot of this film has been written with such creativity and power that it will undoubtedly give you chills.
The supernatural horror film Absentia was released in 2011. Mike Flanagan, a horror film director, writer, and editor, directed, wrote, and edited the picture. FallBack Plan Productions did a fantastic job with the production. Because the film is titled Absentia, it is evident that it will be about someone who is dead.
Let us simply say the film is not going to be easy to make. Sure, there are fatalities involved, several deaths, but the manner in which they occur will astound you.
The pace of Absentia is slow and gloomy for the first half of the film, which adds a lot of worry and stress to the viewer. Tricia Riley is preparing to obtain answers concerning her husband Daniel’s mysterious absence. She finally takes the next step by declaring him dead in his absence.
Expect a new partner in her life because she is plainly pregnant at the time. Her sister Callie, who is recovering from drug addiction, comes in to support Tricia by being there for her and assisting her in going on with her life.
But wait, does not that sound rather simple? Let us tell you that it appears that Tricia has begun to hallucinate Daniel, and the narrative does not end there. Callie, too, appears to be experiencing unusual things. Is it simply due to her drug use, or is it genuine?
Now, without further ado, let us find out what is going on in Tricia’s house and head.
There are fates worse than death – Absentia (2011)
So, the film takes place in a small neighborhood of Glendale, California. In the opening scene, we find Tricia Riley, who is played by Courtney Bell, and she is changing the posters about her missing husband Daniel Riley. We find out that he went missing seven years ago, it looks like Tricia might finally be ready to accept that he may be dead by now. Daniel’s missing person case has a new detective on it, Detective Mallory, played by Dave Levine, who seems to be pretty close to Tricia at this point.
Now, Tricia’s sister, Callie Russel, who is played by Katie Parker, comes to live with her and, gifts her a children’s book, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, since Tricia is pregnant. You will soon find out that the tale from this book, actually ends up solving a lot of confusion in the film.
You might not know this, but Courtney Bell, who plays the role of Tricia, was in fact actually seven months pregnant during the production of the film. And also, you might remember Katie Parker from the Netflix horror series, The Haunting of Hill House. Well, what you don’t know is, actually, Absentia is Katie’s debut film.
Now, from the looks of it, Tricia is just about to have her husband’s case declared as death in absentia. At night, when Tricia tries to sleep, she starts having nightmares about Daniel, clearly because of her decision.
A rather strange and horrific incident then takes place when Callie has gone for a jog. She crosses a tunnel nearby, which gives off a super weird vibe, almost as if that tunnel is haunted. And we also find out that apparently lots of people and pets have gone missing in this very same neighborhood. So, maybe Daniel’s case was not just any ordinary missing person’s case?
It is not too late until we are sure that the tunnel definitely holds some kind of terror, because while returning, Callie spots a homeless man’s body in the tunnel. A totally horrific sight, because the man looked pale and wounded. Expecting him to be asleep, she tries to quietly walk away from there, when the man asks her whether she can see him or not. Now, that is something strange to ask, don’t you think?
Well, Callie tries to play it safe by telling him that she does not have any money or food or anything, but will come back for him with some food. The man has a terrified look on his face, he says that his name is Walter and just keeps yelling the word, “trade, trade”.
Soon after going home, Callie actually decides to get some food for Walter, but the tunnel is empty. No one can be seen inside, so she decides to leave the box outside. Back at home, Tricia is still having nightmares about Daniel, where he is trying to somehow harm her child. Oh! the film has just started getting interesting.
Callie finds a lot of small metal things outside the door of her house the next day. So, naturally, she assumes that Walter must have kept them there. She takes all the things to return them to him, but just as she is about to leave the metal objects outside the tunnel. Another weird-looking guy walks up towards the tunnel, who seems to be carrying a plastic bag with something moving inside it. He warns Callie and tells her not to leave it there, and then drops the plastic bag and goes away.
Now, we do see Callie doing drugs for the first time since she came to live with her sister. Could this be an indication of the weird things that are happening with her?
Well, the next day Tricia finally decides to go on a date with, none other than Detective Mallory. Just when the two of them step out of the house, Tricia hallucinates Daniel once again. But she tries her best to ignore it, only this time there is something different. It does not look like this Daniel has come from Tricia’s imagination because clearly, Detective Mallory is able to see him as well.
Now, this is the part where you take a gasp. Everyone is shocked at this discovery. Daniel almost looks like some kind of ghost with pale skin and shabby clothes and a strange appearance. He is taken to the hospital, and he asks the doctor whether he can see him. Remember that is the same thing Walter had asked Callie? So, could these incidents be related? Well, definitely looks like it.
After going home, the detectives tell Daniel that there are animal bones found in his stomach, so where had he exactly disappeared for all these years? Daniel clearly still seems scared, as if he will be taken away by something. Now, at night, Callie is doing drugs once again when Tricia goes outside to speak to Mallory. This is when the true horror begins.
Daniel is reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff and says to Callie that it looks nothing like what they say in this book. He also tells her that she should not have traded with it. Wow, okay that is strange that he knows about it! Then we hear kind of a creepy insect-like noise inside the house and Daniel knows -that it is here. In an instant with a rush, Callie starts screaming and runs to Tricia and Mallory and tells them that the creature has taken Daniel away. And we have him missing once again!
No one is ready to believe the things that Callie is saying because the house looks pretty clean and tidy and shows no signs of breaking in. They just assume that she has been seeing things because she is on drugs. But we have a fighter in Callie, who does her research about missing persons in order to prove her point to her sister.
And guess what, she finds information about Walter, who apparently had gone missing as well, that too near the very same tunnel. She also finds a lot of other similar missing cases that have one common element: the tunnel. Just then the unbelievable happens. The detectives find Walter’s dead body outside the tunnel. And they also arrest a guy who is carrying a dog inside a plastic bag. No doubt the missing dogs in the neighborhood were this guy’s fault. As it turns out, he is the son of Walter.
Now, back at home, Tricia and Callie hear the same noises once again and look like the creature has returned. It attacks Tricia and drags her towards the tunnel, and soon Tricia has ended up inside the walls of the tunnel. The detectives once again, don’t believe Callie’s story about Tricia as well.
The ending of the film has a twist that you would have definitely not expected.
Callie puts all of her research files in an envelope for Mallory and goes to the tunnel. She starts yelling, “trade, trade, trade”, and that is when she hears the creature’s voice. Oh!, this is as scary- as it can get. Looks like right about now, the creature gets out of the walls and Callie starts to run in order to leave the tunnel, but she does not make it outside.
Leaving just one shoe behind, Callie is now gone forever, inside the walls of the tunnel. After a lot of time when we see Mallory putting up posters of missing persons for Tricia and Callie, it looks like for a second, he saw Callie’s ghost outside the tunnel but when he looked closely– she was gone. And we find out that Callie can see Mallory walking away but he cannot see her. The creature’s limb is on Callie’s shoulder and blackout! The film ends with all of them, still missing.
With such a horrifyingly- exotic ending, let us now figure out the mystery of this tunnel.
What is in the tunnel?
Before we tell you what the tunnel is all about, you will be surprised to know that Mike Flanagan actually wrote the first draft of the screenplay in just two sittings.
In Absentia, even though Flanagan draws inspiration from a variety of legends about creatures that steal people from their homes, in order to torture them. His main source of inspiration is “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” a kid’s book that Flanagan has chosen to reimagine in this terrific horror tale.
So, what basically happens in this story is that three billy goats who are all named Gruff try to cross a bridge which is occupied by a troll, who wishes to kill and eat them. So, each brother trades their safe path for the promise that if the troll waits for the next brother to cross, the troll will be able to eat a larger and taller billy goat. And finally, when the eldest brother crosses, he is strong enough to challenge and beat the troll, and so he safely leads his younger brothers to greener pastures.
Now, in Flanagan’s attempt to create something similar with this story, he comes up with this tunnel as compared to the bridge. And of course, our creature could not be a troll, because it is more insect-like. And when the police were questioning Daniel about where was he for the past seven years, at first, all he could say was that he was underneath. It was only when Daniel was in Callie’s room, holding The Three Billy Goats Gruff book, made he actually speak up about the creature.
And so, before he is taken, he starts telling Callie that the creature is not exactly like the one they talk about in the book because it is more like an insect and it has skin like a silverfish. So, that is our proof right there! Daniel also tells us that the creature seems to be living in the spaces between, and he can hear it through the walls of his house.
Now, remember by leaving food for Walter outside the tunnel, Callie accidentally ended up trading with the creature. The reason why Daniel told Callie that he wished she hadn’t traded with it is that the creature apparently tends to fixate on, whoever it trades with. When he is saying all of this, Callie, is high at the time, so of course, she has difficulty in understanding what Daniel is desperately trying to reveal, but this scene does show us that Flanagan is trying to remake trolls as arachnid or insect-like monsters.
Flanagan never actually shows us the monster in its full form, and that just ends up being even more horrifying because it definitely makes our imaginations run wild about what the creature could look like. Despite this, the creature does seem to have fingers that look like spider’s legs.
Now, when Walter Lambert is found dead outside the tunnel, it would appear that now the creature wants someone to replace him with. Remember, Walter’s son Jamie brought animals to the tunnel. That was his attempt to trade for his father. So, looks like one way or another the creature did end up delivering his side of the bargain. Even though that was not what Jamie would have wanted.
So, we can say that through Callie’s accidental trade, they got to see Daniel’s back. But now that the creature has an empty spot, it has to fill it. And so, it chooses to take Tricia inside to its supposed other world within the walls. Towards the end, when Callie tries to trade herself for her sister, the plan does not work out as she would have hoped.
Instead, the creature decided to return the unborn baby and wanted to take Callie for itself as well. So, clearly, this creature might actually be using its brain a lot.
Even though Flanagan bases the monster in Absentia on troll folklore, he transforms the creature to be much more insectile and cruel. Flanagan also stresses the folklore harsh realities of bargaining with legendary creatures. The creature in the tunnel technically fulfills the trade wishes of all those who trade with it, but it chooses to do it in the worst possible ways.
Absentia’s horror stems in part from the fact that Absentia clearly does not have a happy ending like the one in the Three Billy Goats Gruff, rather it ends with the creature still at large, and unknown to almost everyone, despite Callie’s attempted sacrifice. And it would seem that the three goats in our film, Daniel, Tricia, and Callie, actually end up in the trap, laid out by this brilliant creature.
Absentia is not only one of the best horror creature features since 2000, it also leaves the horror fans in absolute mess and chaos because the characters that we end up sympathising for, never actually receive their happy ending or any form of escape. Well, with Mike Flanagan on board, what else can we expect but to be utterly speechless and terrified during the film. It is one of the perfect supernatural horror films to watch on any given night. Just turn off the lights and be prepared to get creeped out.
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