It
is always weird to watch horror movies that kind of, sort of carry pro-life
implications. After all, it is never the
“fetus” terrorized pregnant mothers worry about, but their “baby.” Poor Liz has already lost her daughter and it
wasn’t the dingos that took her. Somehow her seven month old baby just vanished
from within. Unfortunately, the unknown responsible
party probably still has her on their radar in Jimmy Loweree’s Absence (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Not
only have Liz and Rick lost their unborn child, everyone in their hometown
assumes she is just an attention seeking Susan Smith. To get away from the pressure, they head to
Rick’s isolated family cabin in the mountains.
For reasons that escape Rick, they also take along Liz’s immature
brother Evan. He intends to document
their getaway for his film school thesis, hoping it will show the world who the
real Liz really is. Okay, good
plan. That hardly sounds exploitative at
all. Thanks to Evan, it is time once
again for viewers to get their found footage on.
Of
course, the audience quickly suspects there is something not quite right going
on in the background. However, Evan is
real slow on the up-take and evidently never reviews the footage he shoots
while in the process of passing out.
To
their credit, Loweree and co-writer Jake Moreno really try to take the time to
establish their characters, unlike most found footage formula grinders. It is a nice instinct, but they
overcompensate. As a result, Absence feels like it is about 92%
percent set-up and 8% getting down to genre business.
Eric
Matheny brings a strong presence to the film as the protective Rick and he
develops a decent screen rapport with Erin Way’s convincingly fragile Liz. However, as Evan, Ryan Smale cranks up the
shtick to the point viewers will become nostalgic for Jaime Kennedy in the Scream franchise.
