Absence (I) (2013) User Reviews

Fetal Abductions are a Real Thing...

[GirishGowda · 4/10 · 11 September 2013]

Expectant mother Liz (Erin Way) wakes to find her nearly-to-term pregnancy has disappeared overnight. When doctors can find no medical explanation for the loss, police treat Liz and her husband Rick (Eric Matheny) as prime suspects in what has now become a missing child case or an inconceivable late stage abortion. Only Rick and Liz's brother, Evan (Ryan Smale) trust her version of events. As word spreads, the young couple is subjected to the unwanted attention of the police and prying neighbors. Evan feels for his sister and, as a film student, begins documenting her story. Even though he can't prove Liz's innocence, he sets out to tell her side of what happened and to set the record straight. To relieve some of Liz's grief, Rick and Evan take her on a vacation to the mountains. Things begin to settle down and Liz's spirits even start to improve. But as Evan continues documenting their vacation, unusual patterns arise. Liz still has no real answers for the disappearance of her baby despite his interviews and questions. When the trip spins out of control they realize that whatever happened with Liz and her baby isn't over.

Interviewing the victim and getting their perspective was a good idea for a found footage movie. But, when you start running around in the middle of the night with the camera in hand, that's when things start to feel a bit contrived. When I first saw the movie a few weeks back, I was so angry. This movie had so much potential and the makers ruined it. The movie starts off slowly which was perfectly good in my opinion, but there's no payoff in the end, nor is the movie very suspenseful to be honest. The suspense was sprinkled here and there, but wasn't sustained throughout. When the time came for the tension to build and for a worthwhile ending, they blew it big time. The brother gets on your nerves at times with his 'acting' and words, but he's being like that for the sister which is understandable and makes it a bit less irritating. Neither Megan's nor the town's weirdness were explored which was disappointing, to say the least. The acting by Erin Way is very good though and her subdued struggle still burns in my memory. That is the only reason this movie gets any points and feels like it wasn't a complete waste of time. I also did learn that fetal abduction was a real thing, kinda...

4/10

don't expect chainsaws cutting through faces

[kostas6565 · 3/10 · 11 September 2013]

through most of the movie, i had the feeling that i was zapping between different channels showing:

a) a family reality with 4 participants: sister , brother , sister's husband and brother's girlfriend (most of the time i watched this channel)

b) a seven months pregnant who mysteriously wake up without being pregnant anymore

c) video definition of a douchebag (a low intelligence man behaving ridiculously who believes that he is the center of the world). he belonged in the category of those who put a camera in your face and speak in the microphone from the moment they wake

d) something between paranormal activity(1,2,3,4,5) and blair witch project(1999) (i didn't watch this channel for more than 15 minutes)

so don't expect chainsaws cutting (slowly but surely) through faces, legs etc (no stabbing and the only drop of blood that comes to sight is when the ex-pregnant nose bleeds)

don't expect to laugh only in the first minutes (the douchebag can't stop messing with his friends throughout the film)

so if you are in a mood of saying 'not much horror for me today' and you want to go to the rest room while the movie is playing and you can laugh watching a prick annoying and filming his company and also want something paranormal in the horizon then you have a movie to watch.

I hate the brother!

[shaylad2055 · 5/10 · 30 April 2019]

The movie was okay and had a lot of potential. The brother is SUPER annoying and sometimes makes it hard to watch. I almost stopped watching because of him. The lead actress is great. I think the movie would have been better without the brother. There are times you wonder WHY IS HE STILL FILMING and a couple things are left unanswered... Other than that I think it's worth a watch if you can sit through the annoying brother.

The whole movie is a slow start, going nowhere

[blahsblahjunk · 1/10 · 16 September 2013]

**Contains Spoilers**

It's a well known adage that the scariest part of a movie is what you DON'T show. While this can be true, a lot of filmmakers lately (particularly ones with low budgets) take this to mean that fuzzy footage and static is just as scary as an actual scary image. If you're the type who gets chills when TV snow appears on your home movies, you'll love this movie. Everyone else: give it a miss.

I'll agree that the scariest part of the story is what you don't know, but for there to be a scariest PART of a story, there must first BE a story. What we have here is lazy storytelling. It starts good, with the missing baby. Then there's 45 minutes of completely band vacation footage that doesn't progress the storyline at all. Then there's about 10 minutes of interesting events which, following a good plot construct, should lead to a climax. But there is no climax. Or conflict for that matter. There's just leading up, followed by an end. And when I say end, I don't mean a story ending or a resolution. The credits just start rolling.

If you absolutely NEED to know what happens, here's a rundown of events:

"Doctors are baffled when a young expectant mother wakes to find her nearly to term pregnancy has disappeared overnight."

First of all, know that her pregnancy has absolutely zilch to do with the movie. The movie opens in the hospital, showing the young mother crying and a nurse speaking angrily to some cops. The grief from this event is what prompts the young couple (and the woman's brother) to take a nice relaxing trip to a summer cabin.

I say relaxing almost sarcastically here, because from the absolute start, the brother is making stupid comments, mostly directed at the husband. I guess he thinks that the way to make his sister feel better is to constantly nag her husband about everything from his car to his shoes. The nagging is constant, it's not clever or witty, and at one point he even goes so far to tell her that her husband will leave her to become an alcoholic. All of this "jokingly."

Over the course of the next hour, the three meet a local girl, and there is a montage of vacation scenes. They play scrabble, go swimming, drive through town, and have a cookout. This occurs on different days. The only creepiness is shown at night when:

The camera turns itself on at night revealing lights/screaming that no one seems to remember in the morning.

The vacationers notice a bright light off in the woods that they idly remark on before completely disregarding.

The wife gets nosebleeds. Two of them. One's pretty bad.

That's it.

In the last 10 minutes, you get all the action. Once again, the brother awakens at night to hear screaming and lights from his sister's room. He runs into the hallway and bangs on their door before falling unconscious (somehow turning the camera off.) The next day, no one remembers anything and they have a cookout. The wife falls lethargic and when her husband goes to comfort her, he notices a lump the size of a thumb running up and down her arm, under the skin. The local girl becomes terrified and runs away.

The husband insists that they visit a hospital, but the wife says she is tired, so they all just go to sleep. (?????) That night, the lights and screaming come again, but this time the brother manages to knock down the door. He sees the husband hanging suspended in the air above the bed. As soon as the door comes down, the husband drops, hitting the bed frame. At this point, everyone falls unconscious again and there are no focused shots for the rest of the movie.

They wake up in the morning to discover the wife is missing. They drive all over town to look for her. They don't find her, but they do find their local friend. For some reason the camera focuses on her feet as she insists that she hasn't seen the wife and that she's sorry. It is clear she knows something terrifying, but she says nothing.

The brother angrily gets back into the car and they drive off into the wilderness, eventually finding the wife in a pine barren. She appears catatonic. They decide to drive home, for some reason still not seeing the need to visit a hospital. As they drive home, night falls. A light suddenly appears in front of the car. The husband gets out and fires some shots into the darkness. A few seconds later, he is thrown into the windshield which shatters, destroying all visibility. The camera is now filming in total darkness. You can see vague shapes in between bouts of static. For a second, you can see the sister being apparently pulled from the car. Then there is a shot of the car from above. The camera then falls to the ground, and a couple seconds later, the brother lands beside it, dead. That's the end of the movie.

So, what happened to the baby? Or the mother? Why take a 7 month old fetus? Why not wait 2 more months? Are the aliens following them? If so, why does the local girl seem to know something? The baby was taken from a family in a town hours away from where she lives. Why can the aliens erase memory, but haven't figured out how to erase a video camera? Why start the film with a missing baby if the baby has nothing to do with the plot and never re-appears? These are the parts of the non-story that you don't know.

Blair Witch meets alien abduction, done badly.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 14 October 2013]

Liz was seven months pregnant. She wakes up one morning not pregnant. Doctors had no explanation for this other than 'you killed it.' The police interrogate them, check their plumbing for signs of disposal of the fetus, have them watched, but found no sufficient evidence early on.

Evan documents Liz's recovery during a trip taken after the 'abduction.' They stay at Rick's aunt's house, where he used to visit as a boy. Evan is incredibly obnoxious, and his camera work is poor. Rick and Evan are always about that close to a fist fight. Evan even goes out of his way to tick off strangers.

One evening while irritating Rick and Liz, Evan's attention wanders to a light in the sky with accompanying hum. Shortly thereafter, Liz gets another nosebleed. Rick and Evan talk about the progress of the investigation while Liz rests. Rick talks about how he built a crib for the baby, filled it with toys and the like. He's deeply discouraged that anyone would think that the baby was unwanted.

Evan meets Meg, and the four of them spend time together. When Meg and Evan go driving, they see an odd light in the distance; the car loses some functions. Rick returns some of Evan's nonsense by referring to this as Sasquatch and the like.

The childhood story about Liz letting the younger Evan take the blame for burning the house was possibly a clue. Their parents died about five years later when Evan was 12, and Liz helped raising him. During the subsequent night, the odd light appears in the room where Liz and Rick were sleeping. Evan tries to get in but could not.

The next morning, Meg comes by. The funny light episode seems to be completely lost.

Then Liz has a moving lump in her right arm. The symptom subsides, so they decide to go to urgent care in the morning. Later that night, the odd light comes again. Liz is gone in the morning. Evan evidently has the camera on, but neither frames nor focuses it nor even points it.

Rick and Evan go to the nearby town. Evan talks to Meg, who has little interest in helping find Liz. Of course, Evan's needy, demanding approach did not help things along. They look in the woods near the lake where they had recently spent time with Liz. Still nothing.

They find her after a short car ride. She's not in good shape, and coughs up some blood. They try going back to Rick's aunt's house, but Liz coughs up more blood and they take her to urgent care.

They don't get there. It's completely clear that this is yet another 'found film' fake out, not a directed, edited, and scripted movie.

------Scores------

Cinematography: 2/10 Shaky camera, focus problems, bad framing. There are stretches where the camera is just pointed at car upholstery.

Sound: 7/10 Better than the visuals.

Acting: 3/10 Ryan Smale is just terrible. Erin Way, Eric Matheny, and Stephanie Schmolz were better.

Screenplay: 2/10 Lots of filler in this one. Watching Evan drink beer or voiding his bladder or doing bad impressions? Who cares? Is there ever a resolution, or are we just supposed to rely on movie clichés to fill in the voids?

the worst handy-cam film ever

[markpeters-785-896050 · 1/10 · 6 September 2013]

I read the reviews and waited for the film to pick up but all it did was p**s me off. The slow pace did allow you to connect to the characters but as I waited for the tension to build the film ended. don't waste your time with this rubbish movie, you'll have more fun staring at the wall. I recently watch the conjuring and truly enjoyed that. I saw this recommended and hoped for similar thrills but feel I wasted over an hour of my life. I hate to write negative reviews but I hope to save you the same fate as me and would suggest to avoid at all cost. There were a couple of points when I thought it might pick up so I hung in there until the end and even after the credits just in case, but nope.... it was p**s poor to the end

Hardly a Horror or Thriller

[ikeybabe · 1/10 · 24 September 2013]

This movie was 95 percent boring, monotonous, tedious nothingness. There were stupid jokes, juvenile stunts and blase dialogue. This movie was 3 percent blurry images and fuzzy blue lights and some screaming. Then there was 2 percent of something somewhat close to interesting. And that 2 percent wasn't worth getting through the 98 percent of muck. Overall, it's a waste of time. *Spoiler* The fact that there is zero explanation as to how this woman lost her unborn baby is ridiculous - was it cut from her or simply evaporated from her belly? The whole hour and change was a huge waste of time. The first person who reviewed this film here on IMDb must have been part of the crew or cast or is simply simple. Go elsewhere for some entertainment.

Another bad one...

[lis_0310 · 1/10 · 1 April 2015]

Wow!!! That was bad! I'm always looking for horror movies and I watch pretty much anything that is released, which usually leads me to disappointment. This particular "movie" was worst than usual however. I really don't understand why we are supposed to get a headache while watching something that should be entertaining; I (anyone) could have made a better job with a cellphone camera. The "story" was just pathetic and the characters annoying. I'm not very creative, I give you that; but given that it's their job, they should be, at least, a bit good at coming up with an interesting plot. This sucked!!!

Avoid this atrocity..take a nap instead.

nothing original

[seborig · 7/10 · 29 July 2015]

In 15-20 first minutes you can see where this movie goes to and what is it about. Script was so similar with so many movies, that i don't know where do i start from to compare.Although there was some good casual scenes that support gradually the plot of the story. lighting and direction was i guess OK because it suppose to be pseudo- documentary movie,if i have to vote only for these two i will vote 4 cause when the lighting was good the direction wasn't and reversed. HOWEVER i put a 7 because i love the acting.The actresses play so natural like i felt sometimes that i was actually part of their group. I think that if you liked the trailer you will like the movie too,even if it seems to me that it was spoiler.

So Pointless

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 31 October 2014]

Doctors are baffled when an expectant mother wakes to find her nearly-to-term pregnancy apparently disappear overnight. Police investigate the situation as a missing child, and only her husband and brother trust her version of events.

The movie starts out with some of the most wild shaky cam ever put on film, and then turns into an amateur documentary complete with the wonderful "found footage" style of camera-work. Each time this technique is used it gets more and more irritating, and by 2013 the creators of these films should know better than to use it unless they have a darn good reason.

Perhaps this film is called "Absence" because it has an almost complete absence of horror elements. Most of the movie is just footage of flirting, drinking, hanging out. Maybe ten minutes really involves anything scary or supernatural. One could argue this effectively builds the characters, but it does this at the expense of any narrative a viewer would give a hoot about.

Everything you can expect from a found footage movie and more

[DeaditeGaz92 · 8/10 · 12 August 2013]

First of all before I begin this review, I would like to say I watched this movie expecting an average found footage movie and weren't expecting an amazing blockbuster movie so if you're a fan of the found footage sub genre then check it out, if not then stay far away.

With the recent wave of alien movies hitting our shelves/big screens (such as Unaware, Dark Skies, Tape #4 in V/H/S/2, etc.) I was excited to see what directors could offer us next. Here we have Absence, a brand new immediately underrated creepy and suspenseful found footage sci-fi horror movie, before I say anymore, here's a quick rundown on the movie's plot:

The movie begins with Evan, a camera obsessed student filming his sister, Liz and her husband, Rick in hospital where they have just been told that the previously pregnant Liz is no longer pregnant which soon becomes a missing child case which leads to Liz and Rick being the talk of the town and being hassled by the media, etc. so to get a break from it all they decide to go to Rick's family cabin in the woods for a while and it's from this point on where things start to get really weird...

After the hospital scene at the start of the film it does become very slow moving which in my opinion is a good thing because whilst the film is at a slow pace it gives you time to get to know the characters better so when the bad stuff does happen to them you'll care more about whether they live/die. It also adds a great sense of realism to the film when you see them cooking, playing pranks on each other, etc.

When the scares do eventually show up it's worth the wait as this film has some very creepy moments, one in particular with a visitor at the back door at night time, which is a very quick but effective scare. I don't want to spoil anything but as with most found footage endings the ending is also very effective and the least I say about it the better.

Overall I've gave this movie a solid 9 out of 10 because I thought it was a great found footage scare-fest that fans of movies such as Paranormal Activity, Unaware, The Fourth Kind and Dark Skies will enjoy, however, as I mentioned at the start of the review, if you hate found footage films and are expecting a blockbuster movie with amazing special effects and amazing actors then stay clear, this isn't for you.

Stop with stupid found footage lameness

[davedukart · 2/10 · 29 March 2024]

I hated Blair Witch. I totally hate found footage movies. It' s the absolute bottom of the barrel for movie plots. Just plain lazy.

If anybody EVER sat there, filming everything when catastrophic events were happening, I'd take their camera away from them, put it in a pillow case and beat them to death with it.

Such an unreal plot, inane, weak, and lame.

Here's EVERY found footage movie...(Screaming)...(Shaking camera)...running...grunts....(more shaking camera).

Stop it already.

Don't be lazy. Put some effort into the movie for Pete's sake.

Here's an idea. If you can't think of a good story, can't find people who can act, and have only $5 for a budget DON'T MAKE A MOVIE.

Seriously

[tavntris · 1/10 · 9 October 2018]

Everyone is saying this movie is so good. I watched it because of the reviews. This was one of the worst movies I habe ever seen. It was not scary and the ending was stupid. I can't believe I wasted my time.

Slow but still worth a watch if you're bored

[horrorfanofficial-08198 · 3/10 · 22 June 2016]

Absence is pretty much absent of any real excitement.

Absence begins with Evan, a young film student who is documenting his sister Liz and her husband, whose 7-month old baby fetus mysteriously vanished from his sisters body.

The trio escape the questioning from police and media attention and head off to a cabin in the woods. They, nor the doctors have any explanation for what happened to Liz.

The documentary shooting is real but sloppy for a films sake. No-one holds the camera twenty-four-seven and you do put it down when needing to do something (as is what happens in the film). It can be annoying for the viewer's pleasure to watch a wall while hearing a conversation in the background.

The central mystery of the disappearance takes a while to get into and the scares are far and few between but it does have the odd scene and shot that was worth the wait.

The ending was expected once it happened but I enjoyed it all the same.

If you're not a fan of found footage, you may not like this movie but if you are you'll want to give it a go.

Incredibly bad

[Xavier_Stone · 1/10 · 2 August 2023]

Within the first 5 minutes you'll know if you'll like this film or not. It's obviously a found footage film, which doesn't automatically make it terrible, but we can rule out anything over 8 stars right off.

So I tried to keep watching and it seems like the camera is constantly at arms length away from the actors, and this gets annoying really quick. It reminds me of people taking selfies and such. The acting soon gets out of control, over the top and I had to skip ahead. After a few skips I'm half way through the movie and my field of view is consistently too close. This is too much.

I came here to see if anyone else noticed this or if it was just me, but I found out the spoilers and glad I didn't finish it. Zero ending? Ahhh just terrible through and through then.

Loved it!!!

[Violent_Delight2804 · 8/10 · 6 October 2014]

First of all, I'm a huge fan of the genre and I have to say that this movie is without a doubt one of my favorites. I really don't get why it has such a low rating here or why people are so disappointed with it. In my humble opinion, all the people who were so disappointed, simply did not get the idea of the movie. The tension in the movie is building up slowly and that's what I love about it. I hate it when they show you the monster in the first 10 minutes of the movie,then I lose interest. I envy all the people out there who still haven't seen it. The actors are doing a great job. I just love everything about this movie, I recommend it to all of you, alien nerds.

more subtlety

[phenomynouss · 9/10 · 5 August 2018]

This film immediately opens, with no introduction or opening credits or anything. it starts us off with the insane incident of a pregnant woman in the hospital whose unborn baby disappears. It's just gone. There's a brief text plate bringing up that fetal theft is a real thing, but nothing in the film indicates this was a genuine case of that, which would typically involve violence, but it's rather clear that the woman here, Liz, was not attacked by anyone. The fetus just disappeared.

The main core of the film itself covers Liz and her husband Rick going out on a vacation with her brother Evan, with Evan recording everything in part to document their attempts to work through their grief, and in part to defend themselves as people in the town they live in start to think that the group did something, or had an incredibly late term abortion and are lying about it.

The majority of the film is straightforward and conventional, with the added benefit that each of the actors does a spectacular job with their characters, making them compelling on their own, with a genuine sense of chemistry in their interactions with each other.

The implications of what happened to Liz are just that, implications. Throughout the whole of the filmed events, we get a tiny few instances of weird, psychotic events, which the trio have no memory of afterwards. It is played with an immense subtlety that is just perfect for grounding this story and making it less about sci-fi horror and more about the reality of going on living life, through the eyes of Evan, with a sister whose unborn baby just disappeared out of her womb. The added instances of weirdness only help add a layer of mystery and horror behind an already traumatizing story.

The end comes about somewhat abruptly, and indulges itself after restraining itself for so long. It didn't quite have the same impact as the rest of the film to me, but it was at least was minimalist, and did not end up detracting from the rest of the film at all.