Absence

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.

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.

A found-footage horror film, focusing on the often undiscussed topic of fetal abduction, is ripe with potential. Sadly, this is far from the hidden gem that POV horror fans may be hoping for. It's quite perplexing, how with such a fascinating and disturbing subject matter to draw inspiration from, this film is instead happy to retread the clichés of the sub-genre in the most unimaginative ways possible. For most of it's runtime, there is simply nothing of interest happening. A married couple, who just recently lost their unborn baby through an inexplicable abduction, head to the countryside with the wife's brother in tow, hoping to heal and rebuild. 90% of the film is wasted on the day to day interactions of the characters, who are not at all interesting or well written enough to sustain interest. Most of the time, the audience will be left wondering why the film spends so much time focusing on mundane, cringe-worthy conversations between them, many of which serve no purpose in advancing the plot. There's no tension or suspense to be found here, and the horror elements aren't even introduced until the last 20 or so minutes. And those final 20 minutes are so incredibly unoriginal that one wonders why the filmmakers even bothered in the first place. We're treated to the usual colored light-show, unseen threats, characters being yanked into the night sky, and that's really about it. The rest of the film fails to build character, and the constantly antagonistic brother is especially annoying. It's such an empty, ultimately pointless film that it's existence is almost a mystery. Certainly not worth the time of even the most devoted POV horror fanatics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?