Absentia

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Template:Quote boxAbsentia is a 2011 horror film directed by Mike Flanagan.

Tricia's husband Daniel has been missing for seven years. Her younger sister Callie comes to live with her as the pressure mounts to finally declare him 'dead in absentia'. As Tricia sifts through the wreckage and tries to move on with her life, Callie finds herself drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house that might also be connected to other neighborhood disappearances. Soon it becomes clear that the ancient force at work in the tunnel might have set its sights on Callie and Tricia ... and that Daniel might be suffering a fate far worse than death in its grasp.


This film provides examples of:

  • Adult Fear - Much of the film deals with the effect of having a loved one go missing.
  • Another Dimension - It's implied that this is where the missing people are taken.
  • Big Creepy Crawlies - What little we know about the thing in the tunnel indicates that it's one of these.
  • Covers Always Lie - The DVD cover completely misrepresents the film.
  • Downer Ending
  • Eldritch Abomination - The thing in the tunnel.
  • Exact Words - Callie attempts to make a deal with the thing in the tunnel to make a trade herself to bring back her pregnant sister. She's not specific enough, and the thing throws back her sister's fetus instead.
  • Fate Worse Than Death - The apparent fate of those in the grasp of the thing in the tunnel.
  • Hey Its That Guy - Doug Jones has a small role.
  • Infant Immortality - Subverted.
  • Legally Dead - Tricia's husband Daniel has been declared 'dead in absentia' after missing for seven years. And then he comes back.
  • Nothing Is Scarier - Much of the film is built on this trope.
  • You Have to Believe Me - After Callie witnesses Daniel being carried off by the thing in the tunnel, Tricia doesn't believe her and instead assumes that Callie was just high on drugs.