Absentia

Mike Flanagan's low-budget horror flick centers on an apparently innocuous neighborhood in Los Angeles where people occasionally mysteriously disappear. Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) went missing seven years ago, and his wife, Tricia (Courtney Bell)—now pregnant by her boyfriend (Dave Levine), who also happens to be the investigating officer in the case of her spouse's disappearance—is in the process of having him declared dead “in absentia.” Tricia's younger sister, Callie (Katie Parker), a recovering drug addict, is helping her cope, but before long Tricia begins experiencing horrific visions of her husband, and Callie encounters a disheveled man in a nearby pedestrian tunnel who identifies himself as a long-lost neighbor. Matters escalate when Daniel suddenly returns, battered and inarticulate about where he's been. Callie's continued inquiries increasingly suggest that a particular tunnel is inhabited by some unknown force that is responsible for the disappearances, leading her on a dogged effort to find out the truth. Absentia features a few genuinely creepy moments, but it's hobbled by a combination of tepid acting and shoestring effects. Optional. (F. Swietek)