PatrickTheRedMenace

This somber yet deeply unsettling film managed to give me the willies even in the less-than-ideal Horrorhound Weekend screening.

Not soon after a pregnant woman (Katie Parker) declares her missing husband (Morgan Peter Brown) legally dead, she begins to having terrifying visions that hint that maybe she spoke too quickly. Writer/director Flanagan pulls off an incredible feat with this film. He manages to reinvent the ghost story, then takes it to an unexpected, even creepier place.

Don't be fooled by the show-burn pacing, because the almost-suffocating tension had me squirming in my seat, forgetting to breathe.

It's been almost a year since I've seen ABSENTIA. What haunts me most is not the disturbing visuals or even the deeply unsettling story line. It's the mood. When I simply think about the title, I hear in my head its stark, two-note funeral organ score and my chest wells up with emotions not usually incurred by watching a horror movie: grief, loss and perhaps the most terrifying of all…the dread of inevitability.

Toss in a pitch perfect cast, including a heart-wrenching cameo from the always delicious Doug Jones, and BOOM! You've got my favorite horror movie of 2011.

THIS is how you maximize a minimal budget and put out a product that looks like a million bucks.

D4 tells the story of hired mercenaries on a simple search-and-rescue mission in the woods that goes quite askew when they are beset up on by a very big, very angry monster of a man, a product of science run amok. On the surface, this appears to be a fairly straightforward tale. However, the filmmakers' choice to tell the story non-sequentially adds layers of ever-deepening mystery and nail-biting suspense to the proceedings. Just how deep does this conspiracy go? Well, let's just say, just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was wrong.

Very wrong.

Dickerson manages to elevate D4 miles above its micro budget with excellent camera work, a talented ensemble cast, and pulse-pounding action helped out by tight fight choreography and stunts (believe me, I'm a stickler.)

I hope D4 gets the attention that it deserves, because the love and care and attention to detail that was put into it really shine, and it should be held up as a model for other low-budget movie makers to aspire to.

I have spoken.