“So when I’m in the middle of something and suddenly my mind just leaves the premises, there are no words to describe how distressing it is.”
We all love a good ghost story. In my opinion, it’s the very foundation of horror itself, the idea that something supernatural or unexplainable is happening all around us. It’s the basis of the very first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. Despite its found-footage trappings, The Taking of Deborah Logan is a ghost story in the classic sense. If it weren’t for the documentary-style approach, the film would be a dark Ozark Gothic. It still is, but one wonders if the gimmick was necessary.
Mia Medina is a grad student, and her thesis is a documentary on Alzheimer’s – not just the debilitating effects of the disease, but the way it can affect those taking care of people suffering from it. She and her crew, Luis and Gavin, set up in the house of Sarah Logan and her mother, Deborah, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Deborah is initially unhappy, or at least has trepidations, about the arrangement, but Sarah reminds her that they need the money. And to the crew’s credit, Mia’s documentary never seems exploitative, and she seems genuinely compassionate, even if she does spin a lie that her grandfather had Alzheimer’s too.
Deborah certainly exhibits the normal signs of Alzheimer’s – at least for a while. Taking starts dangling plot threads, all of which will be resolved, but here seem like random terror – not scary on their surface, but strange enough to be unsettling. Deborah starts speaking in French, fiddling with the switchboard she operated when she worked. The line for 337 rings over and over; later the crew discovers that that line belonged to a local physician, Henri Desjardins, who was also a cannibalistic serial killer.
All the classic trappings of Gothic horror are here in full force, and to terrific effect. The spooky old house, the concerned child, the elderly matriarch, a deepening supernatural mystery. Gothic stories are at their best when they have an engrossing mystery at their core; look no further than Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts, or Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger. The mystery of The Taking of Deborah Logan is gruesome, and twisty, and perfectly steeped in small-town Americana.
Jill Larson gives a tremendous performance as Deborah – fearless and harrowing. Watching Deborah deteriorate is truly heartbreaking, but Larson never lets us pity Deborah. We feel like we’re watching someone we know gradually fade away before our eyes. The real star here, though, is Anne Ramsay as Sarah. Although we meet Mia first, the film reveals that Sarah is its main character. Ramsay is effortlessly riveting, with an easygoing demeanor that cracks occasionally, letting us see the scared girl inside, the one who’s terrified of losing her mother. Sarah is srtong-willed and practical, and knows when to accept the fact that she’s dealing with the supernatural, which is a nice touch. There’s also an implied romance, or at least attraction, between her and the sheriff, Linda Tweed, which the film never makes explicit.
The imagery in The Taking of Deborah Logan is perfectly eerie. Never over the top with gore, yet still highly effective. A desiccated corpse is found in the attic; later a horde of snakes wriggle their way out of it. A TV flings itself at a man trying to mercy-kill Deborah. Slowly it’s revealed that she’s being taken over by the spirit of Desjardins, who needs to claim a fifth victim so he can become immortal.
I won’t go too much into the plot of Taking; I fear I’ve given too much away already. My only complaint about the film is that it doesn’t need to be found-footage, although that’s not enough to hamstring it completely. This is a horrifying film – but also a fascinating one, and a profoundly sad one at that. The emotions are real, which make the scares hit that much harder. This is one of the few horror films that I can recommend for the performances as well as for the plot.
10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation
10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter
10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw
10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
10/5: Kill List / A Field in England
10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep
10/9: Cube / Creep 2
10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual
10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan
10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond
10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow
10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem
10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse
10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster
10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan
10/18: The Devil’s Backbone / Southbound
10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher
10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed
10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy
10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night
10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void
10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon
10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie
10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder
10/28: High Tension / You’re Next
10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug
10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires
10/31: Saw / Saw II
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