I was looking for something to watch and after listening to a couple of reviews on www.BleedingCritic.com I decided to give this film a watch. I’ve always been partial to a found footage style film add in some demon possession along with Bleeding Critic’s review praising the film and I was looking forward to this.
Director: Adam Robitel
Writers: Gavin Heffernan, Adam Robitel
Stars: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang
Run Time: 90 minutes
Budget: $1.5 million
IMDB.com link
Trivia – In this movie, Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) and Sarah Logan (Anne Ramsay) are mom and daughter, but Jill is older 13 years than Anne in real life.
Trivia – Not screened for critics.
The Taking of Deborah Logan tackles the pretty hard subject of Alzheimer’s disease, a film crew head to a home in the woods to make a documentary about Deborah Logan after her daughter Sarah agrees to it as she needs the money. The three film makers are there to film Deborah’s slow descend as she loses her mind whilst that is a terrible subject in real life it’s a unique one for the this movie.
At the start Deborah didn’t want to be filmed but she eventually caved and the three film makers moved in. They talk about Sarah’s childhood and how her Mother ran a switch board taking messages for people in the days before mobiles and answering machines. We get to see some outbursts as Deborah slowly begins to lose her mind at a quicker pace that the doctors had diagnosed.
However this film isn’t just about Alzheimer’s it’s about demon possession. With cameras set up around the house the film makers start to see some disturbing stuff and some weird stuff happens to Deborah that cannot be explained by the doctors.
When they find her naked and dialing someone on her switch board they think it’s just the Alzheimer’s but it’s much more. This is when the film takes on a mystery element which I cannot reveal much of without spoiling it for you, Sarah and the group investigate the past of the number she was trying to reach. This leads to an old town legend about a murderer and everything kind of starts becoming clear.
Once the group know what’s happening they are plagued by strange happenings and eventually have to hunt down and stop the force that has taken over Deborah’s body. This film is quite chilling right the way through and it doesn’t stop at all, even the very end leaves things relatively open if the makers wanted to bang out a sequel they easily could.
The Good
- First off the acting must be praised immensely, the found footage genre is so cheap to produce that it more often than not ends up with cheap actors. This film is very different Jill Larson as Deborah is fantastic, when she stops and stares at someone she’s chilling when she’s herself she’s perfect. Add in Anne Ramsay as her daughter Sarah and you’ve got two really great actors.
- The tough story of dealing with Alzheimer’s was a brave decision, to have someone old rather than young possessed was also a brave decision and both paid off massively.
- The slow build to start the film looking into the family’s past, moving to the strange happenings and then onto the mystery element followed by the finale made for a perfectly paced film.
- It’s only a small cosmetic thing but the time lapses shots of the sky passing over various places were nice to look at.
- The mystery element of why Deborah became possessed I really loved.
- Some decent special effects throughout the film.
- The film flicks from handheld camera, to security footage to old TV video really well.
The Bad
- Could maybe have gone a bit more gruesome with some of the deaths.
I can’t really think of anymore bad in this film, it’s not perfect but it’s as good of a found footage film as you’ll find. If you like the genre and you like the whole demon possession stuff you should love this. Using an older person instead of a young person was great and seeing them slowly lose their mind and physical appearance makes for a frightening tale. This is well worth a watch and is not only one of the better found footage films of recent times it’s also one of the best possession films in a long time as well.
Overall Rating – 8/10
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