“The Taking of Deborah Logan” has tempted me for several Octobers. I thought it was a standard horror film, and one more recently released. It was surprising to discover that not only did it come out in 2014, but it’s also done in found footage style.
The film is the feature directorial debut of Adam Robitel, who co-wrote with Gavin Heffernan. Its video thumbnail of the titular characters is disturbing. The plot follows a group of students making a documentary about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Mia (Michelle Ang) and her film crew (Brett Gentile and Jeremy DeCarlos) arrive at the Logan house. The crew will be staying several weeks to document the life and struggles of Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) who has the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Deborah’s adult daughter Sarah (Anne Ramsay) also resides in the house and is a featured character in the documentary.
Real Horror
Unlike most found footage films, the focus isn’t on the Mia et al. Rather, the bulk of the screentime and dialogue belongs to Deborah and Sarah. This makes sense with the mechanics of the plot. The film within the film isn’t about the students, but the subject of their project.
Deborah Logan is a real person with a real medical issue. She doesn’t want to be a burden and has insecurities about the damages inflicted to her mind. Jill Larson has an uncanny appearance that lends to the spookiness. The only thing creepier than kids is old people. Maybe its because we are all headed in that general direction. We see that Deborah Logan had a normal life once. All normalcy has now been taken away from her, and that it itself is terrifying.
The acting is average on all fronts. I’ve mentioned in previous reviews the difficulty of doing found footage. It’s an actor playing a regular person pretending to be on camera. There’s a lot of nuances to it that isn’t easily conveyed. We get the standard range of emotions. Sarah acting shy at first. Deborah scolding the students for silly things. Mia lying about having a relative with the disease just to curry favor. No one was too weak to negatively impact the movie.
Tropes Aplenty
What starts as a medical issue quickly turns supernatural. I liked some of the subtleties that were happening throughout the house as the crew filmed. The ultimate payoff got wild fast and became a completely different story at the midway point. Scenes at the hospital were a nice changeup as the documentary meets Deborah’s doctor (Anne Bedian). More strangeness is added via next door neighbor, Harris (Ryan Cutrona) who has secrets of his own. The end is a totally off the charts. I would have liked the focus to remain on the realities of Deborah’s condition, but the movie chose a different direction.
The 90-minute length is 7 minutes too long for the genre. Despite the fast start I was getting bored before the end of the movie. Its told with a combination of handheld and static cameras. Oddly, there are music jabs that accompany scary moments which shouldn’t be the case. And warning for the faint of heart. There are numerous gruesome scenes and images that go well beyond ghosts or paranormal horror.
“The Taking of Deborah Logan” finally comes off my radar. Am I glad I finally watched it? Sure. Is it something I will revisit? No. It is something that fans of horror and found footage will enjoy on an October night.
Consider making a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association.
