THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN

For this new edition of Philm Phreaks, I am going to be looking at rather unique film. It’s a movie from 2014 called “The Taking of Deborah Logan.” 

Now, I have to say that in general I don’t find movies to be scary. Entertaining – yes, but not scary. This movie is the exception. It’s downright terrifying. I don’t know why people don’t talk about this film more. Maybe it’s the format. It is done as a mock documentary with a lot of found footage. 

The premise is that an independent film-maker is doing a documentary focusing on one person with Alzheimer’s, meant to educate people about the disease. The woman is Deborah Logan who has a daughter staying with her to take care of her. 

Another reason the movie might not get the cred it deserves is that it’s a little slow. The first part comes across very much like what one would expect of that kind of documentary and footage of the filming process. That makes it a little dull. 

On the other hand, nearly every scene has something telling in it. While the subject matter early makes it seem a little lackluster, there isn’t a lot of wasted time here. Sure, there are scenes here and there that could possibly get pulled without hurting the story. One that comes to mind immediately is when the daughter is having some drinks and unwinding with the crew. Even so, such scenes are short and in most cases convey important information. 

I’m not going to give too much away here because I have a hunch there are a lot of people out there who have never seen this. I will say that while the initial focus of the documentary is on Alzheimer’s disease, there is much more to it before it’s all over. 

This turns so dark, sinister and creepy. One complaint is a different type of darkness. There are plenty of scenes that are hard to see because they are too dark. Now, that’s a common issue I have with a lot of movies. For this one movie, I actually think it works. 

For one thing, I think keeping a lot of what’s going on hard to make out increases the impact. If you could see it right in front of you, it wouldn’t be as creepy. Secondly, when you are dealing with a camera crew capturing live events, the lack of lighting and the camera jerking around and being out of focus at times, seems realistic.

I’d say this movie is easily In my top five horror films. I’d consider it the most frightening movie I’ve ever seen. Again, I’m going to avoid telling you what’s really happening so as not to spoil it, but once you know, you  know – and in the specific genre of type of terror, I think it’s the best movie of the bunch. 

In terms of type of terror, I’m not referring to found footage – although this probably the best of those. I’m referring to type, for instance, slasher, cosmic horror, creature feature, etcetera. Once you see the movie, you’ll know what genre I’m talking about, but I think it’s the best of that genre – although it probably fits in some angle or another into more than one. 

Give this movie a try if you haven’t already. Those who have had experience with people suffering from dementia will recognize a lot of stuff in the movie. They capture that part convincingly. This is just an all-around special film.