I adore the found footage genre, and if you are a fan of the genre, The Taking of Deborah Logan is a solid entry in the annals of film. The Taking of Deborah Logan is about a documentary film crew that is studying Alzheimer’s and its similarly detrimental effects on caretakers by filming a woman who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and her caretaker, her daughter, at the family’s home.
First, The Taking of Deborah Logan exists in a world where people actually watch horror movies so once weird crap goes down, some people bounce. Second, The Taking of Deborah Logan is intentionally funny. There is a running joke as the filmmakers wonder how many attics there are in the house. Third, I hope that M. Night Shylaman threw some money at The Taking of Deborah Logan after making a little comeback with The Visit because The Taking of Deborah Logan does an effective job of addressing the scary elements of aging even without the supernatural elements. You are not in control of your body and your personality. In many ways, it is like being possessed because you are no longer the person that you spent so many years cultivating. Fourth, the daughter was really interesting as a character and a nuanced depiction of a caretaker. She has a life. Money is an issue. She does not always cope in a healthy manner. She is so used to dealing with messed up parts of life that the abnormal is normal. Fifth, the creepy atmosphere of the film is great, especially the drawings. Sixth, the mother’s backstory is badass.
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The mother was a single mother who figured out that the local pediatrician was an occult motivated serial killer who targeted her daughter, joined forces with her (gay?) neighbor, killed the killer and kept the secret forever. She is a silent, unexpected anti-hero, which adds an extra tragic element to her end of life plight.
The Taking of Deborah Logan had two flaws. First, I thought the possession idea of a vulnerable, sick person was great, but would have preferred if a demon, not a vengeful spirit, possessed the titular character. If The Taking of Deborah Logan had pushed the idea that the pediatrician was also a victim, I would have bought it, but the idea that even a human spirit aligned with evil powerful forces could remain viable and lurking for so long with the unabated potency seemed unlikely.
Second, why did the director stay with the daughter to stop the spirit? Sure she may have felt bad for psychologically manipulating the family for her own personal benefit, but once I see an old lady start chowing down on some kid’s head like a boa constrictor, I’m out, and I’m drenched in the blood of Jesus. There are two possibilities. Either she really wanted to finish her documentary or she had a crush on the daughter, which is not really shown, but the director is not really a self-sacrificial person so she had to have some stake in the outcome.
I did not notice it, but several comments on imdb referenced a subliminal flash of the spirit’s presence in the film.