Sorry really old people... you're inherently frightening. Particularly when you're all frail and fighting off a disease, as the titular Deborah Logan is here. (And I say this as (a) someone who will hopefully get the chance to be old and decrepit one day, and (b) had a close family member die of Alzheimer's. It's a shitty, shitty disease that this film portrays respectfully enough.) And maybe "inherently scary" isn't the right phrasing. It's one of those things where you're not scared of the thing, you're scared of becoming the thing. And if things go well (i.e. you don't die young) you will become it. So there's an extra layer of... hopeful inevitability there? I don't sit there watching Suburban Sasquatch worrying that I'll become bigfoot, you know?
Anyways, The Taking of Deborah Logan is a very effective mockumentary/found-footage jam, where a grad student is making a film for her thesis statement. The gist of it is something about the effects of Alzheimer's not only on the person suffering from the disease, but also on those close to them. Here, you've got Deborah rapidly deteriorating from the disease, while her daughter Sarah tries to take care of her. In her lucid moments, Deborah is not too keen on having a film crew around, but Sarah insists that they need the money to keep the house (as well as the assistance with the medical bills).
Over the several weeks that the crew is there, Deborah's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and sometimes even violent - she's prone to self-mutilation, as well as attacking members of the film crew. It's not uncommon for Alzheimer's patients to lash out in anger, but there's some video evidence (from stationary cameras set up all over the house) that suggests there may be something more sinister (and supernatural) afoot. And since this is a horror flick, it shouldn't come as a surprise that there is, in fact, more going on than just the disease.
The most impressive thing about The Taking of Deborah Logan is the performance of Jill Larson as Deborah. It's definitely not a glamorous role, and Larson really allows herself to look the part of a woman who's mind and body is decaying. I don't know if she lost weight for the role, or if it's the makeup or what, but physically Larson *looks* the part. But that wouldn't mean anything if she didn't get the quiet creepiness that director/co-writer Adam Robitel is going for. And Larson nails those parts too. (I think the most chilling moment of the film is when Deborah is just playing the piano is a darkened room, just staring at the camera. The quiet moments early on in the film are more affecting than the gotcha scares in the last act, although those are decent too.) It's a fine line Larson/Deborah is walking. Evil or oblivious? Larson does a hell of a job, and the film would have just fallen apart without her strong performance. The other standout is Anne Ramsay as Sarah (Deborah's daughter). She does the sympathetically frazzled thing well - Sarah is clearly stretched thin trying to take care of Deborah, and Ramsay conveys that well... as a character Sarah comes across very realistically.
The film is really strong for the first hour or so. The scares are mostly understated but totally work, and there is a good sense of atmosphere in Deborah's big old house. Director Robitel manages to use a lot of common found footage tricks/techniques in ways that don't feel stale or tired, and the story keeps you mostly off balance. How much of this is the disease, and how much is the Evil?
Once "The Evil" is revealed, things falter a bit. The story (I won't spoil it) is a bit of a stretch, and while the film fully commits to it, it only about half-worked for me. So while it's a little disappointing of a wrap up, it doesn't ruin things by any means. (It also presents a fantastic visual in the final few minutes that is still stuck in my head, so kudos there.)
Horror-wise? It's good stuff. The character work is very strong, and you get a good mish-mash of found-footage scares... there's nothing particularly *original* here, but the scare scenes are well shot and edited in a way that feels fresh. It feels like a much more precise film than a lot of the found footage shaky-cam stuff that you usually come across. Until the end that is, when things culminate in a more traditional night-vision chase scene. But still, most of it works. Stripped of the solid first half, the FF stuff in the end would be slightly above average. But the story/characters/scares in the first half or strong enough that the film has earned a lot of goodwill by that point - you want it to succeed, and to that end it does.
So overall, while you could hope for a better ending, it's still a solid film. The Taking of Deborah Logan is one of the better Found Footage/mockumentary films I've seen in a long time. As long as you aren't repulsed by the genre, it's definitely worth checking out.
I would highly recommend this film.
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