The Taking of Deborah Logan (Film Review)

2014 Eagle Films/Millennium Entertainment
Directed by: Adam Robitel; Written by: Gavin Heffernan and Adam Robitel
Starring: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang, and Ryan Cutrona
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 90 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10

At the urging of her adult daughter, Deborah Logan allows a film crew into her old, strangely attic-heavy house. Deborah is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and this student crew wants to document the effects of her ailment for a project, paying her money she greatly needs to keep her beloved, if a little frightening and snake-attracting old house. However, the crew gets a little...or a lot more than they bargained for. Deborah's symptoms seem...a little extreme. She's acting violently, walking around in her sleep, and more scarily, talking when no one is around...in another language...in a deeper voice. As Deborah's behavior grows more bizarre and dangerous, the crew argue about whether they should leave...and that's when things really start to slither south.
Look, another found footage horror film! Who'd have thunk it?! Thankfully, The Taking of Deborah Logan is able to bring a few fresh elements to the table. For starters, this Ph. D. student crew must really be trying for a good grade, because this footage looks far better than what's generally found in this type of film. Likewise, some major rules of this micro-genre are broken, to positive affect. For instance, the film's acting, usually a shortcoming in found-footage flicks, is great. Even better, Deborah Logan's climax is actually fairly surprising, aided by special effects that actually look pretty great. Even more surprising, the film doesn't end with the camera falling to ground, and the fate of the filmer left hanging in the balance. There's a concrete conclusion here besides "I guess the monster got 'em." In fact, we get a finished film within the film, which I guess would not make it "found," as it was never lost. The "filmmakers" were even able to edit in archival footage from Logan's town, as well as animatics depicting Alzheimer's devastating effects on the brain. Amongst a sea of films that look mostly the same, The Taking of Deborah Logan manages to look a bit unique.
However, this film far from breaks the mold. It generally sits quite comfortably in it. The first half is by far the strongest, as director, Adam Robitel, is adept at haunted house theatrics. Jill Larson, who is excellent at portraying Deborah's transformation, also does a great job of being super freaky. There's a shot where Deborah is playing piano in a dark room, with the person filming hiding behind the doorway. Suddenly, Deborah brings the song to an end with an intentionally out of place minor chord, and turns to the camera, smiling in a way that is just a bit off. It's probably the scariest moment of the film.
The back half, though, falls into the genre's bad habits, with characters making bone-headed decisions for filming's sake, and the handheld camerawork becoming shaky and mostly unfollowable. Outside of that one batshit crazy moment at the climax, most of the final hour feels rote. Also, while it's great that the writing actually puts in work to describe what's going on, weaving in the dark history of Deborah's small town, filling in every detail actually makes the film far less scary. While I hate when story details are left lazily vague, it's tough to feel much fear in a film like this when you know exactly what is going on. As it is, The Taking of Deborah Logan is a solid, if ultimately slightly underwhelming entry in this bloated genre, worth a viewing for most horror fans, but probably only a cursory one for everyone else.