4. The Taking of Deborah Logan

The Taking of Deborah Logan Trailer

Alzheimer’s is a debilitating illness that affects both the sufferer and their loved ones. Med student Mia (Michelle Ang) travels to Virginia to make a documentary about Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) and her caregiver-daughter, Sarah (Anne Ramsay). Adam Robitel (director of Insidious: The Last Key) created an almost-forgotten horror gem. Shot in documentary style, it incorporates real footage from medical archives. The original distributor disliked the film so much it never even went to VOD (Video on Demand). However, it did gain a large following on Netflix. Though it incorporates the expected cheesiness of films like the Blair With Project with hokey asides from Mia and her documentary crew, there is some real meat, here. Almost every critic mentions the particular scene with Deborah and the young cancer patient. To describe it more would ruin Robitel’s one moment of grotesque g(l)ory above all others. It is visceral, strange and completely unexpected.

But even without this scene, an actual plot propels the film. Deborah’s Alzheimer’s is only a cover for the fact that she is in fact, possessed. As the mother in The Conjuring becomes a hideous monster, and even turns on her children, Deborah too, soon loses her connection to the offspring trying to help her. Though the daughter-figure is much older than the other children in this Top 10 list, she is still the loved one needed to keep the family – however small – unified.

Exorcising the demons that reside within Deborah happen in the usual, predictable ways but the film stands out by creating an air of complete terror, revulsion and intrigue. Most of this is carried by the incredibly gifted-at-being-insane Larson, who is best known for her TV soap opera roles.

A breath of fresh air in the shaky-cam mockumentary style of paranormal cinema.