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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Nacho Cerdà
Anastasia Hille (New Year's Day)
Karel Roden (Running Scared)
Valentin Ganev (In Hell)
Paraskeva Djukelova (Locusts: The 8th Plague)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun. 13, 2007
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| PLOT An American woman searching for her birth parents learns she has inherited a house deep within the woods in a remote area of Russia. It is the house where she was born, and it was abandoned and uninhabited for 40 years, standing in total disrepair and neglect. When she arrives at the house, she meets a mysterious man claiming to be her twin brother and together they find the house holds dangerous secrets to a past they don’t even remember. Soon they are forced to relive a series of horrifying events and shocking murders that occurred just after they were born and in the place where they were supposed to die. |
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| THE REVIEW In THE ABANDONED, an adopted woman by the name of Marie, returns to her birth country of Russia in search of her birth Mother. Upon arriving in Russia, Marie is informed that her Mother was murdered shortly after she was born. She also receives another bit of information that is also news to her, she has inherited her childhood home. At first she is hesitant, but eventually Marie goes to check it out, and what she finds is a strange house, located out in the woods on it's own small island. Once Marie is in the home it's even stranger inside than it's exterior and it isn't long before she begins seeing things such as ghost and hearing strange noises. Soon she learns that she's not alone in the house, as a man named Nicolai has joined her. Nicolai explains that he is Marie's twin brother and that his own search for his parents have also lead him to the dreaded house. The two siblings investigate until they uncover an old family secret - that their Father brutally slaughtered their Mother and that went they were infants they were also meant to die in the said Massacre, and now that they're both in the same place of the crime reunited, their Father has seemingly come back to collect. Having covered the 7 previously released Horrorfest THE ABANDONED is the 8th and finally one of the 2006 set. THE ABANDONED was not released along with the initial set due to the fact that Lionsgate back tracked on their idea of keeping these 8 films exclusive to the set - by releasing THE ABANDONED to theaters after the fact. They did so with little or no publicity so that many would not notice, so that I guess the festival's integrity would stay intact - since THE ABANDONED got the most reaction out of all at at the festival, they milked it for every dollar left to make. It will finally be released on June 19th, and after seeing it, yes fairly enjoyed it, but I don't understand how it was the festival's standout, I actually enjoyed a few of the other films more. The plot, that some people are calling "original" in which THE ABANDONED consists of, actually isn't, as similarities, if you think about it can easily be drawn from JU-ON/THE GRUDGE, and even more so it kind of reminds me of the plot of the Direct-To-DVD film A DEAD CALLING, in which a whom see's the death of her mother as it happened years ago in an old house. No matter the case Marie grew up knowing nothing of her Mother's past, but once she returns to her childhood home, she is them treated of various visions of terror that happened the night of her Mother's Death and also visions of she and Nicolai as infants. Sure the atmosphere(the house, lighting etc.) are creepy and offer the perfect setting for a Horror film, but the pacing is where I thought it lacked a bit. It really takes awhile for the film to get interesting and for anything remotely "scary" to happen, and after, everything to follow happens in slow intervals - most of the film is comprised of many scenes in which Marie and/or Nicolai are investigating the house. With that said, THE ABANDONED does offer up some great ideas, such as seeing your Doppelganger(your exact look-alike) before you die. It approaches the idea with Nicolai and Marie seeing ghost-like look-alikes of themselves, but in a twist, whatever they do to the ghostly entities will also happen to them...much like a voodoo doll. I thought this was a great idea nonetheless as well as original, the two mirror images of themselves represent their pending deaths, but our two main characters choose to try and find a way out of the living nightmare. Like any clever ghost story, THE ABANDONED tries it's best to end with it's very own shocking ending, but unfortunately it seems to try to be a bit too clever for it's own good. I found that if you try to piece earlier occurrences in the film together with the film's ending that not a lot makes sense - oh well, maybe it's just me. Overall, to me, THE ABANDONED was a decent ghost story, but far from anything new or original contrary to what others have said about it. There's the typical ghost story setting, and the typical clichéd plot twist that usually accompany such a ghost story (such as one scene where it appears that the man that had brought Marie to the house, was nothing but a ghost himself - I kind of predicted this from the beginning. Other random predictables also occur, similar to things we have all seen before.) As for the 8 Films to Die For After Dark Horrorfest, critics and fans alike saw it as a bust due to poor publicity and shoddy organization by theaters, but apparently Lionsgate and After Dark see things differently. At the beginning of THE ABANDONED DVD there is a trailer advertising the festivals brand new batch of 8 films coming to a theater near you in 2007 - I just hope it does well. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 Visions of torture, a bloody leg wound due to gun shot and a mutilated body can be found here. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 The score was ok, it's not really noticeable until the suspenseful parts, but for those, it just seemed to work. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM THE ABANDONED does have some very suspenseful moments, and seems to play off solely on it's atmosphere for frights. However, it tries to be too clever mid film, through the film's ending and it ultimately becomes just too confusing to make sense of it all, it's decent, but definitely not my favorite from the fest. This DVD will be released on June 19, 2007 |
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