The Abandoned (2006)

Its been a long time since i was at least a little touched by a modern horror film. I kind of watched this mostly because i had nothing left to watch that night. Without spoiling anything I can just say that I was blown away with this ghastly movie. I see it in the same way as Lucio Fulci's masterpiece The Beyond. Yes, it got plot holes and everything is not spelled out for you. Its like a surreal nightmare. Actually it shares a lot with The Beyond. An eerie house, zombie-like apparitions,the same sense of dread.Gory deaths and so on. It might not be for the ADHD generation (You got Transformers!)or people who wants answers for everything.But for true genre fans its a true gem. Not to be missed!

A film producer who was adopted as a baby and sent to America, returns to her native Russia and the family farm, where she was born. Strange things begin to happen including the disappearance of her guide, the manifestation of ghosts, an apparition of herself, and the appearance of another man who may have an explanation, or even a connection......This film had a lot of potential, showing the flip side of someone's life, if they hadn't had something happen to them at the last second.You know those movies where someone is going to get shot, and at the last minute they are saved by someone else? This is what would happen if that someone else wasn't there.It sounds very promising, and in the hands of an able director, the story would have been well told, but instead,me get this borefest that has a decent twist to it, but doesn't know how to deal with it.So we are left to the obvious brother and sister walking around the house, walking into zombified versions of each other, and then get treated to a reconstruction of the two as babies, with a little bit of Hannibal thrown in for good measure.And that's the film, the two leads have no chemistry together, and Roden looks like he's been forced at gunpoint to do this.I wouldn't bother, it sounded good, but self heating cans of coffee did too, and look how many people regret having them.

I can't say this is the worst horror movie I've seen but it may be the second worse. It's a complete mess. Nothing makes sense, the main female character is awful - the sort of person you'd regret having got stuck talking to at a party. Sort of hard-faced, foul-mouthed, miserable, whiny, hysterical and childish. I really didn't care about her or her ridiculous incomprehensible story. The main male lead is slightly more sympathetic but he's completely pointless as is almost everything in the movie. You learn nothing about either of them other than she has a kid and he has a possibly ex-girlfriend/wife/whatever. There are bits and pieces all over the place that don't seem to fit in anywhere and have you shaking your head wondering what they mean. (ultimately they don't mean a thing!! Honest!) There are even characters early on who are made to look sinister and important when we first meet them and then they never show up again. Did the rest of their involvement get cut from the final print? Or did the director get so confused by his own messy hotch- potch of scenes that he didn't realize he'd forgotten them?It felt like the whole tedious non-story was just a set up to get to that one revolting scene that the director hopes would be it's selling point. Well sorry Nacho old boy. One disgusting not-at-all-scary & ludicrous scene does not make for cult status. The script is poor. The acting is lazy. The direction is sloppy. There are some nice scenery shots & one or two clever camera angles. But that's about it. There was no suspense & nothing to be frightened of, you knew from the start what's going to happen to the main characters but you never find out why and it took a lot of nonsense and time to get to it. One character tried to make a stilted explanation of what's going on at one point but it didn't help make sense of anything and sounded kind of dumb. I don't think the actor was very convinced either to be honest! There was a bit of suspense early on but that soon dissipated as the events from then on just became repetitive and boring. I don't think the director knows how to make a horror movie or thriller unfortunately. Don't waste your time on this. You'll just get half way through and - if you're still awake - you'll spend the rest of the film saying "what in the blue blazes is going on?" (only in stronger language) and wondering why you should care anyway and getting more and more bored. Then you'll be relieved coz you'll think "Praise the Gods!! The movie has finished at last" even tho it still doesn't make a lick of sense. But wait....it's not the end! It just keeps going. So you think "Oh OK. So maybe if I stick with it there'll be something like a point to this movie" but then you will be sad because there isn't. Then after two or three more excruciatingly slow, dragged out senseless endings, when you finally reach the last one - assuming you're still watching (you poor thing) - you will want to slash your wrists because it makes no sense of anything and delivers no thrill or interest whatsoever.Pointless drivel.

This is very good visually, no spectacular special effects but lots of creepy visuals, but the plot isn't very good.The cast are quite good, they are all convincing and deliver solid performances although the dialogue is fairly uninspired.The pace is pretty good too, getting into the action very quickly and sustaining it, it become frenetic towards the end as you'd expect from a horror.The problem is the story, it isn't interesting or disturbing. There are a few flashes of originality but not enough.The ending is predictable and dull relying on visuals to sustain it at ends up feeling like a dark music video.