The Abandoned

The Real Deal
I didn't know what to expect when I put in the Abandoned. 2 other movies from the horrorfest that I'd watched were good, but not great. Also the older protagonists were a welcome change from the usual teenage/early 20's players that are the formula these days.
The setting is the creepiest house you've ever seen. I was scared as soon as the main character arrives on the grounds of the old family house she has inherited. This was one of the few movies that actually had me hiding under the covers as I watched.
The story was unsettling, the direction and cinematography were excellent. I loved it.

Death never runs out of time...
Abandoned reminded me quite a bit of an Asian film called The Echo (aka, Sigaw) -- and a few others; it's nothing new in the genre, but aside from a severely sagging midsection, the horror and suspense aspects are far from, er, abandoned by first-time director Nacho Cerdà. This is no doubt a low-budget film with a lot of spoken supposition, running and hiding; however, when the creatures are shown, they don't disappoint. The makeup is well-done, and special effects are wisely kept to a bare minimum.

The gloomy, yet sharply rendered imagery from cinematographer Xavi Gimenezs (The Machinist) adds to grim terror experienced by our protagonists, as does the jangling dissonance of the original score by Alfons Conde.

While I will admit I was pretty bored during the middle of the movie (I don't mind when things get talky, but nothing new was added to the suspense via the dialogue), it rallies in the end and has a satisfying, fittingly unsettling conclusion...

will give you the willies
Relentlessly creepy, albeit long and slow on tempo, The Abandoned streams in the viewer into unexpected trippy parallel worlds and freighting doppelganger ghosts. If you notice the reviews are mostly positive, with a few negative which seem either to have short attention spans thus bored by the slowness, or they are expecting a different movie. (the advertisement led me to believe, I would be seeing some sort of spooky, decaying doll-- one reviewer states)

So these facts tell you that this movie will put you off guard which is one mark of a great film. I was at times saying WTF (in a good way) trying to figure out the mystery. When the reveal happens its outright acid flash back. The Abandoned is more conceptual than anything so of coarse there are a few whom won't get it and there are some unbelieveable parts but I suggest go with it you will have more fun. If you believe in the concept this movie works on all levels. Few films are perfect and when you rent this realize...

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