The Abandoned (2006)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Or, perhaps another title for this could have been 'The Perils of Marie Jones'. Anastasia Hille plays Jones, who inherits the haunted-est haunted house you ever saw. Director and co-writer Nacho Cerda is as persuasive as he can be in convincing us as to the sinister aspects of this house, which has a kind of sentience. And through its dusty, slimy corridors and broken windows and floorboards Marie travels, occasionally coming across blank-eyed wraiths.I can only think of 2014 film 'Across the River' that creates and spins such a deliciously sinister web of shabby, grotesque dilapidation - a study of decay. Here, the story-line is secondary to mood, with vague suppositions from Marie's twin Nicolai (Karel Roden) about the building recreating doppelgangers to recreate scenes of murder the house has previously borne witness to. This is suggested in the film's opening scene involving two abandoned babies found by a Russian peasant family.Perhaps it is best not to think too much about any structured storyline, but sit back and drink in the atmosphere, the sparse landscape, the vast open spaces drenched in moistened fog, the cadaverous spectres, the possessive nature of the building ... and other such delights. There is a very satisfying moment towards the end in which a seemingly irrelevant collision brings things full circle.Welcome to the family.

THE ABANDONED is an admittedly eerie but ultimately disappointing Spanish horror film, one that's been filmed in Bulgaria. It sees an adult brother and sister visiting a haunted home where they are subjected to attacks by spirits and hauntings related to their past. As a whole the film is much less than the sum of its parts; the storyline feels flabby and unfocused and the film as a whole has far too much of the characters just wandering around and not doing much.Nacho Cerda has the ability to shoot a dark and decrepit-looking movie and there's atmosphere here in spades, but it's the lack of a decent storyline which put me off. Lest us not forget that this is a guy who came to prominence for AFTERMATH, a video nasty of a corpse being subjected to an autopsy. Cerda still doesn't have much more to say about anything than that. Other than a performance from the reliable Karel Roden (HELLBOY), THE ABANDONED doesn't have much to recommend it at all.

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!

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.