Last weekend, Spanish director Nacho Cerda released his newest horror film, The Abandoned, to a limited 1,250 theaters across the United States. The film was planned to only produce around $3 million in sales; however, I'm not too sure it will even meet that goal this weekend.
The film's plot is about movie producer Marie (Anastasia Hille), who was adopted at a very young age and raised in the United States. It focuses on her trip back to the place of her birth -- a very desolate part of Russia where her family's house is located. Marie is prompted to take this trip upon hearing about the discovery of her mother's dead body at the abandoned home. She also discovers that she is supposedly the last of kin in her family and is to inherit the family home.
Upon arriving at the area, most locals refuse to take her to the house because they fear what they will encounter on the island where the house is located. Eventually, a man by the name of Anatoliy (Carlos Reig) takes her to the island, but the two get separated and Marie is left on her own to discover the house. She finds the house in a dilapidated state. It's full of cobwebs, broken windows, moldy walls and deteriorating wood.
Inside the house she encounters a man, Nicoli (Karel Roden), who alleges that he too is on the same mission to find out about his family and tells a similar story about being the last of kin. After he rescues her from drowning, he proceeds to go through her bag. He discovers that they are twins who were separated at birth and adopted by different families; he was raised in another part of Russia while she was brought up in the United States.
They are not alone, however, in the seemingly empty house. Throughout the house, Marie and Nicoli encounter their spirit-like selves. They later realize these spirits are physical premonitions of how they will die. The spirits linger around the entire time knowingly waiting for the heroes iminent death.
The movie was intensely frightening, with moments that had ample shock value. It had many good elements of a horror film -- the most effective one was the music. Cerda's choice of music added more anxiety and anticipation than any other element.
Despite excellent music and shocking moments, I found the film a bit jumbled -- there could've been more to the story. The audience finds out a lot of things about the family and its past but all the facts seem pointless. Marie and Nicoli seem to be aimlessly searching the house and its secrets for no reason; after all, their future has already been decided. Their actions and their family history seem to mean nothing until the end when the clock strikes 12 a.m. on the eve of their birthday.
The majority of the movie is a confusing mess about who Marie and Nicoli are and what their family's history is. The movie reaches its climax and ultimate intensity when the clock strikes midnight on the eve of their birthday. The house morphs and physically puts them back in time to the night when they were taken away from their home.
From then the movie is a continuous culmination of horrific events that ultimately lead to the children's encounter with their unknown father, the discovery of their family's grave and grotesque secrets, and in the end, their prophesized future.
Overall, the film is a good scare and, at moments, had my adrenaline going. But I can say that the ending left me feeling slightly unfulfilled and wanting a bit more of an explanation. Ultimately I felt it was thrilling but with no real purpose or conclusion in the end -- or at least not one that I found sufficient enough to conclude the journey.
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