User reviews

ABANDONED is a sleek Spanish production with acceptable budget and packs genuine chills , suspense , tension , and shocks , it's a terror-thriller very exciting . It deals with an American film producer named Marie (Anastasia Hille) goes back to her homeland, Russia (although shot in Bulgaria), where her mother's (Paraskeva) dead body has been found under strange circumstances. She never knew her, having been adopted and brought to America as a baby. The only track as to what might have happened is an abandoned , isolated house in the mountains that supposedly belong to her natural parents. Being the only next of kin, she inherits the farm , but no one will take her there as the local superstitions state that the area is condemned . Only one man will embark on such a long and risked trip . A stranger that oddly seems to know quite a bit about her history. But once arrived the guide mysteriously disappears, forcing Marie to explore the derelict place alone. She discovers someone else on the property. A man named Nikolai (Karel Roden), who claims to have been lured there exactly in the same manner, so he could discover the truth behind his unknown past as well. They become stranded in the immense compound, plagued by horrifying, ghostly visions .The problem is that the ghosts that wander around are their own. Dead versions of themselves marauder between the house in the night . Time begins to change in reverse as history re-lives itself in front of their very eyes. While both their ghosts, illustrating how they will die, patiently await their living counterparts to expire. A cycle of terror comes to fruition, as they are revealed the reason they have been summoned for this perverse meeting . And the cruel secret behind their family takes place at the end of the movie.

This is a horror story with creepy atmosphere and plenty of twists and turns . It contains mystery,violence, gore , suspense in a dark environment with imposing tension and intrigue . This spooky movie produced by the successful Catalan producer Julio Fernandez displays terror, shocks, hard-edged drama , plot twists and creepy images . The story come to life in a terrifying fashion, giving it a haunting ominous ambiance that often shows the past , present and future at a nightmare's atmosphere. While the look is suitable atmospheric and ghastly , the argument stretches plausibility to the breaking point in a surprising finale . Xavi Gimenez cinematography is excellent creating a frightening and scary atmosphere filmed on location in Sofia, Bugaria, he's expert on sombre photography as proved in ¨ Fragile, Intact, and Nameless ¨. Mesmerizing and intriguing music by Alfonso Conde . The motion picture is well written and directed by Nacho Cerda who create a powerful story that blends chills , thrills , suspense and familiar drama in a cleverly devised plot that certainly offers more than the usual terror film . Cerda is a good director who formerly made amazing and gory shorts as ¨The awakening¨ , ¨Genesis¨and ¨Aftermath¨. Rating : Good : 6,5 . This is a frightening , chilling, and horror drama , all at their best that will appeal to terror buffs .

Reading over almost every single one star review on this, it would appear that every single person that ranked it as such cannot follow even a fairly simple plot as this (I see lots of "It makes no sense" and "Nothing is explained" comments.). Really sad to see good gems in the rough like this getting trashed by people that frankly shouldn't be reviewing movies, maybe I'm an elitist, I don't know, but I'm sorry, if you couldn't follow the story of The Abandoned, I really don't know what to say.

This movie is kept from being a top tier creepy movie simply by pacing issues, that's probably my main problem with it which drags it's score into the 7 range (might as well be a 10 for the amount of drek horror made since the mid 90's). This movie has impeccable atmosphere, the kind you can cut through with a knife which is oh so important for any great haunted house film. The atmosphere itself was incredibly creepy, the director should have let the audience just stew in that a bit before getting right to the point so to speak within minutes of walking into the house, it really lessens the impact of the imagery and the antagonists in this movie, but doesn't destroy it by any means.

What stood out the most to me is that it was a very original idea (as far as i know, I have never seen anything quite like it) and like The Baby's room, I love wildly original takes on my favorite horror genre, the haunted house movie. It's deliciously dark without relying on cheap gore, but if that's what you're looking for, there's some incredibly brutal and disturbing scenes in it. The story and acting and characters are good enough to be very compelling but at the same time, I think a little more character development couldn't have hurt. yet we have people screaming "TOO SLOW TOO BORING" and 1 starring it so this is why character development is sadly all but dead in horror movies.

The imagery and photography was fantastic, sound appropriately creepy if severely overdone at times but only a few times.

Just see it. Even if it doesn't scare you like it didn't scare me (i can count the movies on one hand that have achieved this, this is the holy grail of horror for me.), it's very creepy and quite unnerving and just an all around enjoyable flick. Definitely gets the thumbs up from me.

Make no mistake that unlike the previous film The Abandoned is polished, features stunning cinematography and a haunting score. What it doesn't have is any real entertainment value or true sense of logic. The film works best as horrifically beautiful sequences and hauntingly grotesque images. Some of which will be permanantly burned into your psyche. But Nacho Cerdas story of a young woman that returns to her native country to learn about her adopted parents and discovers horrifying truths just really isn't that involving. The film however does feature plenty of symbolism and subtext but feels like it goes on forever and doesn't feel as scary as it should've been. However, this is a respectable horror film the performances are soso and the pacing is off but the film looks gorgeous and works best as a piece of art. Certain scenes should be studied but as a whole just isn't completely successful. But the scenes that are effective and cringe worthy are disturbingly atmospheric and memorable, they just seem to drop the ball halfway through and keep teasing at some sort of payoff that never comes. Nonetheless the film makes for an interesting viewing.

In 1966, somewhere in Russia, a wounded woman drives a truck to an isolated farm with two babies. Forty years later, the film producer Marie Jones (Anastasia Hille) leaves her daughter in California and travels back to her home land in the wilderness of Russia. Marie is one of the children and had received a phone call from the notary public Andrei Misharin (Valentin Ganev) that had told her where the farm of her family is. Marie arrives in the abandoned house and meets the stranger Nicolai (Karel Roden) that tells her that he had also received a call from Misharin and he is her twin brother. Weird things happen in the house and Marie and Nicolai are haunted by eerie ghosts of themselves. Further, they find that they are trapped in the house and can not leave the place.

"The Abandoned" is a frightening and creepy film of ghosts, with a nightmarish atmosphere but a dull story. The unknown Anastasia Hille has great performance and the cinematography is very dark; but the story is very confused and predictable. Cristopher Smith used in "Triangle" (2009) a similar idea of people trapped in a location that can never leave the cycle. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Abandonados" ("Abandoned")

Note: On 04 January 2021. I saw this film again.

This film is a solid 6, no it isn't going to win any awards or anything like that but what horror suspense film with 2 no name actors does anyway.. ever. What The Abandoned will do for you is keep you wondering what is down the hall or around the next corner. It is a suspense film, sprinkled in with some horror elements. I can't tell you how many times the audience jumped out of the room. It was great, the people were embarrassed for themselves because they got so scared. That to me is what going to these movies is all about, it is about the experience and the film and how it draws you in at 10:00 at night. I did think the movie had a lot of credits at the beginning, the writing caught me off guard, but I like how when the family was speaking Russian we didn't get subtitles, that was cool, we don't need to know every word these folks are saying, just know that something bad is about to go down and it did. Check out The Abandoned for a good time with friends, the movie is pretty solid in a day when a lot of these movies leave you wondering what you just wasted your darn money and time on, this one will keep you jumping and guessing the whole way through.

The Abandoned was billed as the fan favorite of the Horrorfest (i.e., 8 Films to Die For) that occurred in late 2006. Most of the rating lists that I have seen from posters on IMDb have ranked The Abandoned very high, while ranking the Japanese film Reincarnation in the middle of the pack. I personally thought that Reincarnation was very good, so I figured that the re-release of The Abandoned would give me the opportunity to experience what everyone has been talking about. After the show one thing is for certain: The Abandoned could not have been the best film at the Horrorfest, because Reincarnation runs circles around this film in terms of storyline and entertainment value.

This film had everything it needed as far as atmosphere is concerned. The woodland areas, the river, and the house were perfect to build atmosphere and a sense of dread. Unfortunately, the filmmakers were too impatient to allow the fantastic environment to mature and reach the viewer in full effect. A character would be walking in the dimly lit forest, and just when I began to take in the atmosphere, the filmmakers would intrude with an excessively loud scream or noise for no apparent reason. There were so many "false scares" in this film that they effectively mitigated any atmospheric effect whatsoever. In other words, the filmmakers "prematurely ejaculated" with stupid sound effects before the viewer was able to reach "atmospheric orgasm."

Ironically, there were probably a dozen or so "jump-out-of-your-seat" scares during the first portion of the film, and most of them were in situations with no real danger. For example, the opening scene shows a few babies crying in a truck, which transitions to an airplane arriving at an airport. Regrettably, the director couldn't stand by and allow such a transition to pass without cranking up the damn sound to the point where my eardrums were ready to explode. The filmmakers are apparently stupid enough to think that scene transitions with sonic booms clocking in at over 200 decibels are somehow entertaining.

Perhaps the most common method of premature sound ejaculation in The Abandoned is the use of voices coming from nowhere. These voices begin at a whisper and crescendo to a loud scream in between scenes. Instead of just allowing the scene transition to occur, the filmmakers would use these idiotic gimmicks to make the viewer jump in their seat before continuing on to the next chapter. Imagine someone sneaking up behind you in a store, only to then scream in your ear and startle you. Any no-talent hack can do that. It's not scary. They're just being a jerk. That's what The Abandoned is – a jerk who annoys you at their every opportunity.

It's really too bad, because the concept that presents itself at the very end of the film is quite good. It's a blending of doppelgangers and premonitions that works well for the few seconds that it presents itself, but everything leading up to that point is nothing more than 90 minutes of sonic booms and premature ejaculations.

Not recommended.

Taking us back and forth 40 years in Russia and it is obvious not a lot has changed from 1966 up until today, I found this to be an exceptional use of location to create a dark eerie presence and visual display on screen. Director Nacho Cerda got the most out of the 2 lead roles (Anastasia Hille and Karel Roden), I had never seen either one of them and I think they did a reasonably good job working out the kinks of the film. The story is the only thing that really bothered me, I tried to stay with it but honestly there were some times that I did get a little lost but every time I found myself wondering what was going on, the characters answered my questions. I was wondering how Nicolai got to the house and Marie asked him that very question. I thought the movie was well thought out and sound affects and visuals really helped draw you in to the film. A lot of moments that made my wife jump and grab my arm tighter.

Objectively - i think this movie is pretty much average. The story is fairly slow but solid ... not really creative or surprising though. The visuals are well done though and the whole movie has a very somber, tranquil tone with no jump scares but just a slow ascent of suspense.

Where the movie falls short is the characters that are rather simple archetypes without any development and the story that --- does not quite make much sense to be honest. Then again - it is a horror movie that plays in a rural backwater place.

It is not as bad as some reviews make it out to be in my opinion - but not good enough to be memorable much.

A young woman is pulled out of Russia as a child and adopted by Americans. As an adult, she returns to her biological family's home, only to discover her brother and a whole slew of supernatural occurrences that are anything but welcoming. What are these doppelgangers? How will she make it out alive? (Or will she?)

This film had some serious problems, at least as far as I was concerned. It starts out in Russia and most of the movie takes place in Russia, which I thought would really add to the film. Russia is a mysterious and enchanting place for many people, including myself. But there really didn't seem to be any point in having it set in Russia as opposed to any other foreign location (besides getting some nice accents). So this hope of intrigue was crushed.

And after I was let down hard, there wasn't much to save me here. The woman and her brother are trying to find something about their family, but I was never sure what exactly they were looking for (maybe I was tired, but this seemed very unclear). And they encountered exact zombie copies of themselves, which included the humans getting hurt when the zombies did. What mythology are we working in? Is this a Russian myth? Because if it's something new (written by the authors) I think it needed to be explained much better. There was a feel of being in a time loop (because death wasn't really death) but that was never explained one way or the other.

The video quality was just alright and I can't recall anything unusual about the music or score. I could get picky about the filming, but I really have no reason to do so. The acting was quite alright, even if I wasn't sure what they were supposed to be doing half the time.

I guess that's the thing -- if you want a confusing story about lost families and body doubles in Russia (or at least backwoods Russia) then you have found a winner for yourself. But I didn't find it anything special and have no intention of picking up a copy in the future. If you want people stranded in the woods somewhere foreign, go with the Belgian film "Calvaire" -- that's a much better choice.

One of the original "After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For," (ADHF) and the only one to get a nationwide release in theaters, The Abandoned tells the story of an American movie producer (Marie) who receives word that she has inherited a house and land in the back woods of Russia. She sets off to examine the property, which she has no interest in keeping, apparently just out of curiosity. There she meets a man claiming to be her fraternal twin brother (Nicolai), but the house appears to have its own plans for both of them. Their birthday nearing, they prepare to face their dark past.

This was my second time seeing this movie, and for some reason the first time I saw it I got the complete wrong idea about what happened at the end. It is way more psychological than your run-of-the-mill haunted house movie. There are only 2 or 3 "phantoms" in the movie that don't show up very often, so most of the "scares" are through the suspense of not knowing when the next horrible thing is going to happen.

I really love the setting of this film. The dark woods, withered house, and misty lake all contribute to the chilling atmosphere...you couldn't really ask for a better set for a movie such as this.

There aren't that many special effects, but for the most part they are above average. The makeup on the crazy ghost zombie things is very convincing.

The acting is quite good for an independent film full of unknowns. There are really only two full characters in the movie, all others besides Marie and Nicolai can easily be considered extras (except maybe the main villain ghost thing, which gets a few minutes of screen time). I'm not exactly sure how good of an actor Karel Roden (Nicolai) is because of his Russian accent, but he appears to be acceptable.

The storyline was not my favorite, but when everything came together it ended up being a solid independent horror flick, definitely one of the better ADHF films.

Final Score - 8/10

There were some scary scenes, which I've always liked more than straight out gore, but otherwise this movie was rather weak. THere were too many questions left unanswered, and when they tried to explain anything in the movie, it was still rather unclear. After watching this movie I still seemed lost in a lot of ways. It sort of reminded me of Silent Hill a few years back. That movie was also unsatisfying, but still better than this because it did try to work and the story did actually make sense. This one, not so much.

The acting for the most part in the Abandoned was decent, but the movie dragged on an on, and never really gave any type of satisfying conclusion. Like I said above, there were some creepy scenes, but otherwise, this movie was a mess. Sorry, I can't recommend it.

Have you ever been told not to eat cheese before going to bed because it will give you bad dreams? This film is like one of those bad dreams. You know how these dreams start off subtle then things start getting more bizarre, then it scares you because you can't tell what is real, and you find yourself in a dark place within your mind before you realize that your dreaming then you wake up. This film spends a lot of time in that dark place.

Very spooky, and very well directed. Some concepts used in this film I haven't seen in other films, which for me made it feel original. Everyone starring in this film is relatively unheard of, but the acting was very good.

If there is anything lacking about this film I could say, it would be that there didn't seem to be any big plot twist to pull you in. What could be considered as plot twists I think are just plot developments. But that's fair enough, because the story is fairly involved, and to add any major twist could make it too complicated.

If you're after a horror with lots of mindless gore then watch Feast (1, 2, and 3). But if you want to watch a scary story (including some gore), then check this out, but you may still be thinking about it long after you watch it.

This movie is a waste of time and money. Throughout the entire hour and a half, I continued to wait for it to get better and it never did. It was slow moving, the plot jumped around, it wasn't scary or interesting, and really never amounted to anything. The credits during the introduction were long and drawn out, which was basically like the rest of the movie (long and drawn out). Numerous parts of the plot made no sense. Several times during the movie I had thought that maybe I had "zoned out" because the incongruity of the plot, however, my companion had the same issue and assured me I did not "zone out" from boredom, but it was indeed the movie. I've actually never posted on here about a movie before and have been actively looking up movies on IMDb for numerous years. So the fact that I'm actually taking the time to write something should speak volumes of how bad this movie is and that you should not waste your time or money on it.

Abandon all hope to see original or genuinely petrifying new horror here, as Nacho Cerdà's American long-feature debut reverts to all the known and dreadfully overused clichés of ghost stories and haunted mansion tales, but doesn't succeed in showing a single shocking image or surprising plot twist. "The Abandoned" is overlong, boring and soft and it's particularly disappointing because Cerdà built up quite an eminent reputation with his three controversial 90's short movies. Moreover, he wrote the script together with two other very eminent guys of the horror genre, Karim Hussein of "Subconscious Cruelty" and Richard Stanley of "Dust Devil", but even the three of them didn't manage to come up with something uniquely morbid and/or genuinely scary. This film too often feels like the typically Americanized remake of a popular Asian ghost story, only the Asian original doesn't exist in this case. Following a strange invitation, the American film producer Marie returns to her home country Russia. She was adopted as a baby, nearly 42 years ago, and already gave up all hope to ever discover the identity of her real parents when she now suddenly receives an invitation to visit her parental estate. She's transported to a forsaken area near a lake where meets her estranged twin brother, and together they slowly unravel their mysterious & horrific family background. Gee, do you think the place is infested with ghosts from the past? And do you honestly doubt they'll eventually get into contact with the restless spirits of their parents? I have to admit "The Abandoned" looks beautifully sinister and dark. Xavi Giménez' camera-work provides the film with an atmosphere that is more unsettling than the plot suggests and also the rare moments of fright are entirely the courtesy of Giménez talented eye for visual terror. The rest of the film is an overlong series of false scares and implausible time-paradoxes that aren't likely to shock anyone. Nacho Cerdà may have had some success with his explicit short movies, but he's not yet on par with his Spanish colleagues Jaume Balagueró ("The Nameless") and especially Alejandro Amenàbar ("The Others") when it comes to suggestive horror that is compelling and creepy at the same time. The handful of gory sequences – among which a virulent attack by ravenous pigs – are wildly entertaining, but they don't even feel appropriate considering the overall sober tone of the film. Generally speaking, "The Abandoned" had great potential (I haven't mentioned the eerie scenery yet, like dolls and such) and easily could have been a small horror-triumph, but it sadly turned out a painful disappointment. Better luck next time, Nacho...

This movie, although beautifully shot and produced, was a disaster when it came to the story. It started out great and had lots of potential to be a creative, fresh, new ghost story, but ultimately it turned out to be nothing more than a movie that kept falling into dead end after dead end. I felt like this movie was a failed attempt to create the same kind of horror that a much more successful Takashi Miike film, Audition, created in 2001.

The end of this movie was completely lost and confused within itself. It seemed as if the makers of the movie halfway trough couldn't find out what the hell was really going on and why the main character was even in Russia in the first place. The main character who at first seemed complex and driven to find change in her life, became nothing more than a passive observer of the movie of which she was the star. Talk about a let down. Who wants to sit and watch a movie about a main character who, halfway through, ends up doing nothing but sitting and watching the same movie as well? She became the epitome of the classic passive-observing character. It's so sad that the film ended up such a disaster because it had everything else going for it.

There is truly a lot great skill and talent within this movie. The sets were amazing the mood was creepy, the actors were intense and involved, and the cinematography was one continuous beautiful metaphor, but without out a story that brings everything together and convincingly and completely pulls the viewer into the movies reality, it can be nothing more than a failed attempt at making a true horror film.

I thought that The Abandoned was a good horror film. It is about an American film producer called Marie who returns to Russia, where her mother's dead body has been found under bizarre circumstances. She never knew her mother because she was adopted and brought to America as a baby. On her return to Russia and the family farm strange things begin to happen to her like the manifestation of ghosts. The only clue to what might have happened is an isolated, abandoned farm in the mountains that belonged to her natural parents. Being the only next of kin, she decides to inherit the place, but no one will take her there as local superstitions say that the area is dammed. I thought that this film has a good creepy feel to it. and was a very good horror film. 5/10