Blog Monster Movie Review: The Abandoned
Starring: Anastasia Hille and Karel Roden
Directed by: Nacho Cerda
Written by: Karim Hussain, Nacho Cerda, and Richard Stanley
Production Company: Castelao Producciones, Filmax International, Filmstudio Bojana, Future Films, and Radiovision
The Abandoned is the second of After Dark Film’s “8 Films to Die For,” and while I admit the acting is a little flat in the two, they still give us entertaining stories and some pretty good jumps. The first film I saw was Gravedancers, which is worth a rental.
The Abandoned centers on an adopted woman, Marie Jones, returning to Russia, the country of her birth, to find out about her birth parents. Her return to the family farm is, however, not a smooth one. The rundown house is haunted. Marie finds herself spooked by a ghost who looks just like her, but things get really weird when Nicolai shows himself. Nicolai has also come to the farm seeking answers about his birth family, himself having been adopted by a Russian family. They realize that both were contacted after the supposed recent death of their mother whom they learn died several years ago at the hands of their father. It seems their dead father is trying to finish what he started years before.
Cerda creates a dark, creepy atmosphere effectively using darkness, shadow, and crevices to hide his ghosts and help with the jumps. A particularly creepy scene involves Marie with a flashlight showing the house changing from the present to the past with each pass of the light. Cerda also does something that, as far as I am aware, is pretty original with his ghosts. While the ghosts seem to been primarily solid duplicates of Marie and Nicolai, anything that happens to them, happens to the siblings, so when Nicolai shoots his spectral double in the leg, Nicolai receives a bullet wound in his own leg. This raises some concern about the appearance of the ghosts as Nicolai’s double is bloody, while Marie’s double is dripping wet.
Karel Roden, who played Rasputin in Hellboy, did an effective job as Nicolai, the mysterious brother Marie never knew she had. He was able to balance his performance to keep us guessing whether we should trust him or not. Anastasia Hille, unfortunately, played Marie without much depth, but makes up for it as Marie’s ghost. Naturally, the make-up helps, but she didn’t let the make-up do all the work, as her stance and movement added creepiness to the phantom.
The plot is fairly simple, although Cerda keeps us guessing and it takes a while to determine if Nicolai is to be trusted. What is the truth surrounding Marie’s birth family? It’s an eerie mystery to solve, but one worth the jumps. Check it out!
Directed by: Nacho Cerda
Written by: Karim Hussain, Nacho Cerda, and Richard Stanley
Production Company: Castelao Producciones, Filmax International, Filmstudio Bojana, Future Films, and Radiovision
The Abandoned is the second of After Dark Film’s “8 Films to Die For,” and while I admit the acting is a little flat in the two, they still give us entertaining stories and some pretty good jumps. The first film I saw was Gravedancers, which is worth a rental.
The Abandoned centers on an adopted woman, Marie Jones, returning to Russia, the country of her birth, to find out about her birth parents. Her return to the family farm is, however, not a smooth one. The rundown house is haunted. Marie finds herself spooked by a ghost who looks just like her, but things get really weird when Nicolai shows himself. Nicolai has also come to the farm seeking answers about his birth family, himself having been adopted by a Russian family. They realize that both were contacted after the supposed recent death of their mother whom they learn died several years ago at the hands of their father. It seems their dead father is trying to finish what he started years before.
Cerda creates a dark, creepy atmosphere effectively using darkness, shadow, and crevices to hide his ghosts and help with the jumps. A particularly creepy scene involves Marie with a flashlight showing the house changing from the present to the past with each pass of the light. Cerda also does something that, as far as I am aware, is pretty original with his ghosts. While the ghosts seem to been primarily solid duplicates of Marie and Nicolai, anything that happens to them, happens to the siblings, so when Nicolai shoots his spectral double in the leg, Nicolai receives a bullet wound in his own leg. This raises some concern about the appearance of the ghosts as Nicolai’s double is bloody, while Marie’s double is dripping wet.
Karel Roden, who played Rasputin in Hellboy, did an effective job as Nicolai, the mysterious brother Marie never knew she had. He was able to balance his performance to keep us guessing whether we should trust him or not. Anastasia Hille, unfortunately, played Marie without much depth, but makes up for it as Marie’s ghost. Naturally, the make-up helps, but she didn’t let the make-up do all the work, as her stance and movement added creepiness to the phantom.
The plot is fairly simple, although Cerda keeps us guessing and it takes a while to determine if Nicolai is to be trusted. What is the truth surrounding Marie’s birth family? It’s an eerie mystery to solve, but one worth the jumps. Check it out!
posted by Bodog at 12:06 PM
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