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.
