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
