The Abandoned

Before streaming began slopping out content to horror fans like pigs at a trough, the After Dark Horrorfest was a cool way to provide obscure and international genre efforts some theatrical exposure, quickly followed by a premiere on the burgeoning DVD platform.  There were more than a few gems in there, including Frontier(s)and Lake Mungo.  And director Nacho Cerda’s The Abandoned (2006) probably sneaks into the top ten; a long dark night story set in the Russian backcountry where two siblings attempt to get uncover their family history…which, as they discover, probably should have stayed buried.

After inheriting the property, Marie discovers her birthplace is an isolated, spooky dump that provides more questions than answers.  But she does discover a twin brother, Nikolai (Karel Roden), who also experiences lingering doubts about his identity.  Confronted by zombie-like doppelgangers and jumbled recollections of their parent’s death, the duo struggles to make sense of the past before their future is cut short.

 

The script, with a polish from Richard Stanley (Hardware), doesn’t quite live up to its ambitions; meaning there is plenty of psycho-supernatural goings-on that never get a satisfying explanation.  But it gets quickly to the creepy stuff and sets its characters loose with matching flashlights (X-Files style!) to peek into every dark corner.  Cerda pulls off some nice directorial touches involving time-loops, giving the film a very organic feel, drenched in a blue-green color scheme popular from the era.  The undead duplicates are a used with panache too, giving the entire film a sort of Carnival of Souls atmosphere. 

 

The Blu-ray from Unearthed Films features a nice 2.35 transfer with 5.1 DTS-HD and a whole lot of new extras, including zoom interviews with director Nacho Cerda and co-writers Karim Hussain and Richard Stanley, plus alternate endings and deleted scenes.  There’s also a good selection of archival promotional material and BD-ROM storyboards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembodied visions of his ex-lover who refuses to go quietly into the afterlife.  And
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there is an abundance of fully erect fake penises and female genitalia on displ
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annabelle West is named the sole beneficiary…that is, if she can be proved sane afte
Read more