In 2006 Spanish filmmaker Nacho
Cerdá decided to make a film in Bulgaria within his production country in
collaboration with both the United Kingdom and Bulgaria itself. The result was
a horror film called “The Abandoned”. The film is about a woman called Marie
(Anastasia Hille) who was born in Russia and adopted in the United States now
visiting her initial native country and reclaim the rights to a house where her
family lived 40 years ago after her birth. She eventually ends up in a
remote Russian island where she eventually seems to see strange things in the
house and eventually meets up with her estranged twin brother Nicolai (Karel
Roden). Both Marie and Nicolai experience some sort of supernatural maze where Marie must battle
evil spirits, including a creepy clone of herself that she can’t end up harming
because the effect allows it to harm herself plus some more bizarre secrets
that link to her horrendous past.
Despite some rather chilling moments
that does it’s best for the film to be scary, I really don’t see how it can
build all the tension within this film’s premise. I do, however, admire Nacho
Cerda’s style of using the screen’s creepy moments in this film. I would like
to mention how well the clones were made up, some clever performances from the
cast especially Karel Roden who really does a good job as the disturbed Nicolai
and Anastasia Hille is satisfying enough as the victim of her own past. Also,
Xavi Gimenez’s cinematography is absolutely dark and brooding. Even the scenery
in the woods do look appealing for horror fans. Overall, for a movie with a
clever premise, it’s execution falls short with the very little tension in
which I couldn’t feel that much. It’s too slim for my personal taste. But I
think one can do a lot worse with other horror films of the mid-late 2000s.
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