The Abandoned (2007)

An American woman searching for her birth parents learns she has inherited a house in the middle of a forest in a remote area of Russia. It is the house where she was born. Abandoned and uninhabited for 40 years it stands in total disrepair and neglect. What she finds is more than an old house. She meets a mysterious man claiming to be her twin brother and together they find the house holds dangerous secrets to a past they don't even remember. They are forced to relive a series of horrifying events and shocking murders that occurred just after they were born and in the place where they were supposed to die.Runtime: 94 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 031398214106 Manufacturer No: 21410 Product Description

Pretty Good

The movie starts too slow and is somewhat predictable, but some twists in the plot make it worth watching, some spine tingling, edge of your seat moments make you take notice (how Nickoli Dies), decent acting job done by the actors and pretty good special effects. August 31, 2008

needed more

This movie had a slow but curious start.Throughout I felt lost. Great special effects with lots of unexpected twists, but I found myself wondering why certain things were in some scenes. Anyway I was left feeling like I needed to know more.Overall an entertaining creative film! August 31, 2008

The Viewer's Abandoned

Do you run screaming when you see actors wearing white contact lenses and stringy hair in a dark house? Do you faint away when a movie spends more than thirty minutes doing nothing but showing the main character talking, talking to someone and then another 20 minutes showing her driving forever through forests and farmlands. And then when she finds a driver, he abruptly abandons her in a huge forest at night and then she goes searching for him, calling out his name and she somehow miraculously discovers an abandoned house? This movie was so numbingly boring at the beginning that I'll have to amit to fast-forwarding to the middle but then there was nothing remotely frightening. When will modern makers of horror films understand that in the year 2008, fear fanatics want something more to scare them than actors wearing white make-up, contact lenses and stringy hair to portray the dead. Also, how idoes an American woman, deserted in a black forest, miraculously come across a farm/mansion where ghosts reside? This flick is yet another in the Horrorfest series that proves to be appalling. A bad script, inept direction and performances torpedoes any suspense that could have been achieved. July 13, 2008

Very good and effective horror film made with great care.

This film is a very interesting case.
An English language Spanish film shot in Bulgaria.

An American woman raised by foster parents travels to Russia to take possession of an old house in the middle of the woods where her mother was stabbed to death. Upon arrival, she discovers she has a twin Russian brother... and both were driven to that house where mysterious ghosts indicate their journey is not a coincidence.

Funny that many European horror films are getting much more attention than their American counterparts. That happens, in part, because while American horror films have long ago discarded mood and pace and gone for gore and cheap scares, Europeans are still faithful to those timeless elements we love to find in a horror film.

Like many other European films like The Others (Two-Disc Collector's Edition), High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition) and Inside, this is one of those films that show us why, right now, there is nothing like European horror films.

Tired of seeing great ideas wasted in bad films, I'm happy to say this film really satisfied me. Is not as gory as others... but it really has that kind of atmosphere that puts you in fear while the characters move through the house... by the way, one of the best art direction works I've seen in years, no less!

And this film is VERY effective! Done by people who love the genre.

I recommend it very much.

The only problem is (as in 99% of those films) the ending. That's what prevents me from giving it five stars. It is relatively predictive and kind of unsatisfying. But up until five minutes from the end... it is a first-rate horror story. Only the ending goes downhill...

Still it is worth the money! July 7, 2008

Goes Nowhere Fast.

The setup for the story had all the right ingredients. The mood was set, the characters showed promise, and then... Nothing. Within the first 30 minutes, Ray Charles could see what was going on. The rest of the movie is spent driving the point home, as if it were really necessary. Could have been fun. Turned out to be a boring waste of time. July 2, 2008

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