For fans of the Saw
series, the name Darren Lynn Bousman elicits a response of anticipation when
the director has a new horror film being released. Unfortunately, any
excitement for the new release Abattoir should be tempered. The nice production
values and skilled camerawork cannot save this motion picture, which ends up
being a poor attempt at combining various elements of Saw, Seven, The Wicker Man, and The
Ring into an occult movie.
The story involves a real estate journalist (Jessica
Lowndes) and her cop boyfriend (Joe Anderson) who investigates her family’s murder,
including a mysterious man (Dayton Callie) that is purchasing homes that had
gruesome events occur in them. The screenplay feels weak, with poor pacing and
confusing situations that make things feel like they are running at a snail’s
pace. There is some major uncertainty on what era this story is supposed to be taking
place in, without providing any explanations for unusual behavior and outdated
props. The beginning dialogue and looks of the characters play like a post-war
film noir, with old cars and clothes. Yet they are obviously in a current
setting as they have cell phones and other current devices and locations. Another
issue is that many facets of this are obviously borrowed and replicated from
the pictures listed above, which will be discussed further with regards to the
main actors.
The acting is pretty average and it looks like the two main
actors were selected because of their looks as opposed to their overall acting
skills. Lowndes just didn’t bring the needed punch that was necessary for the
character. Only more towards the end did she provide some decent emotion. It
seemed that she was simply chosen because of her looks. Anderson was run of the
mill as well and appeared to be attempting an impersonation of Brad Pitt’s cop character
from Seven, which included the same outfit,
mannerisms, and vocalization. There were even several scenes between the two
that felt like they were completely lifted from Seven or a combination of Seven
and The Ring. Callie’s religious
zealot bad guy was obviously modeled after Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw character from Saw. His performance is respectable, but
if you close your eyes and just listened to his voice you would think that you
were hearing something from Saw. Lin
Shaye (Insidious) is probably the saving grace and provides a nice performance
in her brief on screen time.
The production values are excellent and Bousman shows that he is a skilled director, offering up interesting camera angles and movement, nice overhead and hallway shots, and a toned down color palette. The only issue is that many viewers may find that his camera tricks and style have been played out, much in the same way that Michael Bay is. There are many scenes involving gruesome murders, but they are not graphic enough to satiate gore fans. The ghost sequences are reminiscent of a slightly scarier version of the ghosts from Disney’s The Haunted Mansion.
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