Unearthed Films: The Abandoned (2006) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Unearthed Films

Back in 2006, Courtney Solomon and Allan Zeman founded After Dark Films, an independent film production and distribution company tailored towards generating horror films and went on to organize the After Dark Horrorfest otherwise known as 8 Films to Die For.  Each year, eight horror films would play at the festival followed by a DVD disc rollout through Lionsgate Films who eventually co-founded After Dark Originals with them.  

Their first ever release came in the form of The Trilogy of Death director Nacho Cerdà’s 2006 film The Abandoned which was originally part of the Horrorfest before getting a standalone theatrical and DVD run a year later.  From an ordinarily controversial director unafraid to transgress into some deathly dark areas, the international co-production between Bulgaria, Spain and the United Kingdom after only being on DVD finally makes its blu-ray disc debut in a new deluxe special edition from boutique label Unearthed Films.  Though not nearly as shocking as some of the other films in the Unearthed catalog, it will get your attention.
 
Young Marie Jones (Anastasia Hille) is an American film producer born in Russia who was adopted as a child when she inherits some small property and takes it upon herself to return to her native homeland birthplace to find out her family’s background in the hopes of maybe discovering what happened to her parents.  On a desolate wooded island, she tracks down a house that is not only in abandoned squalor but is housing a mysterious drifter named Nikolai (Karel Roden) who claims to be an estranged twin brother also on the same archaeological familial tree hunt she is.  As they venture further into the endless darkened corridors of the abandonment, it becomes apparent they’re not alone and are being stalked by strange zombie-like doppelgangers possibly hinting at something far more terrible at stake existentially. 

 
A little bit like Silent Hill set in Russia, with its elongated sequences of characters traversing watery underground tunnels with a flickery flashlight as soft ambient rumblings permeate the soundtrack, The Abandoned starts out as a sly psychological thriller before building towards a full throated gorehound freakout.  Co-written by Color Out of Space director Richard Stanley and Karim Hussain, shot ominously and oppressively in 2.35:1 widescreen by The Machinist cinematographer Xavi Giménez and given an especially brooding gloomy score by The Bride composer Alfons Conde, the world of The Abandoned is near murky monochromatic swampy grey-green.  Yeah it is a common albeit unfounded trope for movies set in Russia to be somewhat colorless but over time the aesthete starts to enhance the sense of nebulous dread lurking around the end of the corridors.

 
Anastasia Hille as the Russian-born American woman searching for answers is ordinarily a supporting character actress but winds up making a good scream queen here including but not limited to undergoing creepy makeup for scenes of her recurring alter ego.  Czech actor Karel Roden of the Hellboy movies adds a layer of mystery and uncertainty about both the heroine’s safety and whether or not he’s completely truthful about his reasons for being there.  Most of the rest of the cast consists of Bulgarian actors playing Russians, notably Valentin Ganev as a notary who might have more to do with the strange phenomenon than he leads on.  Still, the film’s real star is the abandoned house itself which grows, like Silent Hill before it, ever more labyrinthine and bottomless.

 
Creepy, somber and ultimately shocking, the film proved to be a major step forward for co-writer Karim Hussain who would not only go on to direct the horror shocker La belle bête but would also become a cinematographer best known for lensing Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor and Infinity Pool.  Though a festival favorite, the small film underperformed at the box-office taking in only roughly $4.2 million.  Critics were also split on the film whose closest antecedent is undeniably Brad Anderson’s Session 9 which also utilized a real abandoned insane asylum for the shoot.  

Still, Unearthed Films fans will get plenty of atmosphere punctuated by unexpectedly brutal shocks and their new blu-ray disc is stacked with extras including alternate takes, unused endings, deleted scenes and outtakes as well as extras from the 2007 DVD ported over.  On its own it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but that constant unreliable narrator perspective compounded with the creepy atmosphere and breakdown of logic and reason makes for a most unsettling downer with shades of Silent Hill 2 running through its decaying walls.

For additional reading, check out Tasha Danzig's review here!

--Andrew Kotwicki