Movies
Nacho Cerdá made a name for himself with some very stylish, though gruesome and depraved short films. His move to feature-length cinema was something to get excited about, and when I first watched The Abandoned I was quite taken with the film. Almost two decades later, it isn't quite as strong anymore. A woman returns to her birthplace. She was adopted after a family tragedy not too long after she was born. The farm of her parents is in a remote place, and the people she meets on the way aren't too friendly. Once she gets there, strange things start happening and slowly her dark past reveals itself to her. The setting is nice and the build-up of the horror elements is nicely done. The performances are a little flakey though, the plot is a bit generic and it's a lot tamer than Cerdá's short films. It's certainly not a bad horror film, and the finale definitely delivers, but it's not quite distinctive enough to be a personal favorite.Read all