After Dark Horrorfest 1: The Abandoned Review

Following what I can sort of call a dry period for the horror genre lately comes my discovery of a little 2006 film called The Abandoned. This is one of the earlier entries in the After Dark Horrorfest series (an annual horror film festival featuring eight independent horror movies that started in the mid 2000s). Now let me start by saying that I've seen my fair share of ghost-related horror flicks dating back to my childhood such as Poltergeist, the Amityville Horror, The Haunted, The Shining, etc.. Some ranging from dull and cheesy to downright scary and traumatizing took up many of my youthful years being the film nerd that I was with a tendency to keep the lights on at night. And despite the steep competition that such a small film like this would have facing off against the heavy hitters of its supernatural horror genre, The Abandoned very easily ranks up in my Top 5 best list alongside said celebrated classics.

In my opinion, what makes a really good ghost movie a lot of the times ends up leaning on a really good ghost story to begin with. So, what’s the story with The Abandoned? As described in the synopsis, a film producer who was adopted as a baby and sent to America returns to her native land and family farm. Once there, strange things begin to happen including the disappearance of her guide, the manifestation of ghosts (including her own!!) and the appearance of another man who has been drawn to the same farm for the same reasons. This is probably the first horror movie that I've ever seen in which the main character actually sees their own ghost, and guys…it was scary as hell. Now without getting into any spoilery details about the other man in question at the farm, I'll just say that things get pretty intense throughout and never feels slow. There's always something happening to keep you on edge of your seat which is how many of my favorite horror films are.

I tend to enjoy horror titles that effectively keeps me in a state of heightened engagement throughout instead of getting noticeably slow in parts just to build up to a jump scare. The Abandoned is strongly driven by suspense and creepy sound design which genuinely kept me amped up once things started escalating. I'd recommend checking this one out with a great sound system (or excellent headphones worthy of watching a movie with) alone in the dark with zero distractions around. Overall, this is a equally a really good haunted house film as it is a solid ghost story worth experiencing.

Rating: 9/10