The Abandoned Review
By David Kempler
The Ending Will Leave You Abandoned
Julia (Louise Krause) is a young woman on the precipice of losing her daughter if she doesn't get a job and straighten out her life. Because of this preposterous premise, she is about to begin a security guard job in an abandoned building that was originally built as someone's luxurious home. How this would convince the courts that she is worthy of keeping her daughter makes no sense. So what. This is a horror film, after all.
Julia is met at the door and taken to the security center for the building where she meets Cooper (Jason Patric), her sole coworker. He is in charge of the control room, while Julia will be on patrol. Why anyone is needed to patrol a building with nothing in it also makes no sense.
Cooper is nasty to Julia right away. He has seen the people who preceded her last anywhere from a week to an hour and he is not about to get close to the latest security guard in an endless procession. Julia takes it because she desperately needs to keep the job.
When it's time for Julia to go on patrol, she is happy to get away from the abrasive Cooper. She walks around the absolutely gorgeous building while Cooper watches her from the control center. Almost immediately she hears suspicious noises and tries to investigate instead of running like a real person would. We in the audience are scared thanks to director Eytan Rockaway. There are lots of plot holes in the story but the suspense and frightening moments are in good supply.
Julia eventually opens doors and heads through dark catacombs for reasons that remain unclear. Her wanderings open up to ghosts and people that may or may not be alive. We're not sure if what she is seeing is real or only in her mind. It all gets explained in the last 15 minutes, even if it still makes no sense. The ending is so convoluted that your head will spin like you were in "The Exorcist", but the positives in "The Abandoned" don't involve story. It's all about atmosphere.
Besides the atmosphere, there isn't much, but the performance of Patric is pretty good for this type of film. It lends an air of believability to what would be otherwise unbelievable. If you're looking for great, don't bother. If you are looking for a couple of scares, you won't feel abandoned when you exit.
