The Abandoned
2006 Dir. Nacho Cerdà This deliciously dark and broodingly stylish horror follows the sombre journey of film producer Marie Jones (Anatasia Hille) as she chain smokes her way to bleakest Russia in search of her biological parents. This being a moody horror film though, things don’t pan out as she hopes and she ends up spiralling into an abstract nightmare of spooky, bloodied doppelgangers, haunted houses, man-eating pigs, domestic abuse and creepy siblings. Rather low on plot but high in haunting atmospherics, The Abandoned is another production from Fantastic Factory sibling, Fantastic Discovery: a Spanish Hammer House of Horror-type company specialising in moody and stylish horror flicks such as Darkness and The Nameless . Their house style seems to consist of highly atmospheric and lushly shot films the stylistic flourishes of which sometimes overbear the plot. An intriguing and unsettling prologue sets the scene: a terrified and mutilated woman gives birth to twins...