Sadly Over-hyped

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent, a Must See

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

There is so much to be upset and frustrated with here, but the greatest offense is to end with the "twist" that negates an excruciating 80 minutes of wandering through the world's most boring museum. The "twist" is not a twist. It is a middle finger given to you by a random person, and you can't for the life of you figure out why. Any horror movie that allows this plot device deserves a swift toss in the trash. I'll let you play "guess the cliché" but sadly, the cliché doesn't even make sense. It wasn't even scary along the way! It was just confused. The only way anyone could possibly enjoy this film is if they're an architecture student who enjoys long, boring shots of pillars and hallways and also enjoys the exploitative nature of a sub-plot surrounding the abuse of mentally challenged and physically deformed children. Infuriating. You can find the sad excuse for a WTF ending Wikipedia or anywhere else if you want to find it, so I suggest you do so and save yourself the internal flatlining that'll hit by the time the credits roll (oh, and that's kind of a nod towards the ending).

Some people can't be trusted to carry out the simplest of tasks. Julia is a single mother who has obviously had a troubled life, possibly due to substance abuse. Her mother is threatening to apply for full custody of her daughter, so this is the last chance saloon. She gets a well-paid job on the graveyard shift guarding a massive deserted palatial complex that has never been occupied owing to the slump. There is only her and the time-serving Cooper, who is confined to a wheelchair. All she has to do is watch screens all night, walk about every two hours, and don't let anybody in. What could be simpler? And of course, on her very first night she breaks every rule in the book, but if she didn't there would be no film, would there? Cooper is of the opinion she will last a week at most, par for the course due to a combination of the boredom and his sparkling wit. As it turns out, girlie guard does have a pill problem, but not the recreational kind; she "sees things" others can't see, and the good doktor has prescribed these to ensure she doesn't continue to see them. Cooper is not impressed with her explanation that the things she sees are indeed real, especially in this vast empty building in spite of its past; apparently part of it has not always been unoccupied. There is a massive twist in the end which is open to interpretation or misinterpretation, but this isn't a bad effort considering most of the film consists of people walking around in the dark.

Normally I'm extremely skeptical on horror movies. Most of the time I'm skeptical when it comes to "Will this scare me?" or "Will this put me on edge and accomplish what horror movies are meant to?"After finishing watching the Abandoned, I can say it managed to accomplish both of those two things for about 95% of the movie.The film had some obvious cues as to what was going to happen. Most horrors seem to hold basics of when a happens b is to follow followed by c. Even with the predictable moments, it still was able to keep my attention.I was gripped onto the story of the film up until the very end. The ending of this film threw off the entire film for me. Perhaps there is a reason as to why it was written and produced as it was, but for me, it felt like it had gone a little too far in attempts to twist things up. If the directors and/or writers chose to go down a different path, I might have been left liking this film immensely more instead of instantly hating the ending to feeling as if it has effected the entire film.

It is just possible that in Security Guard Cooper, Jason Patric plays one of the most obnoxious characters in modern cinema. He plays it to perfection - as he 'welcomes' new security guard Julia Streak (a fine performance from Louisa Krause), you are waiting for whatever dark creatures that may lurk in the shadows of the apartment complex they are patrolling to come and do their worst to this embittered, annoying wheelchair-bound character. He even suggests Streak change into her uniform in front of him, revealing a certain deviance.He is such a vile personality that it is almost a pity when he appears to soften as the various apparitions of scary faces in the darkness become more prevalent, especially as, at least initially, they aren't terribly frightening. His judgement appears to over-ride hers when a homeless man (Jim, played by Mark Margolis) begs to spend the night in the building, fearing he will die in the storm outside. Against Cooper's express wishes, Streak allows him into one of the vacant rooms. Luckily, there is a recorded documentary available for Streak and Cooper to watch, which explains how the building was a 'dumping ground' for deformed, mentally disturbed children many years ago, operating under-funded, by doctors who were being investigated for malpractice.As Streak threatens to close the place down, believing the spirits of the children are still present, Cooper reveals he knows her secret – she is mentally unstable and on a course of tablets: she should not be working in a high security job such as this. He handcuffs her to the cupboard in the observation room: perhaps he has not softened after all.The ending contains a twist. Freeing herself and travelling to the mysterious room where the children are sent as punishment, Streak confronts a young girl with a facial deformity – she hugs her and tells her "It's not your fault," which doesn't seem to signify anything. The doors open and appear to free Streak from the building. In what is a massive SPOILER (so beware): we then find that Streak has actually been in a coma all her adult life, and has just died. She is lying on a hospital bed. Her father is played by Jason Patric (who appears to have a security job, judging by his uniform). As the camera pulls away from her lifeless body, we see she has a facial deformity identical to the young girl in what appears to be her 'dream'. Outside her room is another patient, played by Mark Margolis. Was the 'not your fault' line directed at Streak's younger self, signifying she was abused by her father, or does the remark somehow refer to her deformity? Whether it all fits together with what we have seen and forms a satisfying conclusion is up to viewer discretion. Possibly it asks more questions than it answers. That revelatory confusion put to one side, this is an otherwise solid horror film, with some pedestrian scares and a fairly touching finale.