Abandoned Review

PLOT:  Sara (Emma Roberts), her husband Alex (John Gallagher Jr.), and their infant son as they move into a remote farmhouse, which harbors a dark, tragic history.

REVIEW: With films like The Amityville Horror and Rosemary’s Baby used as inspiration, it’s hard to adequately judge Abandoned without comparing it to those films. Which is honestly a great disadvantage right from the jump. Then add it that the film is wanting to touch on mental health points, while not exactly handling them in the most mature of ways…and it feels like they were just setting themselves up for failure.

Following a young family, as they move out to a remote farmhouse, the story focuses on Emma Roberts’ Sara, who has been dealing with postpartum psychosis. Yes, this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill depression, this girl is full on seeing stuff that isn’t there. This essentially translates to her really disliking the fact that she has a baby. No, really, she genuinely doesn’t want to be around this child. And this is our lead who we’re supposed to care about. So buckle in, folks.

I have a hard time believing that the filmmakers weren’t at least attempting to make this into a dark comedy. The characters’ absolute disconnect with one another makes it feel like I’m watching a high school play. There’s a scene where Roberts and her husband are swinging with the baby and it is so uncomfortable; they both feel like they’ve never held a child in their lives. The movie is littered with scenes like this.

While Emma Roberts is by no means a bad actress, she definitely has a style of delivery that is beneficial for more over-the-top characters. Her role as self-centered Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens is where she really shines. Given that Sara is meant to be lonely and struggling with depression, Roberts’ performance feels off. Her interactions with the baby provide for some of the more unintentionally funny moments of the movie. She’s just so hilariously awkward when handling the baby. It doesn’t feel like neglect, it just feels like a young person who clearly doesn’t have children.

John Gallagher Jr. is another actor that feels sorely miscast. But it’s not entirely his fault, as the script does him no favors, giving him all sorts of dumb lines that can only be met with an eye roll. In an attempt to make a distant husband character, they instead made him completely oblivious to the world around him. In fact, his big struggle with euthanizing pigs is entirely self-inflicted. All he had to do was say: “This is the only way I euthanize them” and his problems would have been solved. He’s hard to feel sorry for.

Then there’s Michael Shannon, who seems like he’s starring in a different movie. The moment that he shows up, Abandoned gets significantly better. What’s hilarious is that he and Roberts actually have more chemistry than her supposed husband. He clearly only had a day or two to film, because his scenes are brief, but spread throughout the film. But hey, at least he’s in it at all. The other good performance comes from Paul Schneider, who plays Sara’s therapist. He’s gone just as fast as he shows up though.

The director Spencer Squire claims that Abandoned is a story about the intricacies of mental health. Given how poorly executed so much of the psychological stuff is, it’s hard to see where the respect for those that are suffering possibly would be. Instead, the story just uses basic tropes in order to add scares that don’t pack a punch or have any real meaning. Then there are the various shots that are overexposed or feature really uninspired camerawork, and it feels like a movie where none of the intentions are met.

The worst part about the cheapness of it all is that the scares aren’t even well executed. They often come in the form of cheap jump scares and gross imagery like flies and maggots. The only even somewhat tense moment comes when the baby is seemingly putting itself in danger. Even then, it’s nearly ruined by loud the music cues are. The only well-executed portion is the opening scene, where the sound design tells us of the horrors going on in the farmhouse.

Abandoned is not a good film in any sense of the word. Outside of Michael Shannon’s sublime performance (when isn’t he amazing?), there’s really not a lot of positive entertainment to be had here. Most of the fun is entirely unintentional and is unlikely to connect in any meaningful way. While there is surely some “so-bad-it’s-good” fun to be had from the story and performances, the slow pacing prevents it from being something that I can even recommend.

Abandoned is In Theaters June 17th and Available on Digital and On Demand June 24th.

Emma Roberts

TERRIBLE

3