ABANDONED: A Horror That Needs To Be Abandoned

Horror films in essence find their strength within the complex composition of the human emotion and psyche. Representational of societal issues and those they affect, horror becomes an encompassing examination of humanity itself. While each film may have its own angles and perspectives, humanity is almost always at its core. As the final girl trope of horror proves, women are commonly a focal point as well. While one may argue women deliver a different complexity in emotion and situation, others can also argue it’s in the ignorance of the beholder.

Spencer Squire’s Abandoned is the latest film to seemingly fall into the latter. A film finding its narrative structure within the devastating effects of postpartum depression, Abandoned leaves viewers struggling with its apparent lack of empathy. Its major faults are not immediately apparent, jump scares and terrifying imagery create an almost nightmare dream state. You will find yourself questioning what is real and what is not. Yet, in its final moments, any terror it has built will be abrasively removed, leaving blame and guilt in its wake.

A Tough Watch

Abandoned was a hard film to truly mull over after the credits had finished. There is a pit that just sits in your stomach. The movie itself had felt off, but the ending delivers a gut punch with no immediate understanding available. As the days have passed since my screening, however, I began to understand what my issues were with the film and how it failed its audiences and its subject matter.

Abandoned begins from outside the home, the feeling of isolation immediate as there is nothing but the house for as far as the eye can see. The camera holds onto the home, limiting audiences visually, yet forcing them to audibly become witnesses to the horror inside. As a woman is heard breathing heavily and screaming, followed by the sounds of a baby crying, the woman begins to yell out – “no, no, don’t take him. You said I could keep this one”. Little time is allowed for the audience to take in the heavy weight of these words as gunshots give way to silence and the film transitions 40 years.

It’s an effective opening, at least initially, leaving various questions and seemingly promising some type of haunting on the film’s unsuspecting newcomers. And sure enough, viewers are introduced to Sarah (Emma Roberts) and Alex (John Gallagher Jr.), who are moving from the city. As it turns out, Alex is a vet and is tired of traveling to his clients (though the film has him doing that anyway) and Sarah is a new mother. Even with the knowledge of a murder within the home decades earlier, Alex and Sarah, and their baby son, purchase the home. It doesn’t take long for things to take a dark turn as Sarah begins hearing children’s laughter late at night and begins seeing and feeling others around her. And with Alex constantly gone, the isolation of both her situation and depression begins to take shape.

As it turns out Sarah had been struggling with postpartum depression while in the city, feeling a lack of connection with her baby, and there was hope that the move would be the cure. Yet, as her isolation grows, so too do the manifestations in the home – until neither Sarah nor the audience knows what is real.

Blame and Guilt

Abandoned does have some intriguing aspects to it, winding and weaving around the mystery of previous owners and the current haunting Sarah is experiencing. It’s as though the rage and trauma the house became witness to were burned deep into every fiber of its structure. Squire leans into the jump scares, allowing trickery of lighting and angles to heighten the tension Abandoned presents. Yet, as the film carries on, there is the feeling that it is not just another haunting, but rather something more sinister to be read just between the lines.

As the film progresses, there is the sense that Sarah just needs to “get over” her postpartum. For someone who was already struggling, extreme isolation in a seclusionary new location seems far from ideal. As the haunting increases, Alex’s concerns for the safety of their son increase. Bringing a shrink in, there is the feeling of further isolation as no one listens to Sarah – to what she needs. She speaks to her lack of connection, and how breastfeeding, when it works, is the only thing that facilitates her connection. Disregarding Sarah, pills are forced on her.

Throughout the entire movie as well, Sarah is surrounded by strictly male characters – with the exception of the brief and at times place the appearance of the realtor. In a world of men, Sarah is left with her struggles alone and with no one to truly confide in, to truly see her. Where it can be disputed that this is the horror within the postpartum being portrayed on screen, its parallelism to a pig farmer needing to terminate an entire pig family because the mother is infected puts the film’s central horror through a completely different lens. It makes Sarah an infection, rather than a victim.

Conclusion

As Abandoned closes, as a viewer, I felt that the character of Sarah was completely abandoned by both writer and director. Where there should have been a cathartic release as she begins to recover from her postpartum, instead there is the feeling of blame, shame, and guilt. There is little empathy for the character of Sarah or what she has gone through. Rather, that healing can only begin when one admits and accepts the blame, shame, and guilt others perceive to be true.

Lacking horror and empathy, Abandoned is a film that should be just that – abandoned.

Have you seen Abandoned? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Abandoned was released on VOD on June 17, 2022!

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