"Abandoned" a derivative postpartum horror story with actors giving it their all

Abandoned (2022)

One of these days, there needs to be a horror movie where a couple moves into an old house that doesn’t have a blood-stained past and no hauntings. Until then, director Spencer Squire makes his feature debut with “Abandoned,” a postpartum story that can’t just be about postpartum depression and the pressures of motherhood but grafts on a derivative kind of horror story, or does it?

Emma Roberts and John Gallagher Jr. play former preschool teacher Sara and veterinarian Alex Davis. They need a change from the city, especially now with their newborn son Liam. Of course, the timeless rural home they find is a steal because of “an incident” 40 years ago. (Laughably, the realtor, played by Kate Arrington, says it sounds worse than it was before disclosing said incident as “a suicide”—no, “a double homicide”—with a manila-enveloped report ready to hand over.) Alex would rather not know, but Sara is fine with “a little haunting” and reasons that it’s all in the past. If you’ve seen “The Amityville Horror” or anything like it, this feels like a self-aware wink to a very stale setup.

Before the haunted-house tropes start, the script by Erik Patterson & Jessica Scott is more involving when focusing on the parents of a newborn. Sara and Alex clearly have differing parenting styles, and much of that has to do with Sara’s postpartum (she wears a rubber band on her wrist that she’ll snap when her emotions get the best of her). Alex is fine with having their newborn stay in their room for the time being, but Sara is set on getting his crib into his room. While Alex goes off to work (he’s oddly tasked with eliminating a bunch of sick baby pigs on a farm), Sara spends her time at home, hoping to get closer to Liam and get the house together. As Sara gets distracted by the history of the house, she soon finds a white ribbon that belonged to former resident Anna Solomon, whom Sara happens to resemble. Of course she does, or at least that’s what neighbor Chris Renner (Michael Shannon) tells her. Then possessions, like Sara and Alex’s wedding picture, Sara’s music box, and Liam’s favorite pacifier, keep getting moved or just disappear, and Sara thinks she might be hallucinating voices and a swarm of buzzing flies. Alex suggests medication and makes a house call to a psychiatrist (Paul Schneider), but Sara wants to maintain breast feasting to feel close to her baby. Is Sara spiraling, or is she experiencing a bona fide haunting? 

Why are all of the upstairs windows nailed shut? Why is the giant wardrobe in the master bedroom so hard to move? Well, there are answers to your questions. They just aren’t that interesting. One of the film’s “secrets” is extremely obvious, and luckily it’s not saved to be the movie’s one and only reveal (in fact, Sara doesn’t even seem surprised by it). Emma Roberts and John Gallagher Jr. are both committed to the material, bringing more layers than what might be on the page. Michael Shannon gets more exposition to deliver than character besides menace as Sara and Alex’s mysterious neighbor, whom you know is strange because he just walks into their house on his own. At least every scene with Shannon percolates with a little tension, but that mainly has to do with the actor’s sheer presence. 

What “Abandoned” does have is an appealing timelessness (no cell phones here), evocative photography, and a few nighttime chills, albeit none that will really keep you up at night when most of the film is a repetitive exercise in deflection. Not terribly clumsy in attempting to blend the psychological, the supernatural, and the truth, “Abandoned” just ends up wearing itself out in practice with a rather confused conclusion. Maybe a moratorium on horror movies about unreliable women and stigmatized properties is officially in order. 

Grade: C

Vertical and TPC are releasing “Abandoned” (102 min.) in theaters on June 17, 2022 and on digital and on demand June 24, 2022.