The director further added, “There are many other cooks in the kitchen, and in this particular case, those other cooks wanted to push it more into a ghost story that you’ve seen many times before, whereas me and all the cast wanted to tell this story that was more about a mental health crisis and about the terrifying reality of seeing things that are there in your mind and so ultimately the movie kind of landed in a middle ground.” Among the performances that stand out in the movie, those of Emma Roberts and John Gallagher Jr. “I just thought, well, we’ve seen that before, but what I saw with this one was a chance to explore some very serious mental health issues starting with the mother, who is struggling with her postpartum issues, but also the depression that her husband is struggling with and then you have this neighbor character who is struggling with his own PTSD issues from his childhood experiences…So it was important to me that the ghosts weren’t actual ghosts, but something that the mother was seeing in her mind, and that’s why it was important that the ghosts in this film look very real,” Squire stated. In an interview with Film International, director Spencer Squire emphasized his efforts to make the movie focus more on reality than the supernatural, as the latter has already been explored in numerous films. Despite being fictional, the brooding atmosphere in the movie comes off as enticing and ominous and makes the protagonist’s experiences of postpartum psychosis seem relatable. It is adapted from a stellar original screenplay by Erik Patterson (‘Deep Blue Sea 2’) and Jessica Scott (‘ The X-Files‘).
No, ‘Abandoned’ is not based on a true story. Now, if you are wondering whether there is an ounce of truth in the movie, allow us to indulge your curiosity. Following its release, ‘Abandoned’ garnered quite some praise for weaving an immersive ambiance and its realistic portrayal of new motherhood. Delving too deep into the horror-as-metaphor side reveals a few things that don't seem very well thought through, and it's somewhat of a fatal flaw that Abandoned encourages its audience to dwell on them.As the movie lumbers forward, Sara’s postpartum struggle turns southward, and she begins getting entangled in the secrets of her new residence. Additionally, while the script has some interesting things to say about the horror of feeling disconnected from one's own child, it is also far too quick to accept a characterization of Sara as monstrous. Abandoned would have been better served by staying firmly in the unsettling vein, rather than trying to get the audience's adrenaline going with staid haunted house shenanigans. What works better, while still not being especially creative, are moments of grossness that contribute to larger motifs of rot and decay. In terms of fright, attempts at jump scare-style scenes play terribly, both because of how they are telegraphed and the rhythm with which they are edited. Other elements of the movie, however, are far choppier. More likely is what happens to Abandoned, which finds moments of success in both strands but noticeably chafes whenever it tries to combine them, laying solid groundwork only to leave audiences grimacing by its conclusion. Telling a story at its nexus is a difficult task, and the films that succeed, such as Jennifer Kent's horror film The Babadook, are worthy of special praise. In the second, horror elements are in service of a larger metaphor, exploring some issue that the movie is "really about." These might seem complimentary, but they actually encourage viewers to think about what they're seeing in very different ways - whether something makes sense, for example, is a narrative question in one and a thematic question in the other. Setting aside its haunted house narrative, fans of the horror genre will recognize Abandonedpositioning itself within two storytelling trends. In the first, a movie raises the question of whether the protagonist's experiences are real or all in their head, and leaves it hanging for most of the runtime, pulling suspense from the viewer's uncertainty.
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