The Abode: Review

10th July 2023

Sometime in the 1800s, Talako (Montana Cypress) and a woman are having a passionate affair. However, when her husband, Redbeard (Chris Darsow), a notorious pirate finds out he goes on a murderous rampage and Talako is killed. Stricken with grief, Redbeard’s wife hangs herself and the two spirits move on into another realm. However, Talako’s spirit is unable to ascend and it’s said that his ghost still haunts the place where him and his love used to meet.

In the modern day, Lara (Ariadna González) lives with her adopted family after her troubled childhood, tries to do the best to put her past behind her. Thankfully though, she has grown into a stable young woman with plenty of friends. Upon hearing about a haunted house near to them, they all decide to see what happens if they stay the weekend. However once Talako starts playing tricks, Lara starts to realise what led her there.

The Abode is a supernatural horror story directed by Claudia La Bianca and co-written by Andre Alves and Nick Smith. Something of a throwback to another time where horror movies were full of vengeful spirits with dubious ethnicity, The Abode does its best to try and turn those tropes on its head. Although there are still some problems along the way.

The prologue for The Abode starts out very differently, with the production managing to capture what audiences expect from pirate movies. However, the story soon moves on to the present and they’re introduced to Lara.

There’s plenty to say about her too and this is where the movie faces a pacing problem. Giving so much backstory to its protagonist takes time and putting that together with setting up the premise of the movie also takes too long.

Also, the movie doesn’t seem to know what to do with Talako once the group get there. Meaning that their experiences mostly consist of waiting for something to happen.

The film does eventually find its footing, but the script could have been much tighter and still tell a compelling story. The finale may be satisfying to horror fans, but makes little sense in the story and the final scene only seems to be included to shock its audience. A noble effort, but something that needed a few more drafts to get right.

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