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Parents' Guide to

Abandoned

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Bland horror tries to address mental illness but stalls.

Movie PG-13 2022 102 minutes
Abandoned Movie: Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In ABANDONED, Sara (Emma Roberts), her veterinarian husband, Alex (John Gallagher Jr.), and their infant son, Liam, move into an old, remote farmhouse. Alex immediately goes to work tending neighbors' farm animals, leaving Sara to care for Liam by herself. She suffers from postpartum depression, which leads to her finding it difficult to feel delight in her baby and feeling only guilty and sad. Sara and Alex learn about the house's violent past, and Sara reads police reports to learn more, but something is missing. A strange neighbor, Renner (Michael Shannon), comes and goes, and Sara starts seeing creepy things in the house. Unless she can solve the mystery, Liam may be in danger.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (3 ):

Despite a strong cast and some solid performances, this psychological horror/thriller isn't just confusing but also just plain bland, wheeling out all the old horror clichés without much enthusiasm. Abandoned seems to have made an attempt to weave the serious issue of postpartum depression into the fabric of the mystery, and that might have been interesting, but, unfortunately, it's all surface. And scenes of the couple attempting to deal with it in a real-world way -- Alex trying hard to understand Sara's feelings, but failing -- wind up in a stalemate. (Perhaps director Spencer Squire, who identifies as male, also had trouble understanding.)

Whatever the movie does achieve is undone by an ending that's not only confusing -- betraying certain information offered at the outset -- but also a cheat. Throughout the rest of Abandoned, screaming and banging sounds, figures dashing by in the foreground and background, and generic jump scares simply happen without much impact. They're all just too familiar. Roberts, Gallagher, and Shannon all seem game, and they do their best to emotionally tie things together, but the movie leaves them all ... abandoned.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Abandoned's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

  • How much violence is directed at Sara? How does it feel when the baby seems to be in danger?

  • Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

  • What is postpartum depression? Do you think mothers face more criticism, guilt, and depression than fathers? If so, why? How are gender divisions of labor typically handled?

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