Abandoned

What happens when the worst stretch of your life coincides with moving into a house that has stood empty for decades? That is what Spencer Squire builds 'Abandoned' on, his first feature as a director, a haunted house story that walks straight into postpartum psychosis. Emma Roberts leads it and is also one of its producers.

Sara and Alex move out to an isolated farmhouse in the countryside with Liam, their baby son. He arrives delighted; she is far less sure. When Sara asks why the price is so good, the estate agent tells her plainly: a family tragedy happened there decades ago and nobody has owned the place since. They sign anyway, and that decision shapes everything that follows.

Alex works as a vet and is out all day, which leaves Sara alone with a baby who refuses to feed and far too many rooms around her. It starts with the sound of children playing behind a door blocked by a wardrobe. Then family belongings go missing and apparitions nobody else sees start turning up. Her husband calls in a psychiatrist, and all the while there is the neighbour, Chris Renner, who offers to lend a hand and knows a good deal more about that house than he lets on. Is the house coming for her, or is it her own head?

Shooting took place in the Piedmont region of North Carolina across September and October 2021, from a script by Erik Patterson and Jessica Scott. Roberts produces alongside John Gallagher Jr. and Zachary Quinto. Vertical Entertainment opened it on 17 June 2022 in just 54 American cinemas, where it took under $100,000 in its first week.

The cast is the strongest card 'Abandoned' holds: with Roberts and Gallagher Jr. come Michael Shannon, familiar from 'Nocturnal Animals' and 'The Shape of Water', Paul Schneider as the psychiatrist and Addy Miller. Reviews were harsh, nearly all of them sparing Roberts and blaming a script that never picks between drama and scare. British viewers got it on digital in December 2022, and it is still a rental or a purchase here.

• Horror
• Mystery
• Thriller