ABBATOIR (2016) Reviews and overview

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‘He’s been expecting you’

Abattoir is a 2016 American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (St. Agatha; The BarrensSaw II, III and IV) from a screenplay by David J. Schow (Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III; Critters 3 and 4; The Hills Run Red), Teddy Tenenbaum and Christopher Monfette for Radical Studios. Based upon the horror comic of the same name, the movie stars Jessica Lowndes, Joe Anderson and Dayton Callie.

A real estate reporter (Lowndes) unearths an urban legend about a house being built from rooms where horrific tragedies have occurred. The investigation ultimately leads to the enigmatic Jebediah Crone and his impossible construction: the Abattoir…

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Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“It’s odd that Abattoir comes up with as potent a location as the patchwork-of-murder-scenes haunted house but then delays getting inside for so long, but the last reel manages a nice escalation of the eerie and the shocking as the intruders are assailed by enough murdered ghosts to populate an entire season of American Horror Story.” Kim Newman, Screen Daily

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“The dialogue isn’t just awkward and unbelievable—it’s as if it was written by a teenager raised on only bad horror movies. The pacing isn’t just clunky, it’s edited in a way that almost feels designed to be distracting. The performances are uniformly bad, even from actors who normally do good work.” Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Though it’s handsome enough to look at, “Abattoir” can’t quite seem to decide just how supernatural it wants to be or how meta its horror content should play … So despite good production values and some nice visual atmospherics, the tenor teeters awkwardly between muted camp and straightforward thrills. Aside from a few tepid jump scares, nothing here connects in a way that actually generates tension” Dennis Harvey, Variety

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“…while Bousman’s climax is a not terribly original effects-laden haunted house, the house’s builder, and his motives, have enough of their own flavor to please a hardened horror fan.” John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

“Great premise. Screamy sweary leads. No sense of coherent narrative. Ridiculous ending. Confusing rubbish.” John Llewellyn Probert, House of Mortal Cinema

Main cast:

  • Jessica Lowndes
  • Joe Anderson
  • Dayton Callie
  • Lin Shaye (A Nightmare on Elm Street2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams; Insidious)
  • John McConnell
  • Bryan Batt
  • Michael Paré (Bone Tomahawk; Sicilian Vampire; The Shelter; et al)
  • J. LaRose
  • Jackie Tuttle
  • Jay Huguley
  • Aiden Flowers
  • Carol Sutton
  • Josh Berger
  • Terence Rosemore
  • Thomas Francis Murphy

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Filming locations:

New Orleans, USA

Release:

In the US, Momentum Pictures released Abbatoir in theaters, VOD and Digital HD on December 9, 2016. Meanwhile, the movie is available on Universal Blu-ray and DVD in the UK.

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