Abattoir
Abattoir
R | 09 December 2016 (USA)
Abattoir Trailers

A reporter unearths an urban legend about a home being constructed from rooms where horrific tragedies have occurred.

Reviews
destinylives52

A low budget horror flick, "Abattoir" is about a strange, old man (played by Dayton Callie) who buys houses where brutal crimes have happened. The rooms where the crimes occurred are removed, and the house is put on sale again at a loss. One such house belonged to slain relatives of a reporter (played by Jessica Lowndes). Finding it extremely strange that the house would be sold within a week of the crime, plus the crime scene was gutted out of the house, Lowndes starts an investigation that will lead her to Callie and a creepy town where evil secrets are tied with Lowndes' past.My most memorable, movie moment is the scene when Callie shows off his Abattoir to Lowndes, revealing all the horrors within. This is where the movie really shines, showing the audience dozens of murder rooms and seeing the ghosts within go through an endless loop of suffering and dying.Unfortunately, "Abattoir" suffers from many shenanigans that ruined a very good, original idea. How did the cop/ex-boyfriend know exactly what house Lowndes was in when she went to the creepy town? Despite being way in over their heads and warned repeatedly to leave and never come back, Lowndes and ex come back immediately instead of leaving and coming back with a larger force of cops, or at least more guns. **SPOILER ALERT** How stupid and desperate and retarded were the people of the creepy town to have followed Callie and sacrificed so much for a better life?**And why would the police allow a crime scene to be gutted out of the house within days of the crime? But for Callie's good performance and the originality of the plot, "Abattoir" would have plunged into a much lower grade. For horror fans, there is enough here to warrant at least one viewing…just don't expect too much.Mannysmemorablemoviemoments

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SnoopyStyle

Newspaper reporter Julia Talben (Jessica Lowndes) is tired of doing stale real estate stories. Her sister Amanda's entire family is massacred. Julia and police detective Declan Grady find a blood-drenched Richard Renshaw inside the house. Renshaw surrenders but Julia finds no easy answers. Somebody quickly buys the house and the crime scene is mysteriously ripped out. It's one of many murder rooms collected over the years by Jebediah Crone (Dayton Callie).This is trying very hard to be a brutal noir. Any bright joy is stripped out of the frame. Even daylight looks bleak. While I appreciate the attempt, it is not all together successful. It struggles visually with the lower budget and weak directing. The intentional lifelessness leaves the movie lifeless. It looks more cheap than stylized. As a horror, there is nothing to be had until the last part with the rooms. Simple jump scares are beyond this movie. Crone doesn't even appear for the first half. This fails on a very basic level.

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marcbraithwaite

DO NOT WATCH Ooooh dear what a load of rubbish never seen so much rubbish in all my life. Who ever had rated this movie was probably on drugs or messed up in the head. Aw yeah did I mention DO NOT WATCH DO NOT WATCH DO WATCH from start to finish this movie sucks I would rather watch paint dry didn't make any sense what so ever don't know who rater this movie high -10/10 It's annoyed me so much that this is my first review but just wanted to save people the time in not bothering

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Nigel P

This is a wholly original concept realised in a traditional manner, at least for the first two thirds of the running time. The exception is the lead character Julia (Jessica Lowndes) and her detective boyfriend, who appear to have walked out of a 1950's film noir project – her make-up, style and car are very reminiscent of that era, and Detective Grady (Joe Anderson) poses and shoots foxy small-talk as if he is a modern day personality of the Humphrey Bogart school of presentation. Not that this is a problem; it is unusual and arresting. The fact that no comment is made of their anachronistic personas places them in a kind of limbo.The central concept, of someone who makes a habit of buying houses where gruesome murders have taken place, and then sets about removing the rooms where the victims died to make his own Frankenstein-style hybrid construct, is pleasingly perverse and outrageous. Events take a long time to reach this magnificent set-piece, but the wait is very much worth it.As the strange Allie, Lin Shaye plays a seemingly tortured character who's true nature is not (partially) revealed until the final frame. A scene in which she stares into her mirror, pulling the skin on her face taut, reveals inner demons that are never fully addressed. Without dialogue, it is a mesmerising moment, and Shaye adds to an already very strong cast.Pieces fall further into place once Jebediah Crone turns up, surrounded by townsfolk followers. Dayton Callie plays him with a gentle, but persuasive authority, a sort of genial cousin of Danny DeVito's Penguin character from 'Batman Returns (1992'). The resultant patchwork 'house in the woods' is exactly the kind of impossible and monstrous dismembered collection of rooms such a mad-hatter character would construct. And here is where every apparent anachronism finds an environment in which it makes sense. These are the realms of the fantastic, and this is a pay-off I certainly was not expecting. Special and directorial effects (the latter courtesy of Darren Lynn Bousman) that have thus far been highly restrained, take on epic proportions suddenly, and are utterly brilliant: the true stuff of nightmare.

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