Review of Abattoir (2016) by Shane S — 13 Dec 2017
An interesting horror film with an "olde tyme" feel. This is a horror film that hopes to craft a unique story grounded in enough classic horror staples to keep the audience invested, but ultimately comes up a bit short. Abattoir has flashes of brilliance, but does not really deliver.
The lead actors are a bit weak, and detract from the film at times. Dayton Callie and Lin Shaye help counter balance this with more passable performances. The actual plot of the film is utterly crazy, even by a horror film's standard. I think where it unravels a bit is that the story line is not standard enough to be a run of the mill horror fare, and not innovative enough to be a statement piece. The clumsy final act is not really shocking enough. The suspense building in the beginning is a little too weakly done.
The other problem is I don't care about the characters. That is more workable if this is a slasher, but it does not work well for a more cerebral horror film. Even in a slasher it is not ideal.
Abattoir is clearly the work of a director with a masterful knowledge of the genre, but he fails to stitch together a few great bits and pieces in a successful way.
This review of Abattoir (2016) was written by Shane S on 13 Dec 2017.
Abattoir has generally received negative reviews.
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