The Abandoned

The Abandoned (2007): This movie combines the unusual elements of a Russian ghost story, directed by a Spaniard, filmed in Bulgaria, starring an English actress playing an American ex Russian. However, this is a pretty good ghost story with a lot of circular logic as well as a lot of traveling in circles. A forty something American woman receives notice that she has inherited the family farm in Russia. The paperwork had been lost during the great changes that occurred in Russia and she is just now being notified about her bounty. She was adopted and knows little about her past so off she goes to find out about her origins. Once in Russia things go downhill fast. The farm is in a very rural part of the country on an island in a river. Her driver appears to abandon her at the old farmhouse but she soon meets a man who claims to be her brother. Strange things begin to happen that can’t happen and they bump into zombie like things that look very much like themselves and who chase after them a lot. Fortunately, these doubles stumble along pretty slowly. Saying much more would give too much of the plot away. Suffice it to say that while not completely logical, it does combine most of the elements of a good ghost story. The movie is rated R for: double doppelgangers, multiple murders, pigs eating relatives, half a bridge over troubled waters, multiple drowning, and for the poor guy that shoots his doppelganger in the knee only to find out he also shot himself in the knee.