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The Abode
USA 2023
produced by Andre Alves, Karmel Bortoleti, Antonio Paz-Bezerra, Nick Smith, Danny Campolargo (executive), Alejandro Suaya (executive), Mohammed Alamin (executive), Kristopher Griffin (executive), Michael Moses (executive) for Eagle Star Films, Krygell Films, Toy & Butterfly Films
directed by Claudia La Bianca
starring Ariadna Gonzalez Medina, Karmel Bortoleti, Taina Doninguez, Teance Blackburn, Montana Cypress, Jake Trew, Tilden Whitfield, Barbara Portales, Melissa Barto, Douglas Olivo, Chris Darsow, Yarenis Martinez, Vanessa Falabella, Danny Santos, Renata Bortoleti, Mabelin Mercedes, Wanderson Dos Santos, Raquel Ortiz, Macuria Montolanez, Ryan Thomas, Kristen Thomas, Thomas Dale, Selina Caroline, Mike Tulinski, Daniel Merendoni, Matt Mitchell, Kristen A. Thomas
written by Andre Alves, additional dialogue by Nick Smith, music by Marinho Nobre
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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300 years ago, pirate Redbeard (Chris Darsow) and his men stole a strip
of land in Florida from the natives and killed a whole tribe in the
process, all but Talako (Montana Cypress), who managed to escape badly
wounded after facing Redbeard in one-on-one battle, and was secretly
nursed back to help by Redbeard's maid Lara (Ariadna Gonzalez Medina).
However, eventually they are found out, and Talako is tortured and killed,
with Lara committing suicide finding his body.
Back in the now, a twelve year old girl also named Lara (Barbara
Portales) tries to kill her dad, who's the splitting image of Redbeard
(and thus also played by Chris Darsow). She's treated and taught to
supress her patricidal urges, but that in turn gives her terrible
nightmares. Years later, Lara has reached adulthood, is the splitting
image of the Lara from 300 years ago, is still as troubled as ever, but at
the advice of Dr. Roberts (Teance Blackburn), he has now started to
explore her nightmares and has thus stumbled over the story of Talako,
which she investigates in much detail. And ultimately the good doctor
suggests to her to travel to St. Augustine, where the mansion of Redbeard
is located, and it's turned into an AirBnB - despite the fact that it's
believed haunted. So Lara, her boyfriend (Douglas Olivo), her brother
(Jake Trew) and a few friends (Taina Doninguez, Tilden Whitfield, Melissa
Barto) make the trip, and they should already been scared away by the sexy
yet creepy caretaker (Karmel Bortoleti) of the place - but they stay, and
soon enough the ghosts of Talako and his tribe, probably triggered by the
presence of Lara, see to it that all the intruders get their just (?)
desserts ...
Ok, while I admit that I generally like when not everything is
explained away in (especially) horror movies, this one leaves a few too
many plotholes open to be ignored, and thus it's a little hard to make
sense of it all. That said, the film's still a nice horror trip, it's
effectively built-up and very well put together, with some really creepy
imagery and some disturbing ideas. And a very relatable cast also helps
bringing this to life, making this maybe not into a masterpiece per se,
but pretty cool genre entertainment nevertheless.
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