I was traversing through a used book & comic store in my neighbourhood that's been having a perpetual "moving" sale for the last few month (and apparently, it's now been extended until December of this year) when I was lucky enough to spot, on a yet-to-be-organized pile of recent donations to the cause, a somewhat tattered copy of George R.R. Martin's rare "Sandkings" paperback printing from 21years ago. And I gotta say, taking a read of the title story this weekend, it was phenomenal. If you were unfortunate enough to have seen the feebly plotted and executed nineteen-nineties' "Outer Limits" pilot (as I was), then are you in for a surprise with this suspenseful, terrorizing, edgy and rich sci-fi allegory on pride, conceit and the human condition, and the sometimes unwitting evils that lie within. Only catch is after a cursory look around Amazon, it looks like you'd have to track down your own used copy, or hit the library. But it's well worth the effort. I could honestly rave at length.

Pick of the week: The Abandoned  (8/10)

Directed by: Nacho Cerda
Starring: Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden
Released by: After Dark Films/Lionsgate

Anastasia Hille stars in Spanish horror filmmaker Nacho Cerda's feature film debut as the daughter of deceased Russian parents and the inheritor of their creepy farmhouse located out in the middle of nowhere. Arriving at the farmhouse, she immediately finds Karel Roden, who claims to be (and may or may not be) her twin brother. From this point, the duo finds themselves physically trapped in the dilapidated house going through a Jacob's Ladder-style ring-around-the-rosie throughout relentlessly aborted escape attempts. This goes on for the next forty minutes, and in most other directors' hands, this thin storyline would've fallen apart in the first few moments. But in Cerda's gifted control and visionary (and highly visualistic) style, it becomes a crescendoing effect of suspense and creeping horror without losing even the slightest bit of intrigue.

Co-written by Dust Devil cult director Richard Stanley, the influences of both this writer and the film's director are completely palpable, often recalling Cerda's poetically intensifying imagery of his short films Genesis and Aftermath with the enigmatic fury of Stanley's Dust Devil.

At the end of its second act, The Abandoned culminates in a shift in style, and the final act goes from poetic, crescendoing and mysterious to completely intense and time-warping. It never quite hits the level of emotional terrorizing as say The Descent generates, but it does become impressively nerve-wracking and gripping right to the end.

There are many pivoting moments in the film where a seasoned horror viewer will believe The Abandoned is becoming predictable, but this misconception only lasts for mere seconds before Cerda takes the film into novel and sometimes challenging territory. Not quite as challenging as his short film work, mind you, but The Abandoned is certainly a fantastic start to this filmmaker's feature film career.

-V.