David (a solid and likable performance by Trevor Morgan) and Jessica (a winningly perky portrayal by the pretty Tessa Ferrer) are a young couple vacationing in the California woods who get kidnapped by masked abductors in Griffith Park. The pair find themselves imprisoned in a dark cell, where they are subjected to strange medical experiments and harrowing psychological torture. Writers/directors Glen Scantlebury and Lucy Phillips relate the tight and compelling story at a steady pace, build a considerable amount of claustrophobic suspense, and do a bang-up job of crafting a strong atmosphere of stark bleakness. Moreover, there's a genuinely intriguing (and unsettling) ambiguity to the basic premise; we never find out who exactly the abductors are and precisely what they are up to with their experiments. It's truly refreshing to see a low-budget indie horror picture of current vintage that not only doesn't explain everything, but also thankfully eschews both needlessly graphic gore and cheap scares as well. Morgan and Ferrer make for engaging leads; they receive sturdy support from Ross Thomas as angry and hyper-aggressive alpha male Buzz, Vivan Dugre as catatonic UFO nut Maria, Aidan Park as loopy nerd Elliot, and Doug Haley as scrawny teen Justin. Chuck Fay's spare shivery score hits the shuddery spot. Cale Finit's polished cinematography makes effective use of both shadowy lighting and a restless camera. A tidy little nail-biter.
Review of Abducted
