Atmospheric,beautiful, disturbing and creepy...I really wanted to love this film, because it has great elements. All of the people who say the dialogue was bad have clearly never read a Sam Spade novel or watched a lot of classic film noir. Abattoir could have been a cult classic, because of the way it marries a couple of different genres of detective fiction and horror, and pays homage to films typically beloved by people around the ages of the lead characters. The sound effects and music are truly unsettling, and who doesn't love the log lady?
HOWEVER...why? Why do they do the things for the man? This is a hideous flaw in the structure of the film, and makes the end a complete mess. Why is the mother more concerned about the happiness of this monster, than about herself or her children? Why did the entire town give their lives to him? What did he promise them? The payoff wasn't apparent. I know they wanted to avoid being trapped, but what was the initial reward, or the promise that he made them? There wasn't even the suggestion that he was especially alluring as a younger man, when he first came to the town. It really messed up the film for me, that the audience is insulted this way, that we are left without an explanation WHY...we know why he did it, but why did they?
HOWEVER...why? Why do they do the things for the man? This is a hideous flaw in the structure of the film, and makes the end a complete mess. Why is the mother more concerned about the happiness of this monster, than about herself or her children? Why did the entire town give their lives to him? What did he promise them? The payoff wasn't apparent. I know they wanted to avoid being trapped, but what was the initial reward, or the promise that he made them? There wasn't even the suggestion that he was especially alluring as a younger man, when he first came to the town. It really messed up the film for me, that the audience is insulted this way, that we are left without an explanation WHY...we know why he did it, but why did they?