Vertical Entertainment has released the first trailer for their upcoming summer horror flick, Abandoned, starring Emma Roberts as a new mom in search of an escape from the city for her and her family. She and her husband, played by John Gallagher Jr., are seen touring an idyllic country home with their cheerful realtor Cindy, played by Kate Arrington, when Roberts’s character, Sara, asks the inevitable, “Why hasn’t anyone bought it?”
Gallagher’s character, Alex, explains the couple’s desire to live a quieter life, away from the city, as the camera pans down a lane of trees to a big white house in the rural country. Roberts is seen preoccupied with their young baby while they tour the rooms, but does inquire why the house has been listed for so long as the realtor is locking up. Eerie music drops when it’s revealed that there was an “incident” –a suicide and double homicide– before the house went up for sale.
In true haunted house form, Sara dismisses this information and the family moves in. While the baby is playing, Sara discovers a door that mysteriously won’t open. With a little finesse, Alex is able to unlock the creaking door, and the couple discover that what they’d learned of the house’s grisly past may not be the entire truth. Enter the harbinger, their friendly neighbor who let himself in, played by Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, to disclose the true story. As violins trill and the house groans and creaks, the trailer reveals more lurid details of the home, and of Sara’s own past mental health issues.
Roberts is a bonafide Scream Queen after breaking from her Nickelodeon days with a starring role in Scream 4, where she played the franchise’s final darling Neve Campbell’s killer niece. More recently, Roberts starred alongside fellow queen Jamie Lee Curtis in Ryan Murphy’s sorority horror comedy, Scream Queens. She’s also a recurring star in Murphy’s dark horror anthology, American Horror Story, along with Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange .
Abandoned is directed by Spencer Squire and written by Erik Patterson and Jessica Scott. This film is the first of the eight to ten films to be released per year by Vertical Entertainment and TPC since their partnership in 2021.
Abandoned will be in theaters on June 17. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.
Abandoned follows the sharply intense lives of Sara (Emma Roberts), her husband Alex (John Gallagher Jr.), and their infant son as they move into a remote farmhouse, which harbors a dark, tragic history. As their home’s past is revealed, the mother’s fragility escalates to a state of psychosis that jeopardizes her own safety and that of her newborn son. Directed by Spencer Squire, the film stars Emma Roberts (American Horror Story, Nerve), John Gallagher Jr. (Peppermint), and Michael Shannon (Heart of Champions).
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