Short-filmmaker Nacho Cerda's feature debut, currently shooting in Bulgaria. Written by Cerda (99€ Films 2) and Karim Hussain (Subconcious Cruelty), with revisions by Richard Stanley. Hussain's also been organizing the FanTasia film festivals in Canada, screening both Stanley's and Cerda's works.

“BLOODLINE is based on an original screenplay that I wrote, which over the last couple of years I rewrote numerous versions of with Nacho in Barcelona. Since I am busy preparing my new directing feature LA BELLE BETE [THE BEAUTIFUL BEAST] that shoots in August in Montreal, Richard [HARDWARE] Stanley came in to do some last-minute production polishes on the script with Nacho. I spoke to Nacho recently, and he’s very happy with the way the film is turning out. The cinematographer is Xavi [THE MACHINIST] Gimenez, who is providing some very strong and creepy images.” - Hussain

"BLOODLINE is about an American film producer who returns to her homeland of Russia to look into her mother’s unusual death. Having been adopted and brought to America as a baby, she knows little of her natural parents, but learns that she has inherited their isolated farm—one that the locals believe is cursed. Once she arrives there, she meets a man who was lured there to uncover his own family secrets, and they begin to experience ghostly visions—of their own dead selves!"

From Fangoria, a newer and older article, with thanks to Will.

Well, we'll finally see if Cerdà is really a good filmaker or not - personally, I never trust of shortmovies: it's too easy to cheat. And THE AFTERMATH actually never got me.

I <3 Nacho's style.

The film is shot, and is currently in postproduction.

Filmax's pages for BLOODLINE. No sign of a release date, yet.

From an interview with Karim Hussain, BLOODLINE co-writer. There's more to it (as well as his other works) in the full version, I'm putting the meat of the topic here.

JB: So where did the idea for Bloodline come from?

KH : Bloodline is based on an original script I wrote in 1999, which originally had the odd title of The Bleeding Compass. A Canadian producer asked me to write a low budget horror movie for him, so I thought I would surprise him with something I would deliver very fast. The general idea came from some images I had in dreams, the concept that there could be no greater ghost to haunt one’s self than their own. It was a very strange, obsessive little script; inspired by many trips I took to my father’s farm in my youth. The layout of the farm in the movie is still a bit similar to the layout of that farm. In the night, that place was one of the most fantastic, terrifying and ghostly places imaginable. So much black space, so much darkness where anything could happen. Many of the buildings were in bad shape, rotting. It was so beautiful. I grew up going there practically every weekend and my imagination would run wild.

So I basically crammed many of the ideas and imagery I thought of there into the script and structured it around the concept of looking into your own eyes, only the reflection is of yourself dead. I always loved Russian cinema, so I wanted to do a kind of homage to that odd world of folklore and isolation. The idea was to do a pure horror movie where again, family was the culprit, a theme that is common in my work. I originally wrote it very rapidly, almost like in a fever, I think in like a week. People I knew inspired some of the characters. Strangely enough, ultimately that producer wanted something more sadistic and gore-soaked, so he passed on it which I always thought was an odd decision. So I started showing it around to other people…

Nacho had read it at the time and thought that draft was very rough, but he always kept coming back to it and saying how much potential he thought it had. We had been working together on all sorts of stuff, and in the interim I re-wrote it a bit and the title changed to Haunted Light. I had tried to set it up at a couple different companies with me attached as a director but it kept on getting delayed, or they just didn’t get it. At that time it was a very dreamy, stream of consciousness kind of horror movie, not so concerned about story mechanics as it was nightmarish imagery and concepts. Then Filmax wanted us to do a relatively low budget horror movie, and Nacho thought this could be interesting for him to direct, so we sat down in Barcelona and re-wrote the film together rather radically in early 2004 and called it Bloodline. We went through numerous drafts and ironically, from how things are looking, some things in the movie are actually a bit similar to that very first draft I wrote in 1999, which I think is pretty fun.

Afterwards, I was busy in pre-production on my new film as a director, La Belle Bête (The Beautiful Beast) and we needed a really good writer to finalize the production shooting drafts with Nacho, so he and I both thought Richard Stanley would be perfect. Richard’s an old friend and he was excited to come in and work with Nacho on this strange, dreamy horror movie set in Russia. We’re all thrilled with the way it’s come out.

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JB: Were you able to be involved in Bloodline’s actual shoot at all?

KH : I was not on set for the shoot of Bloodline because it was filming at the same time as Beautiful Beast. I was in Montreal, Nacho was in Bulgaria. We spoke on the phone a lot and called each other up every Saturday to trade war stories. Richard Stanley was on set a bit to do some final polishes with Nacho, but we consulted each other on most everything. Ironically, Bloodline finished its shoot on the exact same day I finished mine. Like some sort of weird lost twins connected from afar telepathically.

- Dread Central

I'm thinking this one will be worth a look, if not more. See also:
teaser trailer

IMDb reports that the film has been renamed to THE ABANDONED.

This is yet to be confirmed.

The film is now called THE ABANDONED. It'll premiere this September at the Toronto International Filmfestival.

from fangoria's site:

Cerdà’s ABANDONED in Toronto; scripter talks

Fango heard from Montreal filmmaker Karim (SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY) Hussain, who’s elated that THE ABANDONED, the Filmax chiller he co-wrote with Richard Stanley and the film’s director, Spanish up-and-comer Nacho (AFTERMATH) Cerdà, will have its world premiere at this year’s prestigious Toronto Film Festival. The movie, which marks Cerdà’s first plunge into feature filmmaking, will play as part of the Midnight Madness section. “THE ABANDONED is a ghost story about a woman who was adopted as an infant and returns to her homeland of Russia to find out about her past,” Hussain explains to Fango. “There, she’s led to the desolate farm were she was born, to discover that not only is a strange man lurking about, claiming to be her long-lost brother, but that the location is haunted…by their own ghosts. Or more precisely, doppelgangers that depict how they’re going to die.”

Hussain reveals that the long-gestating project, originally titled BLOODLINES, is “based on an original screenplay I wrote in 1999 that had the strange working title of THE BLEEDING COMPASS. Nacho and I had been toiling away on various projects as co-writers over the years, when Filmax asked Nacho to come up with a horror movie to direct that could be done on a smaller scale than some of our other projects. So he dug up my old [COMPASS] draft, and decided we’d work on it together and develop it into what ultimately became THE ABANDONED. We spent the next two years or so rewriting it together, with me splitting my time between Barcelona and Montreal, doing countless drafts and different versions. Finally, we got a draft that we were both quite happy with—but as production neared, some stuff had to be changed to fit the budget and schedule.”

Enter Stanley. “I was in preproduction on my next film as a director, LA BELLE BETE [THE BEAUTIFUL BEAST], which was going to shoot in Montreal, so we needed another writer to come in and do the last-minute polishes with Nacho. We asked Richard, a mutual friend, to come on board and also to be present for some time on set in Bulgaria to do daily polishes. THE ABANDONED and LA BELLE BETE were actually shot at the same time on opposite sides of the world, so every Saturday Nacho and I would speak on the phone and trade war stories. Even with three writers, we always consulted each other on everything, but of course in the end, the film is truly Nacho’s vision. That said, you’ll still find elements of our three personalities in there, which is fun.”

For an additional Montreal connection, THE ABANDONED features aural contributions by local musician David (THE DESCENDANT) Kristian, Hussain’s composer on CRUELTY and other projects. “He has provided many tracks of additional music and sound design that I believe really help the movie’s atmosphere,” Hussain says. “They complement the more traditional score that was composed by Alfons Conde. Suffice to say, we’re all very thrilled with the way the film has turned out, and happy to see that it will encounter the world for the first time in such a prestigious slot as Midnight Madness in Toronto. Personally, I’m very proud of how Nacho and the crew brought these ideas and visions to the big screen. I hope people enjoy it as a dreamy, nightmarish journey into the dark side of the senses.”

THE ABANDONED stars Anastasia Hille, Karel (HELLBOY) Roden, Carlos Reig and Valentin Ganev; you can find more info and photos at the movie’s Filmax page. Hussain adds, “THE ABANDONED will open theatrically through Filmax in Spain before the end of the year, though nothing can be announced yet regarding its North American release. It will additionally play in competition at the Sitges International Film Festival, where LA BELLE BETE will also be showing. BELLE opens theatrically in Quebec in November, distributed by Equinoxe Films.”

Meanwhile, Variety reports that Toronto’s Midnight slate also includes the world premieres of the multidirector fright film TRAPPED ASHES and Jonathan King’s horror/comedy BLACK SHEEP, the North American premieres of Christopher (CREEP) Smith’s satirical slasher SEVERANCE and Bong Joon-ho’s Korean monster epic THE HOST, J.T. Petty’s shocking documentary S&MAN, Kim Chapiron’s French oddity SHEITAN and Jonathan Levine’s Austin-lensed teen fright film ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE.

it is likely and i am hoping to see this next week during one of the 2 screenings!!!
anyone else?

let me just say again that i <3 nacho and karim and am in awe of david kristian.

and mr. stanley - you still rock my world and i truly wish you were here with us! [ i mean - if you ever really see this ;) ]

So, you liked it?

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I know somebody close to Richard (if not Richie himself) checks the place out every now and then.

But... you and I wouldn't know anything about that, eh?

me eyes and ears were open wide the entire midnight screening - that must say something, ne? : )

not sure if you guys heard news of the double murder+suicide the morning of The Abandoned screening - that said...last night i was genuinely creeped out by S&MAN.

missed Trapped Ashes on it's second screening this afternoon [ooops] but enjoyed The Host a few weeks ago.
will be seeing Princess, Severance and Sheitan over the next 3 nights.

the midnight madness programmer certainly does his job well! ; )

<3

The official website is up.

Featured there is the director's blog, currently with little content.


Amusing that they should call the URL "The Abandoned Movie"

THE ABANDONED will be featured on the After Dark Horrorfest, and will screened on 35 markets in 500 theatres along with seven other films.

It'll be a one weekend shot in 17th-19th November, so anyone interested take note. Tickets on sale in Halloween.

After Dark website


Thanks, Will.

now there is a teaser trailer, stills and some more stuff.

nice site, hope it grows.