by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
A child abduction goes incredibly wrong when a rag-tag group of kidnappers discover that their little ballerina charge is much more than they bargained for in Abigail.
One night, a crew of six criminals assemble to kidnap a young and lonely ballerina girl from her bedroom. As they execute their plan by drugging the girl and taking her to a stately and gothic mansion outside of town, they start to realize that their $50 million plan of extortion has a couple of problems. The first is that their target’s father, a legendary, feared, and ruthless crime kingpin, has no care for paying a ransom. The second problem is that their ward can take care of herself because she is a vampire. With the tables turned, can the criminals survive the night and save themselves?
The horror, heist, thriller Abigail is written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busiek. The film stars Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Will Catlett, Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, and Alisha Weir as the titular ballerina vampire. The movie is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (and Tyler Gillett. The pair along with producer Chad Villella go by the name of Radio Silence and have created several movies together including V/H/S, Devil’s Due, Scream, and Scream 6.
The biggest problem with the film is that the one thing that it had going for itself is revealed in the trailer. If the producers of the film could have found a way to keep the information that Abigail is a vampire a secret until the movie was seen, it would make for a much better story. Since the surprise is spoiled by the trailer (and word of mouth) Abigail finds itself in the same old horror story mode.
This movie fails to provide any real jump scares that are usually requisite for a horror film. It does have one gross scene and plenty of blood and guts throughout (it is a vampire movie, after all.) As vampire horror goes, this film runs right down the middle of the road. It does follow the rules of what does and does not kill a vampire as well as how to make a vampire.
There are a couple of things that set this film apart. There is a violent ballet dance scene that Alisha Weir executes to perfection. The scene feels more than a little inspired by the crazy dance from M3GAN but it is a lot more violent and bloody and a lot less ominous. Nonetheless, Weir is fascinating in her ability to switch from helpless child to bloodthirsty demon spawn so effectively.
This film is also the last screen appearance of Angus Cloud. Cloud plays a wheelman whose elevator does not seem to reach the top floor. Cloud’s performance is perfectly annoying and maddening. This role allows the audience to glimpse the magnitude of the talent that was so tragically lost when Cloud died last year. (The film recognizes Cloud’s passing at the end of the movie.)
Lastly, as mentioned before, there is a lot of blood and gore, mostly blood though. It is creative when Radio Silence shows us a vampire exploding but it seems almost comical when you have multiple exploding vampire bodies throughout the movie. Again, not scary, more icky.
Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language, and brief drug use, Abigail is creative and fun. Despite having a textbook plot, this film is engaging and entertaining. Don’t look for a lot of traditional horror scares but be ready for buckets of blood and a story that ultimately is about the importance of parents being there for their children.
Grade: B-