Abigail (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.

My Take – With standout works like the V/H/S franchise, 2019’s Ready Or Not, and the latest two Scream installments, Team Radio Silence, which comprises of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and producer Chad Villella, have already established themselves as one of the most promising horror filmmakers in recent memory.

And though it is quite disappointing to know that they won’t get to complete their originally proposed Scream trilogy, fans of the horror collective will be glad to know that their latest at least softens that blow.

Taking inspiration from Dracula’s Daughter (1936), the screenplay from writers Stephen Shields and Guy Busick (Ready or Not, Scream VI), allows them to turn their self-aware lens onto the classic Universal Monsters vampire story, delivering a decent twist on the genre, mixing humor with horror in a way that keeps you glued to the screen.

Indeed, it isn’t a masterpiece of cinema, nor is it the most innovative or best vampire film in history, and to make matters worse, the trailers have already shown off the best bits, yet it works as a harmless enough way to kill a couple of hours, and the occasional excess of splatter and gore is hilariously enjoyable.

Sure, it never reaches the highs of their previous works, but their usual blend of Meta gags, gore-soaked set pieces and surprises that subvert classic tropes allows the film to be exactly what it is – a fun, crowd-pleasing horror comedy that is also possibly the bloodiest film of the year.

The story follows a group of criminals that don’t know each other, with their own area of expertise, who have been brought together for a special assignment. The group, led by informant Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), is told not to disclose any personal information amongst themselves.

Using only aliases derived from the Rat Pack, the group consists of former Army medic and recovering drug addict (Melissa Barrera); former NYPD detective Frank (Dan Stevens); thrill-seeking wealthy hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton); sociopath getaway driver Dean (Angus Cloud); former Marine sniper Rickles (Will Catlett); and dimwitted Canadian mob enforcer Peter (Kevin Durand).

Their job being to kidnap the 12-year-old ballet-dancing daughter of a powerful underworld figure. With the promise of $7 Million each for babysitting the girl until her father pays up, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. It is then the true horror of what is going on quickly unfolds into a deadly bloodbath of survival.

After the derivative but mandatory set up, we don’t discover that poor, whimpering Abigail is actually a fanged, undead and acrobatic beast until about 40 minutes into the film, as the girl casually slips her bonds and shrieks and bares her fangs at her thunderstruck captors. Which we would have been a great reveal, if only it hadn’t revealed in the marketing. What follows is a gore-soaked horror crowd-pleaser with funny one-liners and superior make-up effects.

Like their earlier outings, Radio Silence, here too, are less interested in scaring the shit out of you and more in ensuring you have a great time. There are jump scares early on, but this is more of a crowd-pleasing horror outing that messes with the genre in the same way that Abigail likes to play with her food.

Ultimately, the film settles into a fairly predictable rhythm of people running around a dark mansion getting killed one by one, but it does occasionally demonstrate a twisted playfulness. Abigail is a ballerina, after all, and she delights in dancing as much as she delights in slaughter. When she begins to control one character’s mind, she first makes the other person dance, which sounds just as weird as it feels onscreen in a good way.

But while the bloodthirstiness of the initial encounters with our pint-sized member of the blood suckers are indeed exhilarating, it then descends into silliness with its pointless subplots and Survivor-style alliances that are formed one minute and abandoned the next, and any semblance of plot is ultimately washed away by literal buckets of blood.

Mainly as the film seems more interested in its rating than its characters or story. It’s filled with people exploding in (admittedly hilarious) supernovas of blood. It’s a cheap-thrill film, and on that score it mostly delivers. The amped-up gore elevates the film’s shock value but not its suspense.

Only if they had gone a different route in the concluding chapter of the film instead of going the generic slasher horror film route. With its potential squandered, the climax lacks the impact it deserves, which, in my opinion, significantly hurts the film’s overall quality.

Performance wise, Melissa Barrera, once again, proves herself as the ultimate ‘Scream Queen’ of this generation, showcasing her range beyond the Scream franchise. Kathryn Newton earned some of the greatest laughs in a standout role that may be unexpected after her past outings in the genre. Carrying on in the same vein as his performance in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Dan Stevens’ performance is also noteworthy, as he once again proves his versatility by adapting himself to the crazy absurd tones a film emits and brings his A-game to deliver a mixture of humor and drama.

Kevin Durand as the empty-headed muscle in our merry band of criminals steals every scene he’s in. William Catlett commands the screen as a necessary complement to Barrera’s Abigail character. Giancarlo Esposito and the late Angus Cloud do just as well in smaller roles.

The absolute standout, though, is Alisha Weir as the titular vampire. Providing plenty of bite, Weir’s transformative display crafts a new horror icon that defies the conventions of traditional vampire tales for something more visceral, primal and deadly. On the whole, ‘Abigail’ is a commendable horror that provides good splatter fun, nothing more but certainly nothing less.