Abigail Review | A Vampire Ballerina Hijacks a Slapstick Heist Thriller

Summary

• Abigail
  is an over-the-top, gory horror movie with fun performances and a wild third act that may not be for everyone.
• The film features a solid ensemble cast, hilarious character moments, and a mix of ridiculousness and entertainment.
• Despite being messy and at times too ridiculous,
  Abigail
  is an entertaining ride that horror fans may enjoy for its unique take on vampire lore.

The next time you see an adorable ballerina prancing through the room, you might just double-take for your own safety after seeing a freaky movie like Abigail. The young star playing the eponymous persona in Universal’s exciting new addition to the vampire canon certainly holds her own. Meet the dynamite Alisha Weir — or if you subscribe to Netflix, she might have already stolen your heart as another eponymous character altogether: Matilda, from the recent Roald Dahl musical adaptation.

In her new hard R-rated horror offering, Weir doesn’t exactly sing like Matilda, but rather dances through this twisty, often laugh-out-loud horror feature from the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence: producer Chad Villella and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Just to paint a picture of how gory it gets: The directors had to apologize to the cast for how much blood they used for Abigail. Oof. In this day and age, that’s saying something.

But in theory, you know what you’re getting into when signing up for a sort of “Dracula’s daughter” movie like this. The gory over-the-top nature of the movie isn’t for everyone, but at the end of the day, the film is downright entertaining.

Horror That Starts Out Like a Heist Movie with Angus Cloud (RIP)

Abigail (2024)

3.5/5

Release Date April 19, 2024

Writers Guy Busick , Stephen Shields

Studio Project X Entertainment, Radio Silence Productions, Wild Atlantic Pictures

Pros

• Radio Silence swings big in a hit-or-miss horror comedy that’s pretty original and very fun.
• Angus Cloud is particularly great, and Melissa Barrera has an excellent early scene.

Cons

• It’s messy and a bit too ridiculous, and Dan Stevens hams it up a lot.

Remember when The Cabin in the Woods (2011) began with a mundane office environment, and you’re left thinking, “Wait, am I in the right movie?” You might catch similar vibes when Abigail kicks off. Instead of eerie horror, we instead watch a thrilling opening sequence involving a gang of misfits — er, bandits, that is — as they slowly break their way into a big empty house to kidnap a girl (Weir) who will be arriving home soon. The group is played by an all-star ensemble featuring the reliably colorful Kathryn Newton (Freaky), veteran household name Kevin Durand (Lost), and the late, great Angus Cloud, whose penultimate film Your Lucky Day is now available for streaming on Netflix.

Oh, and did we mention a little known performer named Dan Stevens is leading the charge? Donning an annoying mustache and an even more perplexing New York accent, his ridiculousness may garner a plethora of eyerolls throughout the first act, particularly his overuse of the F-bomb. To help balance him out is heroine Melissa Barrera, who’s been in the real-world news of late regarding celebrities speaking about the war in the Middle East. But we’re here for entertainment, not politics, and the Scream VI star certainly holds her own as the morally grounded center of this criminal outfit.

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Waiting for Dracula with Head Honcho Giancarlo Esposito

All the crooks can all agree, however, that divvying up the reward payout of $50 million is undoubtedly enticing, once they return the kidnapped Abigail to a sort of homebase. There they meet the shady head-honcho who calls himself Lambert (Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito, milking the “don’t f*** with me” persona here to the max).

Anyone who’s heard even the slightest details about Abigail knows there’s some sort of vampire tie-in to all this — but when does it come? The suspense is just anxiety-inducing, as the animated group — each successfully written with their own unique personality traits, thanks to a solid script — camps out at the lavish home for 24 hours until Abigail’s rightful dad finally arrives at the scene.

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Messy and Over the Top, Abigail Has Undeniably Fun Performances

Once the young Abigail unleashes her monstrous wrath on the gang and serves up justice on a blood-soaked silver platter, it all gets a bit over the top, with an overly gory third act that certainly could have been tightened up. Plot elements and character reveals get a bit all over the place, but this is fun, ridiculous cinema for the masses, even with a hard R rating slapped across it courtesy of the MPAA. The most rewarding moments come earlier in the film, when, for instance, protagonist Joey (Barrera) dissects the group and calls each of them out for who they really are while they kill time.

These are the scenes that film buffs everywhere will appreciate — Cloud’s hilarious turn as wildcard driver Dean has Euphoria “Fezco” vibes all the way, for example. Newton’s turn as Sammy is a sort of spiritual sequel to her (arguably) superior performance in Lisa Frankenstein, also released this year (clearly, Newton can’t be stopped). It’s no surprise that Barrera is enlisted to lead the charge in this project helmed by the same guys who did the last two Scream movies, with her Joey character in Abigail feeling a bit too similar to her Sam Carpenter role — but that’s A-OK in the grand scheme of things.

And then there’s Stevens, whose turn as the hotheaded cop-turned-crook Frank is like an epic mashup of all the standout characters the versatile actor has played in Hollywood projects to date. He and Esposito have a killer standoff towards the end, but before all that, Frank has a seemingly endless inventory of zingers and one-liners that might leave you busting a gut in between eye rolls and groans.

Later in the story, Abigail’s father gets a fun little cameo, thereby allowing for franchise and sequel potential. In the meantime, it seems the Radio Silence team isn’t afraid to lean — a little too far — into wild, sometimes silly and messy territory. It’s hit-or-miss fanfare that nonetheless takes big swings, refusing to compromise on bloodiness and just plain ridiculousness in general.

From Universal Pictures, Abigail hits theaters April 19, 2024.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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