Every year, filmmakers give us their take on the vampire movie. Last year, we had films like Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter where vampires took the form of Nicolas Cage and scary creatures. Abigail is a different type of vampire movie. The titular character shows us that bloodthirsty fangs come in all shapes and sizes. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmakers behind Ready or Not and the two latest Scream movies, Abigail tells the story of a group of criminals who kidnap a 12-year-old girl for ransom. The tables turn quickly, however, when we find out this little girl has a bloodthirsty power.
As much as I enjoyed these directors’ contributions to the long-running Scream franchise, I always felt they excelled the most with Ready or Not, a black comedy horror mainly set in one location about a woman trying to survive as everyone else in the house tries to kill her. Abigail tells a similar story, but with the opposite approach, as this is about a bunch of people trying to survive as one person in the house is after them. But before all the vampires and carnage, the movie establishes our ensemble cast.
Melissa Barrera, who previously headlined the directing duo’s Scream movies, returns to collaborate with them on this project. She plays Joey, a character who has a lot of empathy and compassion despite being a part of something terrible. She really shines in this movie, playing the emotional backstory with her character very well. Her character isn’t as bonkers as Samantha Carpenter, and that anchors us into who she is. There’s one scene that involves a phone call where you really see all of her vulnerabilities play out.
There isn’t really a weak link in this ensemble. There is a scene where we get nearly every character’s backstory in an expositional way, but it feels organic for their situation. We have former cop Frank (Dan Stevens), hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), muscular oaf Peter (Kevin Durand), and a few others. They are not using their real names, and they have never met each other before the events of this film, which makes their curiosity to learn more about each other feel earned. They’ve all been brought there by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), and as the film progresses, strange events begin to occur.
The best performance in this movie is that of the titular character. Alisha Weir turns in one of the greatest child performances of all time. She is absolutely magnificent in this film. In the beginning, you feel so terrible for her, believing every bit of her as this terrified young girl who has been taken hostage. She gets some emotional scenes with Barrera’s character and we get a hint of Abigail’s relationship with her father. It makes her transformation later only more incredible because it’s a very physically intensive role. There’s ballet and a lot of stunts that she pulls off perfectly. It’s so funny to see how evil her character is, which makes this movie vastly entertaining.
But there isn’t much point in sidestepping the big reveal in Abigail. An issue with either the movie or the marketing is that it gives away the fact that our titular character is a vampire. For the first 50 minutes, there are no hints that this is a vampire movie at all. It’s a movie that works best if you go in completely cold because all the trailers, promotional photos, and even the logline give away the fact that Abigail is a vampire. For that reason, it can feel like Abigail takes a while to get going. There are many scenes in the beginning where the characters are speculating what’s happening, but anyone in the audience who has read the description or seen the trailer knows what’s going on, making them a step ahead of the characters. The weight of that mystery is lost.
You’re essentially waiting for them to finally pull back the curtain because once we find out this is a vampire movie, it goes for it. Abigail is a prime example of a movie that doesn’t hold back in the slightest. It knows the premise and commits 110%. It reaches its full potential as a bloody horror movie with kills, characters, and carnage. Another thing that the filmmakers do a phenomenal job of here is balancing the tone. There’s a layer of comedy that weaves its way into this movie and had me cackling. It’s a very funny movie, but the jokes never undercut the tension. It’s funny when it wants to be funny and scary when it wants to be scary.
Abigail is a consistently entertaining thrill ride and is sure to be an absolute blast. Barrera and Weir are both phenomenal, but Stevens also gets to really shine here. I wouldn’t have known I had just seen him in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire if I didn’t look it up because he really embodies this character. Kathryn Newton is an inconsistent actress for me. I liked her in Freaky but didn’t like her in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and I was neutral on her in Lisa Frankenstein earlier this year. She’s not the most expressive actor in this cast, and she has a few below-average line readings, but she is becoming a bit of a modern horror icon. Newton gets a few scenes near the end where she really commands the screen.
This movie is insanity, particularly once that reveal happens halfway through. Weir might have been the strongest element in this film, but this screenplay from Stephen Shields and Gary Busick pushes everything to the max. It goes to unexpected places, and spiritually, it feels much more like the filmmakers’ earlier film, Ready or Not. If you liked that movie with its crazy blood explosions and tongue-in-cheek humor, you’ll love Abigail.
SCORE: 9/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 9 equates to “Excellent.” Entertainment that reaches this level is at the top of its type. The gold standard that every creator aims to reach.
