The new film Abigail is the most fun I’ve had at a horror flick in a long time. Directed by the same team that rebooted the Scream franchise a couple of years back, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, this movie just might bring the vampire genre back to life.
If you’ve seen the trailer then you already know that a team of kidnappers abduct a young ballerina (Alisha Weir) in hope of collecting millions of dollars in ransom, but, before you can say, “children of the night,” the girl vamps out and flips the script on the ne’er-do-wells, proving that turnabout is fair ‘slay.’
The bad guys are all given Rat Pack names by the plan’s mastermind, played by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito. We have former cop Frank (Dan Stevens), hacker-chick Sammy (Kathryn Newton, who you might recognize as Cassie Lang from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), muscle-bound Peter (Kevin Durand), drunken wheelman Dean (Angus Cloud), former medic Joey (Melissa Barrera), and former military weapons specialist, Rickles (William Catlett).
You’ll recognize Barrera from the aforementioned Scream reboots, and here she plays the level-headed one of the bunch, who all steadily lose grasp of their composure as their world turns upside down – often in darkly humorous ways.
Weir does an amazing job as the titular monster, swing from sugary sweet to maniacally monstrous, often within the same scene. The movie visits some old vampire tropes, bust mostly in fresh and fun ways. It’s definitely not for the squeamish as there is a ton o’ blood (maybe too much) in this movie.
No one is innocent in this film and it is interesting to watch who all will get their comeuppance. Or will they all? The last words uttered at the end of the movie make for one of the best lines ever and it is worth the price of admission on its own. If you can handle the gore and violence, you’re in for entertaining and wild ride.
