Abigail – REVIEW

Vampires have been tough to crack recently for me. I’ve given a go at some of the more popular vampire movies out there, but they just haven’t been my thing. The Twilight movies are in the so-bad-it’s-good camp for me, and I probably should’ve watched Interview With the Vampire before I watched the awful Queen of the Damned, as much as I love Aaliyah. I’ve realized that I’m more into horror-leaning vampire movies as opposed to romance or dramas. I like Nosferatu quite a bit, and I’m especially excited for Robert Eggers’s version coming out this Christmas. I was even into both Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter from last year, the vampire movies that came out last year that no one really saw. So, there are only a few vampire movies I genuinely like, and with Abigail, maybe that trend will continue.

In New York City, a little girl named Abigail is abducted by a group of professional kidnappers. Abigail happens to be the daughter of a powerful figure in the crime underworld, and to bargain with her father, they keep her locked in a secluded mansion and have to watch her overnight. They’re demanding $50 million for her release, but before they can even begin to bargain, they realize that Abigail isn’t an ordinary girl. I’m sure you can put together the pieces, but surprisingly, the movie holds back on the big reveal, so I wonder if you’re supposed to go into Abigail blind. Either way, the trailers show it, so I’m gonna say it too: Abigail is a fully blown, classic vampire. As the kidnappers find this out, they have to hunt down and kill the girl before she kills all of them.

It’s nice to see a horror-comedy actually have some fun these days, especially with how good chemistry the core cast has. The main ones we focus on are played by Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, and Kevin Durand, but the rest have a good amount to have fun with. That last bit is especially true with the late Angus Cloud, who’s final role before he passed away is small but got some of my biggest laughs in the whole movie. Giancarlo Esposito also has a very small role, and while I was hoping for more of him given his role in the movie, I enjoyed him too. As I mentioned earlier, the chemistry between Barrera, Stevens, Newton, and Durand were electric and is probably the movie’s biggest strength. However, I’d also be a fool to not mention Alisha Weir, who plays Abigail, and she’s one terrifying vampire. Weir’s got one of the best “creepy kid” performances I’ve seen in a while too, so I think it’s worth a watch for that alone.

I’m also a sucker for a good chamber film, or a movie that takes place mainly in one location. Abigail is basically that. We see some locations while driving by at the beginning, but the entire film basically takes place in this little booby-trapped mansion, and I think that’s a pretty good aspect of it too. It does help carry a script that I don’t think is the best in the world, but the strength of pretty much everything around it from the technical aspects and good character concepts help lift it up. There are some good twists in here, but the overall story did end up going in a direction I was slightly expecting by the end. That doesn’t mean it was a boring movie, luckily.



I don’t think I have that much else to say about Abigail. If horror-comedy is usually up your alley, I think this is worth your time. It’s a cool idea baked in with cool direction from Radio Silence, but it’s not exactly anything new. The actors bounce off each other really well and it’s *very* bloody, so that could also sway if you watch it. Overall, Abigail does end up continuing a very strange year for horror movies.

♡

Abigail is wrapping up its run in theaters, but it’s available to buy or rent digitally now. Its physical release is set for this summer, while it’ll be streaming on Peacock and Prime Video later this year.