Movie Review: ‘Abigail’

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Alisha Weir, Giancarlo Esposito

Plot: A group of anonymous criminals are hired to carry out a the kidnapping of a young girl, who they take to an isolated gothic manor. Before long they learn that they haven’t trapped this child with them…they’re trapped with her and her bloodlust.

Review: There’s a good number of directors making artistic, elevated horror films these days and we love following their deep thought-provoking films. On the other hand, when it comes to fun, messy and humorous horror movies there’s no-one we follow closer than film collective Radio Silence. Between their anthology collections and their feature films that include Ready or Not and (temporarily) reviving the Scream franchise they’ve solidly established themselves as creators of horror movies that provide shocks and laughs. They also pull in a mix of experienced actors and new talent to bring their larger-than-life characters to the screen.

Their newest offering delivers as fun a concept as the hide-and-seek murder spree Ready or Not. This time we have a young ballet dancer, cinema shorthand for a delicate, pure child, who is revealed to be a vampire. We open with a team of miscreants enacting a professional kidnapping, including controlling bagman Frank (Stevens), medical specialist Joey (Barrera), hacker Sammy (Newton), the muscle Peter (Durand), sharpshooter Rickles (Catlett) and driver Dean (the late Cloud). It’s made clear from the get go that these people do not know or trust each other and they’re on a very strict need-to-know basis, not even knowing their target is a child until they get there.

Having abducted Abigail (Weir) and rendezvoused with their contact Lambert (Esposito), they settle in for a night of drinking and banter while the child remains chained to a bed upstairs. When one of the team turns up not only dead but dismembered they begin to fear that the notoriously brutal crime lord father of their hostage is among them, but the truth is that Abigail is the real danger. The child is a centuries old vampire, and the criminals have been intentionally trapped in the house for Abigail to torment and kill them. The team are already wary of each other, and being thrust into this survival situation does not help them bond with each other. With the house locked down and no help on the way, they must find a way to escape this seemingly unstoppable monster.

This may not feel like a premise that could sustain a full running time, with evil children having been covered extensively in the horror genre. M3GAN is still very much in the public consciousness, and the image of the dancing killer girl went viral, which could overshadow this release. Hopefully not, because there’s much in Abigail that is done much better. What stands out the most is the time spent building up the characters before the blood starts flowing. Some of the dialogue is a bit heavy-handed, such as Joey going through each person and telling us all what she can deduce about them, but it works to establish each of their histories and motivations. The cast really do make it work, there’s a number of names we’re always here for such as Dan Stevens who is already in cinemas dealing with Kong.

If there’s one thing that detracts from the goopy enjoyment it’s the frantic editing during some of the action sequences. We get the impression that this is the result of cutting around stunts and effects involving a child performer, but it gets so rapid fire that it’s difficult to keep track of who is where and doing what.

We’re not going to get into details about how the adventure unfolds, as working out how the lore functions is a huge part of the conflict. If you’re looking for a horror movie put together by creatives who love the genre that will make you laugh out loud with how absurd the gore gets, this is worth the price of admission.

Rating: SEVEN out of TEN