Film Review - Abigail
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's vampire film is agreeably gruesome, but marketing should have kept the main twist secret
The opening credits of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s new horror film Abigail play out over the titular twelve-year-old ballerina rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in a theatre. This iconic piece has been used in a number of powerfully moving films; for instance, Billy Elliot (2000) and Of Gods and Men (2011), but here it seems intended to misdirect ahead of a bloody exercise in vampiric mayhem. It’s a shame the marketing department decided to ignore said misdirection, considering the twist in question doesn’t materialise for a substantial part of the opening movement. But if you’ve seen the trailer, the poster, or any other publicity material, you already know what’s going to happen.
A rich and seemingly vulnerable young girl is kidnapped, and a ransom demand issued. Should be an easy and lucrative score for the criminal gang responsible, right? Wrong, obviously. The gang in question have been handpicked by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito). That immediately raises alarm bells since that Gus-from-Breaking Bad label really sticks. I wouldn’t trust him, would you? Anyway, the gang are told not to give personal information to one another, or their names, so Lambert dubs these dubious ne’er-do-wells Joey (Melissa Barrera), Frank (Dan Stevens), Rickles (William Catlett), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Peter (Kevin Durand), and Dean (Angus Cloud). They’re thinly sketched as former junkie medic, former cop who liked being undercover too much, ex-military sniper, rich girl hacker looking for kicks, soft-centred muscleman, and sociopathic getaway driver, respectively.
Having kidnapped Abigail (Alisha Weir) and taken her to a creepy house in the middle of nowhere, the gang just need to keep her blindfolded and handcuffed for 24 hours. Easy enough. Except… Well, as I’ve already stated, if you’ve seen the trailer, poster, or whatnot, the big mid-film reveal has already been spoiled. Never mind. There are plenty of other twists and turns. Most of them are predictable, yes, but there’s good gory fun to be had for those who love industrial quantities of blood and splatter in their vampire pics. Some of the humour works too, and performances and direction are solid.
Is it scary? Not really, and the clichés pile up thick and fast. For instance, not once but twice, the group split up to explore the house, despite the bloodthirsty lurking threat. Since Wes Craven’s seminal Scream (1996), horror flicks have had to work hard to justify splitting up tactics, but here, Stephen Shields and Guy Busick’s screenplay doesn’t even try to find an excuse. When the clearly telegraphed “Final Girl” character takes charge and tells everyone to search different dark corridors alone, it feels like Shields and Busick are shrugging their shoulders with a cynical “whatevs”.
Still, as I’ve already indicated, there’s a modicum of entertainment value to be had for genre fans, and even a weirdly cosy message about parents being there for their children. Personally, I preferred the filmmakers’ previous horror pic Ready or Not (2019), but for those who love their cinema blood-drenched, I daresay Abigail will scratch an itch. Apart from anything else, the bone-crunching soundscape — as the supernatural malevolence at the heart of the tale twists, contorts, flies, and fights between gruesome maulings — is particularly impressive. (“What can I say? I like playing with my food.”)
(Spoiler ahead for those who’ve not seen any publicity material.)
The nods to everything from Dracula (1931) to Reservoir Dogs (1992) and The Usual Suspects (1995) will please cineastes. Meanwhile, scholars, sociologists, and psychologists can pontificate over the present paedophobia renaissance; chin-stroking over why terrifying tweenage girls have struck a nerve with contemporary audiences given this, Orphan: First Kill (2022), and M3GAN (2023). Beyond that, whilst non-horror audiences will doubtless give it a wide berth, I found this enjoyably grisly.
(Originally published at Medium.)
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