Heist, check. Vampire child, check. Will anyone make it out alive? You will have to watch and see it yourself! Abigail has been on my radar for some time now, following Kathryn Newton’s interesting films of late with Lisa Frankenstein and Freaky under her belt. She seems to be on a horror streak. The same could easily be said about Melissa Berrera during her latest Scream films! But nothing could have prepared me for the performance from Alisha Weir as the titular character Abigail.
Based on and a reimagining of the 1936 Universal Classic Monsters film Dracula’s Daughter, Abigail follows a group of professional criminals from different backgrounds and expertise. No one knows each other, and no one uses their real names. It is a classic heist movie setup where the criminals are tasked to kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure.
Giancarlo Esposito’s Lambert assembled the scrappy bunch of criminals, announcing the prize: $50 million split seven ways. All they have to do is babysit the girl for 24 hours in a manor resembling something out of a Resident Evil video game to obtain the prize. However, some of the manor’s inhabitants begin to go missing (body parts), and soon, they realize they are locked inside with a not-so-normal little ballerina girl.
I would argue that knowing the twist is only half of the movie because I genuinely adored the fact that the second half of the movie still invited so many questions and had me guessing where the plot was going to end up. But that does not mean the film was less interesting when you knew Abigail was a vampire—a small ballerina vampire! Weir’s dance recitals, aka murder chases, were too hilarious, especially seeing some as big and muscular as Kevin Durand running away from a small child.
The directorial duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett continue to incorporate, blend and create new grounds in the horror genre. The two achieved a lot of success with the V.H.S. franchise, Ready or Not, and Scream V and VI. Every franchise or film the two have done pays homage to the horror roots while bending the rules horror fans have experienced before.
I always enjoy horror films because of the gore, suspense, jump scares, and laughing at some of the characters’ sometimes cringy dialogue. Abigail has a lot of these things but done with just the right amount of horror and comedy. My favourite part of the story is how quickly the ragtag adult criminals accept the reality that the tween kid is truly a vampire. The fact that they got to brainstorming and theorizing so fast on how to slay her was even wilder!
The acting from the whole cast was superb in this sense. I think it is so overdone in horror when characters are stuck in disbelief like, “Oh, this can’t be happening” or “No, you’re crazy.” Sometimes the best horror films are the ones where you have to embrace the weirdness or absurdity to get the plot moving to the more unique aspects of the film—this is what made Abigail a fun ride.
Dan Stevens stood out for me because he went for a Queens, New York accent, which I thought he did relatively well. He has been known to do many voices apart from his native English accent, like in the FX series Legion or even most recently in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire—despite being from the U.K. I thought his ability to sound like he was specifically from Queens was very impressive—or at least an interpretation of one that my Canadian self could appreciate.
Newton, playing the naive girl Sammy, bordered on annoying with some of her antics but was very true to the character in the end. She has a moment when they are brainstorming ideas to take down the tiny vampire, “What are we talking about, like an Anne Rice or a True Blood? You know Twilight? Very different kind of vampires.”
In retrospect, the mansion itself stood out to me as a character of its own. The fact that the audience and the characters do not know who or what the manor was is a mystery too. As the characters explore the home, it has a lot of hidden passageways and breakable walls. There was also a lot of history and lore packed into the house, definitely giving off Resident Evil vibes. This attention to detail and how the characters interacted within the bounds of the house was immaculate.
Weir stole the show as the titular character because she really perfected the concept of appearing like an old vampire stuck in a child’s body once the facade was broken through. What I found profound about this film was that it was not a typical predator/prey situation movie. Abigail did not immediately go off killing people; this movie is smarter than that—she literally played with her food. By doing this, we get to see a lot more thinking and problem-solving from the criminals trapped in the vampire’s den.
“Abigail did not immediately go off killing people; this movie is smarter than that—she literally played with her food.”
This band of misfit criminals went through some decent experimentation of old vampire tropes, and it was so clumsy and great to see. Let us just say the characters had a lot of time to do some trial-and-error. One very nitpick scene I facepalmed at was when a character did the typical line and fighting stance. They put their hands up after getting beaten and said a line like “You’re going down,” even though the character did nothing to change their power dynamics over the villain. It made for good laughing material, though.
In terms of practical effects and VFX/CGI, Abigail brought some heat. The movie utilized a fair mix of it all. The practical effects stood out to me the most, of course, with things like decapitations and severed limbs. But really, this film brought gallons of fake blood! It may not have been a river like in The Shining or a rainfall-worth like in Evil Dead (2013), but it was packing some viscous blood and innards. If you are someone who does not want to see buckets of blood, well, it’s too bad. This movie brought tons of gore cannons shooting off left and right!
The practical use of makeup for the proper bloody faces and vampire’s teeth was also a major detail I appreciated. There were also contact lenses for the change from innocent girl Abigail to bloodsucking vampire Abigail. In addition, the costume department also deserves a shoutout for Abigail’s ballerina outfit ensemble. The practical sets should also be applauded; I really liked the allure of the manor. The amount of mess this house went through…oh, boy.
“Abigail is at the top of my list for best horror films this year.”
Surprisingly, there was some wire work involved, too. Abigail was quite the acrobat with her ballerina moves alongside her vampiric prowess, so it was really cool to see this combination. The studio noted that Weir learned all of the choreography for all of her ballet performances in the film, and I have to say that it was really impressive. The interpretative dancing and killing were almost poetic at times while also being menacing.
I know I always make some hard claims, but I would say Abigail is at the top of my list for best horror films this year. It was very cognizant of what it was: a silly-premised story with tons of heart and thrilling moments. Even though it was not as original a concept as last year’s Talk To Me, I found this unique genre remix entertaining since it was done right.
For a film that is almost two hours long, Abigail provided lots of laughs, screams and gut-wrenching moments to make you wince a little. While I did not care for the emotional beats too much, they opened up some laughable lines too. At the end of the night, this is a fun watch for horror fans who are very aware of the genre and crave something more. It zanily pushed, bit and slashed expectations. The film was also dedicated to the late Angus Cloud, who played his part with a ton of hilarity, and he will dearly be missed but remembered for these iconic moments.
