Abigail
Abigail
Starring Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
One night a group of kidnappers abduct young ballerina Abigail (Alisha Weir) and take her to their safe house. Once there, their boss instructs them to use no real names, no back stories, and no cell phones so no one would get arrested, and explains their task is simple - babysit the girl for twenty-four hours while he gets the money from her wealthy father. Joey (Melissa Barrera) is the leader of the group and the one tasked with talking with Abigail, who at first comes across as a scared little girl but gives Joey a cryptic warning. Soon everyone learns the truth: Abigail is a vampire, and they're trapped in the house with her. Using their knowledge of vampires, Joey and the group attempt to survive the night - but Abigail is always a pirouette ahead of them.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett - best known as Radio Silence - has given us three home-run horror/comedy films: "Ready or Not," "Scream," and "Scream VI." Their pedigree is one of the best, and they manage to craft fully fleshed out characters with nuance, intelligence, and heavy doses of dry sarcastic wit. Sadly, to that end, "Abigail" fails to deliver. The characters in this film are stock characters through and through, never deviating from their boxed-in roles, and while some of their dialogue is witty and fun, the film spins itself in circles with repeated dialogue. It's a step down for the duo, but ultimately it's not something that they can be wholly faulted for - after all, it's pretty much explained in the trailer.
The film roughly takes itself from the 1936 film "Dracula's Daughter," and finds six hapless kidnappers in over their heads when they learn the little girl they abducted is, indeed, a ballerina vampire. Taking place within one location, the film does a great job at establishing that location as its own character: dark, foreboding hallways, cobweb-cluttered doors, dimly lit corridors, and Victorian-style decorum make it feel like a "Clue" house for horror fanatics, and I was all for it. It really felt like an inescapable prison, leaving little to no hope of escape.
As the titular ballerina vampire, young Alisha Weir clearly enjoys her role. She sinks her teeth (heh) into every scene, and makes you feel both sympathetic and also frightened of her. The makeup design is impeccable, as she's given a glam-down from other vampire films with sharp, animalistic teeth and glowing eyes that make her menacing and brings vampires back wholly to the horror genre after the abysmal "Twilight" films. Weir has a great career ahead of her, and "Abigail" serves as her fantastic launching pad.
The remainder of the cast is a great mix of famous and lesser-famous actors who struggle within the confines of their roles. Melissa Barrera (whom Radio Silence worked with on the last two "Scream" films) is the headstrong lead who rallies the troops and tries to find a way to stop Abigail. Dan Stevens is the generic tough guy who wants to be in charge. Kathryn Newton is your generic computer hacker who's a ditsy blonde in the meantime. Will Catlett is the quiet, subdued ex-Marine. Kevin Durand is the muscle who spends more time bulking up his physical muscles and ignoring his brain muscle. The late Angus Cloud (in his final role) serves as the stoned-out getaway driver. All of them maintain their generic roles, and the film is honestly a bit wasted in this aspect. Not once, not twice, but three different times we get an exposition dump into their lives, and the film drags on because of this.
Not just that, but it also drags in its general dialogue. Numerous times the characters mention words like, "do you know her father?" "who's the girl's father?" "he's the girl's father!?" and so on. They also make dim-witted moves such as splitting up (not once, not twice, but three different times!) and the final act could've been trimmed down by at least ten minutes because it really dragged.
Yet what saves the film is when Abigail unleashes her vampiric side, slicing, dicing, and decapitating all who get in her way. The gore is vibrant, plentiful, and gleefully enjoyable. I found myself laughing and cheering numerous times, and that's not a knock on the film - it's what the film demands. It's over-the-top to the point of ridicule, but never crosses that line. It knows its lane, stays in it, and for both good and bad it never deviates from its desired course.
While the film is a bit too long and the dialogue stinted, "Abigail" provides more than enough gore and violence to satiate the horror hound in us all, as well as give us a great performance by the young Alisha Weir as well as acceptable performances by the rest of the cast.
The Score: B+
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