A group of kidnappers have taken a wealthy man’s daughter (Alisha Weir) hostage.
Hiding out in a house in the woods, the gang quickly realise their hostage is a vampire.
I try to avoid trailers. I find it helps add to the experience. I wish I had the opportunity with Abigail, because I have seen the trailer for this show up multiple times in front of other movies.
While I understand the need to sell the premise, the trailer leaves little to the imagination.
Riffing on the Dracula mythos, Abigail is an enjoyable genre-bender.
The film is well-cast, and fairly amusing.
It is not as singular as it feels like it should be - the surreal image of a blood-soaked ballerina starts to feel a tad repetitive, and when the film tries to dig into its characters, and turn into a story about broken family dynamics, it feels a little too late.
Dan Stevens has fun as a smug scumbag, Kevin Durand finds a little humanity in the film’s musclehead and Kathryn Newton has fun as a self-absorbed hacker.
Melissa Barerra, star of Radio Silence’s Scream entries, anchors proceedings with such ease her old franchises’ braintrust are probably regretting their decision to fire her last year.
For a while the movie is fun as a farcical take on Alien, with the team of hard asses stumbling around the mansion while being hunted, ambushed and/or tricked by a centuries-old vampire.
In the home stretch, the film decides to become a story about absentee parents, by trying to tie Joey to Abigail, who spends centuries trying to win her father’s approval.
This would work if Abigail herself was given any definition outside of what we see - and what we see is a fairly typical vampire. She presents herself as an innocent in order to lower her victims’ guard, and then shows no compunction in sadistically maiming and torturing the main characters.
The film wants us to care about Abigail, but it does not feel like a complicated attempt to juggle audience sympathies. Instead, it feels like a different movie: Joey (Barrera) and Abigail start relating to each other as though the events of the movie have not happened.
Overall, Abigail is fun. But it always feels like it is a few steps from greatness: somewhat inspired in its use of vampire tropes, more dramatically organic, and, frankly, a bit funnier.
But as is, it is a good time.
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