Abigail review

ABIGAIL: 

A DELIGHTFULLY KOOKY VAMPIRE BALLET! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Alisha Weir in Abigail

 

            A group of criminals kidnap a young ballet dancer who turns out to be a vampire in Abigail, the latest film from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S, Ready or Not, Scream 5 and 6) and loosely based on the 1936 Universal Classic Monsters movie, Dracula’s Daughter. I was onboard for this movie the moment I saw the trailer and it also helps I was already a fan of Olpin and Gillett’s work with Ready or Not being among my favorite films of 2019 and I praised the fifth and sixth installments of the Scream franchise as worthy successors to the classic Wes Craven originals. 

            So, I was very much looking forward to their vampire ballerina movie…and this was so far the most fun I had all year. This is a film that embraces the absurdity of its premise and effectively blends scares and laughs without ever becoming a farce. 

            The film follows a group of criminals who kidnap a young girl named Abigail (Alisha Weir-Matilda the Musical, Wicked Little Letters), the daughter of a powerful underworld figure within New York City and bring her to a seclusive mansion upstate until they receive money from her father. But this simple kidnapping quickly turns into a nightmare when it’s revealed Abigail is actually a vampire and begins to axe off the criminals one by one with no way to escape. 

            The group will need to pull their resources to fend off this bloodthirsty monster that puts Nina from Black Swanto shame if they want to get out of this mansion alive. 

            The film also stars Melissa Barrera (Club de Cuervos, In the Heights, Scream 5 and 6) as Joey, Dan Stevens (A Walk Among the Tombstones, Beauty and the Beast (2017), The Boy and the Heron) as Frank, Will Catlett (Black Lightning) as Rickles, Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Lisa Frankenstein) as Sammy, Kevin Durand (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Noah, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) as Peter, Angus Cloud (Euphoria, North Hollywood, The Line) in his final film role as Dean, and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian, MaXXXine) as Lambert. 

            Overall, Abigail is a blood-drenched ballet of horror fun at its finest and further cements Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett as some of the best modern horror filmmakers working today. Some of my favorite horror movies are the ones that take these abstract and crazy ideas and bring them to the screen in wildly entertaining ways like The Cabin in the Woods, Get Out, and the already mentioned Ready or Not, this is no exception. 

            It probably won’t keep people up at night since a lot of this movie has a darkly comedic tone, but it’s all done exceptionally well and the creepy moments it does have are genuinely effective. The scenes where Abigail is dancing set to creepy variations of the Swan Lake music do a superb job at building up to the big vampire kills which are nice and gory, by the way. 

            You got your classic bloody vampire bites but then you also have characters explode into puddles of blood which are very reminiscent to the ending of Ready or Not. The film also plays around with the whole “If you get bit by a vampire, you become a vampire” trope where Abigail essentially controls people’s bodies after she bites them which I found very clever, suspenseful, and even funny at times. 

            Despite this seeming like a movie that gives exactly what it advertises, there were times where I didn’t know where the plot was going and was legitimately surprised as it progressed. Whether it’s Abigail’s story, subplots involving the criminals, or just a well-executed plot twist, I was thoroughly invested from start to finish. 

            The performances are stellar especially Alisha Weir as the titular ballerina vampire, I haven’t seen Weir’s other projects but she is magnificent in this movie as she seamlessly shifts between innocent and monstrous and is clearly enjoying every delicious moment of it with the best example being the scene where she’s locked in a cage and talking with the kidnappers. Melissa Barrera is also a standout as Joey, the only person in the group with a conscious as she’s doing all this to provide for her son which helps give the film some emotional weight amongst the blood-soaked carnage and dancing. 

            Even the other criminals who have stock character tropes are memorable because they’re so funny and have interesting storylines themselves. I’m sure it would have been very easy just to make everyone else one-note tools who are just there to die, everyone manages to leave an impression in this film. 

            Most of the comedy comes from the criminals reacting to what’s happening in the mansion, their banter, and the over-the-top deaths. One of my favorite bits is when they’re gathering supplies to kill a vampire and Kathryn Newton brings a bag of garlic only to discover it’s actually filled with onions to which someone calls her out on it, that had me laughing hard as well as lines like “VAMPIRE ON MY ASS!” and “I f*cking hate ballet!”. 

            If you’re looking for a horror movie that embraces the absurdity of its premise and delivers a fun, bloody, and wildly entertaining ride, you won’t be disappointed by Abigail. It also goes to show that when Blumhouse drops the ball with Night Swim and Imaginary, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett can bring a horror experience that actually is worth checking out and I eagerly await what this directing duo does next.