Myles Hughes
In the dead of night, when most good creatures would be asleep, a little girl practices her ballet routine in an empty theater. She doesn’t look older than 12, yet her movements suggest the skill and dedication of one beyond her years. As it turns out, she’s a lot older than she looks. And though there’s a little bit more setup than someone who’s already seen the trailer might like, the gruesome game of cat-and-mouse she is about to initiate is well worth its considerable weight in blood.
Indeed, one of the only major shortcomings of Abigail, the new horror flick from Radio Silence (aka Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, directors of Ready or Not and the last two Scream sequels), is that by virtue of needing to sell tickets, the marketing has been unable to bury the lede in any way. The vast majority of audiences paying to see it will know that it involves a vampire ballerina, which can make the surprising amount of time it takes to reveal as much (nearly half the film’s length) feel a little disingenuous with its crime drama world-building and unconvincing red herrings.
The natural comparison that comes to mind is Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, which spent its first stretch presenting a fairly straight-laced gangster yarn about bank robbers taking a family hostage to cross the border. Defined by the distinctive dialogue and tense character dynamics of Quentin Tarantino’s script, this initial chunk scarcely even suggests the inclusion of any supernatural elements until the moment Salma Hayek morphs into a serpentine bloodsucker, which signals a tonal swerve into the kind of bombastically over-the-top action that Rodriguez excels at. And while Abigail lacks the same level of criminal intrigue, once it reveals its true nature to the audience, it delivers more than enough gory goodness to be worthy of its narratively similar predecessor.
The titular moppet (played by Matilda the Musical star Alisha Weir) isn’t the only one out and about at such a late hour. A band of crooks has been assembled by a mysterious figure known only as Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito, in the kind of meticulously imposing role he could play in his sleep). Their mission is to kidnap Abigail and hold her in a lavishly decorated house until her billionaire father pays for her ransom. They are not allowed to share their real names or backstories, and have been told to essentially stay put for the next 24 hours.
Not long after their host leaves, the group (who have mostly been given codenames after members of the Rat Pack) doesn’t take long to start learning more than advised about each other. The hot-tempered leader Frank (Dan Stevens) is a detective fallen from grace. Bubbly hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton) is a rich kid looking for thrills. Lovably dim Peter (Kevin Durand) is former muscle for the Montreal mafia. Cautious sniper Rickles (William Catlett) is ex-military. Getaway driver Dean (the late Angus Cloud) is a sloppy burnout with the hots for Sammy. And the perceptive Joey (Melissa Barrera) is a recovering junkie who yearns to be reunited with her son.
She is also entrusted with keeping watch over the seemingly terrified little girl in their care, and the two form a quick bond. But after they learn more about the man they’re attempting to extort, and especially after some of their number show up dismembered, the crew quickly start to turn on each other and question whether the job is worth it. However, the real nature of their situation is unfortunately clarified when the house is revealed to be sealed shut, and their diminutive guest reveals two rows of shark-like fangs and a taste for blood.
With cards laid firmly on the table, Abigail transitions into a rousingly entertaining single-location thriller unafraid to let its cast get absolutely eviscerated, if not worse. As the main attraction in this carnival of carnage, Abigail herself is a fearsome antagonist, proving equally adept at manipulating her captors and ripping throats apart. The gore effects are expectedly top-notch from the team behind Ready or Not (one visual in particular feels indebted to that earlier film: you’ll know it when you see it), and the approach to vampire lore feels inspired and well-executed without straying too far from what genre fans might expect.
A big part of the enterprise’s success can be attributed to a cast of mostly horror veterans. Barrera reunites with her Scream directors to great effect, giving the proceedings with a sturdy moral center despite the team frequently showing themselves to be untrustworthy. Newton continues her streak of highly memorable monster-adjacent characters, living up to her work in Freaky and this year’s Lisa Frankenstein. Stevens makes for a deliciously sleazy brand of scumbag, while Durand makes a meal out of some of the film’s best lines. And Weir shows herself to be among the most gifted young performers working today, pivoting between menace and innocence without a sweat. She commands the screen, even when third act story developments threaten to upstage her.
One hopes that the spoilery nature of the marketing will be a non-issue to anyone who hasn’t been exposed to so much as a poster, or the many who will inevitably discover the film on some streaming service in a few years, having managed to never hear about it before now. Because outside of an 11th hour cameo that’s not unpleasant in itself, but can’t help stealing focus so late in the game, there’s really very little else to complain about with Abigail. Using plenty of spooky imagery and dark humor, Radio Silence have built upon their previous work with impressive results. Even it takes a little while to get going, it’s so much freaky fun when it does, that gorehounds of all stripes will find plenty to love.
SCORE: ★★★
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