‘Abigail’: Review

Dirs: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett. US. 2024. 109mins

A kidnapping goes terrifyingly awry in Abigail, a crime-thriller that rapidly morphs right into a horror movie stuffed with gore and gusto. After taking a 12-year-old ballerina hostage, anticipating an enormous ransom from her wealthy father, some luckless crooks uncover her horrible secret — she is a vampire — leading to a determined life-or-death battle with the diminutive bloodsucker. Administrators Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett deliver a crowd-pleasing vitality to this ugly, slyly humorous mixture of genres, though an excessively difficult story and underwhelming characters drain some life out of the proceedings.

The sight of this slight little one chasing terrified adults round a creepy mansion is persistently amusing

After premiering on the Overlook Movie Pageant, Abigail opens vast on April 19 by way of Common. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett reunite with Melissa Barrera, who starred of their 2022 and 2023 Scream sequels, and he or she is joined by Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton and Giancarlo Esposito. The administrators’ horror monitor file (the pair additionally helmed 2019 field workplace hit Prepared Or Not) ought to assist entice audiences, as will the intelligent premise and the promise of an over-the-top, blood-soaked expertise. Strong evaluations and a scarcity of direct competitors — The First Omen has faltered on the field workplace — may lead to sturdy grosses.

A crew of criminals who’ve by no means beforehand met is recruited to kidnap Abigail (Matilda The Musical star Alisha Weir), a classically-trained ballerina, and take her to an deserted mansion in the midst of nowhere. Their boss Lambert (Esposito) assigns them codenames impressed by the Rat Pack — together with edgy Joey (Barrera), immature Sammy (Newton) and cynical chief Frank (Stevens) — and tells the crew to keep watch over the lady whereas he arranges for the ransom to be delivered. 

Anybody who has seen Abigail’s advertisements will already know what takes Frank and his crew a very long time to study: Abigail will not be practically as helpless as she seems, choosing off the criminals one after the other. Consequently, audiences could also be stressed through the movie’s opening sequences, which spend appreciable time introducing the gathering of crooks after which creating rigidity as soon as particular person members begin to die. Frank and Joey emerge as the neatest, most resourceful of the group, however they don’t belief each other – though the suspense surrounding the killings fizzles as we look forward to them to understand that Abigail is a vampire.

As soon as that’s established, although, Abigail harks again to Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s breakthrough Prepared Or Not, which additionally concerned a brutal battle for survival inside the confines of a stately manor. The administrators clearly relish the state of affairs’s claustrophobic prospects, utilizing Stephen Shields and Man Busick’s screenplay as an excuse to plot flagrantly sanguinary set items. However the gore is sometimes leavened by a wry sense of humour, both due to the criminals’ foolishness or the truth that they can’t wrap their heads round find out how to defeat a vampire– one thing they assumed was only a fictional determine.

The outlandishness extends past the physique depend and bloodshed. Incorporating Tchaikovsky on the soundtrack, the filmmakers play with the conventions of opera and ballet, presenting us with a tiny vampire in a tutu who could be swish when she will not be sinking her pointy tooth into her prey. Weir weaponises her cutesy-pie countenance, tricking these criminals into decreasing their guard. Whereas later twists that reveal extra of Abigail’s origins — and people of her mysterious father — are unsatisfying and convoluted, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett nonetheless discover alternatives to provide laughs amidst the kill scenes. The sight of this slight little one chasing terrified adults round a creepy mansion is persistently amusing.

But Abigail is undone by too many boring supporting characters, few of whom might be alive by the ultimate reel. The late Angus Cloud has a number of alternative moments as the sexy, idiotic felony Dean, and Esposito conveys his standard icy command. However, early on, it turns into apparent which of the crooks is price emotionally investing in, making it a bit tedious to observe the unimportant sidekicks being killed off. Barrera is a formidable power, though Joey is saddled with a generically ’poignant’ backstory, whereas Stevens does what he can as Frank, a sensible aleck at all times scheming to realize a bonus over his fellow kidnappers. 

For individuals who merely require their horror movies to supply quite a few gross-out sequences and graphic violence Abigail suits the invoice, and Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s relentless want to amplify the carnage is spectacular in its dedication. However that additionally places a pressure on the plotting, which grows more and more laboured because the filmmakers attempt to concoct extra causes for the criminals to underestimate Abigail so she will proceed her reign of terror. As diverting and gleefully disgusting as it may be, Abigail finally has extra gore than brains, its funhouse escapism fleeting moderately than ferocious.