Abigail

There are two reasons to see this film: Ava Cantrell in the titular role and Tren Brown as the reluctant new friend. Having shades of classics like "Carrie" and "Natural Born Killers", the film revolves around Abigail, a teen who moves from California to Alabama in 1976. Her first attempts to befriend neighbor Lucas is futile until she helps him stand up to bullies. She goes through a "3-strike" mode, first glancing then a warning shot in the form of knocking the lead bully down.

However, the lead bully's retribution becomes strike 3 and you can guess what happens. Cantrell delivers a brilliant performance as a young woman who has an overbreaking protective mother that is reminiscent of Margaret White minus the religion aspect with Hermoine Lynch delivering an amazing performance while Lucas's home life is even worse with a very condescending and arrogant mother, driven with an excellent performance by Karimah Westbrook.

Things really pick up at the halfway point but just wait until you see the final ten minutes. Totally shocking and jaw-dropping. This film is highly recommended!!!

Arriving in a small Alabama town, a woman and her neighbors strike up a friendship that helps him to overcome the bullies that relentlessly torment him for his home life, but the more she hangs out with him the more her homicidal tendencies come to the forefront unleashing a wave of violence against the bullies.

This was a really solid if somewhat flawed genre effort. When this one ends up working well is the way this one builds up the eventual explosion of violence that emerges as we get to know more about the character and her central relationships. Her troubled background that necessitated the need for the move and how the relationship with her mother is entirely based on combative disrespect that goes in a complete counter to with the neighbor where it comes across as a budding mentorship involving how to stand up for himself against the bullies which borders on coercion and homicidal tendencies. This setup manages to work itself up into an appropriately enjoyable and twist-laden finale where the series of reveals and gruesome outcomes are enough to make the film quite likable over some detrimental factors. The main issue with this one is the fact that it spends forever waiting around for something to happen as the people in this town are blind morons oblivious to what's going on around them. The psychotic tendencies of the teen bullies are so apparent it's hard to believe they were blind to what happened, and that goes equally to the drastically uninspired outbursts of violence that paint her as just as violent only she's doing it for the betterment of his life which should go hand-in-hand with the background we have on her with her mother that there's something off so all of this leaves the film to feel like it's dragging with these elements in place. As well, there's also the lack of violence or gore on display as the timid nature of the interactions makes everything feel rather tame as a result which is another area that holds this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

A mother & daughter from California move to a semi-rural area near Huntsville, Alabama, where the teen girl (Ava Cantrell) befriends a black misfit (Tren Reed-Brown). Havoc ensues.

"Abigail" (2023) is part coming-of-age drama and part thriller/slasher. It explores the same interesting themes as Nicolas Cage's "The Old Way" from eleven months prior, although that's a Western. It's comparable to "White Rabbit" (2013) and "The Rage: Carrie 2," just not as entertaining or rewarding. I'd say it's almost on par with "Devil's Island" from two years earlier; however, if you hated that one, you'll hate this even more.

The bottom line is that it's a technically well-made indie and worth checking out for those interested. Petite Ava Cantrell is a highlight and I respect a production that has the confidence to take its time (which others might interpret as boring).

Is what the girl does in the story unbelievable, as some complain? Not if you know the tree from which the fruit fell and she trains in her personal time (even if it's not shown). Filmmakers aren't obligated to spell everything out; they respect the viewer to put the pieces together.

It runs 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot in Oakdale, California, which is 31 miles southeast of Stockton in the middle of the Central Valley (more specifically, the northeast part of San Joaquin Valley).

GRADE: B-

Granted, I had never heard about this 2023 horror movie titled "Abigail" prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2025. So I didn't really know what I was in for. But the fact that it was a horror movie was sufficient for me to sit down and check it out, as I do love all things horror.

I have to say that I found the narrative to be rather slow paced, mundane and generally not a particularly entertaining one. So writer Gunnar Garrett didn't exactly impress me with his script for this movie.

The acting performances in the movie were good. I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but they had a good cast ensemble in the movie.

"Abigail" is not a movie that makes use of any noteworthy special effects.

If you enjoy horror movies, then this is hardly a movie that I would recommend you to waste 88 minutes on watching. Nor is "Abigail" a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time, as it was a struggle sitting through it the first time around.

The best thing about the movie was actually the cover.

My rating of director Melissa Vitello's 2023 movie "Abigail" lands on a three out of ten stars. And how "Abigail" managed to snag a 5.3 rating here on IMDb, in this very moment as I am reviewing it, is simply beyond my comprehension.

Another "genius" craft of a female director, and of course, such directors have male characters or scoundrels, or psychopaths, or traumatized boys, and female characters are all strong and independent. I want to ask you, those who shoot such feminist and incompetent nonsense: "Who taught you this?" Unoriginal, irrelevant, assembled from templates and cliches: he went a kilometer away in need and left a girl; a difficult teenager from a dysfunctional family is insulted by peers and his mother, and it all looks so shabby, and this is only in the first 15 minutes. The amateur production, the boring camerawork, the disgusting light that shines everywhere, all this is just repulsive with its unprofessiveness. I don't want to blame the actors, they play normally, but here's the directorial task that the actors perform - I haven't seen such a primitive for a long time. Who are all these people who are praising this movie? Did they even watch this movie? Or do they stamp their reviews without looking? Why are you doing this, do you really not care, or do you take the viewer for an imbecile? Or are you engaged in infoshamanism, instilling false meanings, for entertainment?

I couldn't stand this absurdity, I didn't watch this mediocre movie trash.