Abigail

Now that I've seen this I can understand all the warnings on here to avoid the trailers and I can understand why. I had no idea what this was about other than it involved a young girl who is kidnapped, much to the eventual dismay of said kidnappers. Not having a clue where this was going help immensely with the surprise factor. This thing is good, bad, too long due to a back story, absolutely bonkers, wild, crazy, bloody, corny, gory, exciting and fun! Its setup is what I stated, but from there on in, you are on your own here. The cast is pretty good. The title character, the little girl, is wonderfully played by Alisha Weir. Dan Stevens plays one of the kidnappers and this guy is becoming a chameleon with his variety of roles. Here he is mean, internally ugly and pretty much a sleazeball type. Kevin Durand as a dim muscleman is funny as are a lot of things in this smorgasbord of a horror film. There are a few things that are just stupid, but it's a little hard to tell what is intentional as opposed to just poor writing. As I never watch TV anymore, I had never seen Angus Cloud before. Hard to tell much about him from this, but he does play a loser here very well. If you like horror films, ya gotta see this!

A mixed group of criminals kidnap Abigail, a young ballerina, and daughter of a powerful business mogul. The gang think they're coming into millions, but Abigail has a shocking surprise waiting for them.

One of the horror highlights of 2024 so far, it's done well at The Box Office, and it's easy to understand why, it's definitely a crowd pleaser.

A seemingly straightforward thriller very rapidly turns into a genre crossing horror movie. Abigail is a real mix of styles, it's goofy, it's funny, it's well paced, and of course there are plenty of jump scares.

Very nicely made, well shot, with some good music, which surprisingly doesn't become too intrusive.

You really can't fault any of the performances, credit very much to that young Alisha Weir, excellent as the title character. Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens are both good, but Weir steals the show.

A cheeky And then there were none reference too.

7/10.

Abigail is vampiric only in the sense of bleeding dry any semblance of intelligent and creative filmmaking. From a technical and production standpoint it holds up more than nicely; but from a plot perspective it's a nonstarter. This was touted as a "Dracula's Daughter" reboot with a comedy twist; but is far-off the mystery and allure of classic gothic literature that first bore the name "Dracula" - and the purported humour is lukewarm at best.

Inconsistencies, plotholes, plot armour, and half-baked writing all undermine this uninspired film. Dan Stevens as Acteur and Giancarlo Esposito as Lambert were strong points. Actress Alisha Weir at thirteen (now fourteen) years old - delivered an admirable performance with the script she had, but her talents were wasted on this lackluster story. Good horror works on the psychological; it works its way around everything, using physical horror as only one tool in its broad repertoire. This film is quite the opposite, it's physical horror without almost any tantalising or guesswork left to the imagination. Because of that it's more of an action film masquerading as a horror film.

The characters as a whole are of the stock variety, as if hurriedly thrown together. Their screenplay reads in exactly the same manner. Splitting up to their detriment and acting like bozos; usually minus the part where that's supposed to translate as funny.

This is closer to "Abysmal" than "Abigail".

Plot

After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl.

Cast

Alisha Weir knocks it out of the park with her performance, Melissa Barrera is solid, Kevin Durand is excellent as always and Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton and Giancarlo Esposito are er also there.

Verdict

I don't go the cinema often, usually this is because of limited time, inevitable disappointment and the ridiculous expense involved. The missus wanted to see this so I made an exception, I was right about the expense as it came to just over £50 which is lunacy for a 90 minute presentation and don't even get me started on how many adverts I had to endure (And I don't mean trailers).

But did I at least least enjoy the film? Well, yeah I really did. Alas this is certainly a movie where a person would be better off not watching the trailer, knowing the big twist straight out of the gate certainly damaged the film but it was so good and threw so many additional curveballs it just didn't matter.

A solid cast (I'm a Durand fanboy) including a child actress who absolutely nailed her role to unexpected levels, a decent budget, great setting, decent cinematography and dare I say some levels of originality Abigail was an unexpectedly good film and everything I wanted M3gan (2022) to be.

See I've slated Hollywood horror for years claiming they've lost their way but movies like this demonstrate all hope is not lost.

Gory, over the top yet fairly smart and fantastically executed Abigail is a solid horror film.

Rants

Poor Barrera, glad to see she's having a decent career post her ridiculous firing from the Scream series. Who'd have thought that being against genocide is a bad thing and a person could get fired over having that stance? Plenty in support of it are doing just fine. What a time to be alive!

The Good

Barrera, Durand and Weir Sufficiently gory Very well constructed Barrels of fun Plenty of twists to keep you entertained

The Bad

I feel the finale could have been handled a smidge better Newton didn't seem on form.

There is nothing in this film that you haven't seen in a number of other films but it manages, thankfully, to deliver.

It doesn't for my money have as much humour as Ready or Not but does have enough character back story for the audience to know who to support and who to scorn and to emotionally commit to ( as much as you can in a horror flick).

You know what is going to happen once the basic premise is exposed and it's fun finding out how and when, and watching the whole thing play out.

At the centre of it all is Abigail, played expertly and delightfully by Alisha Weir who exploits this platform to showcase her undoubted talent. She is ably supported by the cast to realise this competent effort and make viewing it time well spent.

I believe the film is best watched without prior exposure to the trailer, hard as that is these days, and have also not revealed any content here in that spirit. Enjoy the film.