Abigail (2024) User Reviews

Don't watch the trailers!!! (spoilers after a warning)

[FeastMode · 8/10 · 19 April 2024]

Abigail is awesome. It's creepy, fun, thrilling and surprisingly funny. I enjoyed the tone and the music. The fantastic cast plays distinct and memorable characters, with standouts being Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens. The horror elements are (in Billy Butcher's voice) diabolical. The movie overall is so far from traditional horror flicks and I wish more would go this route instead of the generic movies Hollywood pumps out.

The most important thing I can tell you is to try going into this movie knowing as little as possible. Definitely don't watch the trailer. It gives away so much and shows all the best parts. Even for someone like me who doesn't watch trailers, every poster and advertisement blatantly shows something that you don't find out until halfway through.

I'll rant about this more in the spoilers section, but whoever is in charge of marketing has no shame. They will hurt the movie for thousands of viewers in hopes of selling more tickets. They are a scourge on the industry.

Even if you have seen the trailers, Abigail is still a HIGHLY entertaining movie that I recommend to everyone.

(1 viewing, opening Thursday UltraScreen 4/18/2024)

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

You should only read this section if you have seen the trailer or the movie. There is CLEAR intent by the filmmakers to hide the fact that Abigail is a vampire and is the threat they're worried about. They spend the first half wondering who her father is and who he sent to kill them. They start questioning if it could possibly be one of them.

All of this mystery is ruined by the trailers and posters. I already knew she's some kind of monster. I spent much of the first half just waiting to get to the part where she starts killing. It was still enjoyable, but I would have been enthralled with the mystery, wondering and guessing what was happening and who the bad guy was. I would have enjoyed it even more.

The scene (shown in the trailer) where she reveals she's a vampire, would have, to the full extent of the expression, blown my mind. It would have been one of the most memorable moments of any movie I've seen. The advertising company stole that moment from me and so many others. All so they could make some extra money.

But I bet it would have been more profitable if they left it as a surprise. Not only would there be less people annoyed as they wait for the movie to "get going" since they already know what's coming. But word of mouth due to that massive reveal would have been huge.

They could have advertised this as a mystery, showing them being hunted and arguing over who it could be. It would have been highly intriguing without giving much away. But no, they cater to the casuals to sell a few extra tickets, while ruining it for the loyal horror fans who were going to see it regardless.

I wish there was some accountability for whoever is making these trailers. If it was up to me they would all be fired.

If like me, you were underwhelmed by M3gan and thought it was far too tame and mild, this is the movie for you. This is what a movie about a young girl killer should be.

ABIGAIL Absolutely Annihilates!

[trcrock · 8/10 · 7 April 2024]

The premise is simple, yet enticing. A group of criminals kidnap a little girl who's the daughter of a powerful underworld figure. Left with this girl as they prepare to collect the ransom from her father, they eventually find out that this little girl has quite the bite to her, and they must band together if they hope to survive the night together.

Team Radio Silence have already established themselves as one of the most promising horror collectives in recent memory. Their work in the V/H/S franchise, Ready Or Not, and the latest two SCREAM movies have proven that they are a capable and reliable directorial team. So with this latest film, the question remained: would they keep their winning streak going with this one?

Fortunately, this film is a blast and a half. This team have delivered what I'd argue is their best film since Ready Or Not. The action takes a second as the movie develops its central characters and gives us reasons to know them beyond their Rat Pack-inspired names. When the blood starts flowing, though, this movie takes off and flies with absolute gusto! The comedy lands SO many times here, and the actual action/gore sequences deliver in SPADES!

The all-star cast excels with this. Melissa Barrera, reuniting with Team Radio Silence after the SCREAM films, shines as the central protagonist. We feel for her and why she does what she does, especially when we learn of her past. Dan Stevens is a foul-mouthed scene-stealer in this, and Kathryn Newton has a number of her own moments here. Giancarlo Esposito and the late Angus Cloud do just as well in smaller roles. The absolute standout, though, is Alisha Weir as the titular vampire. She knocks it out of the park in every scene she's in, and really makes the whole experience worth it.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this movie. Check it out with a group of friends when you can, as this movie is best viewed with a crowd. This review comes from the world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans.

Don't come closer, tiny dancer!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 13 April 2024]

The Radio Silence collective, and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett in particular, don't take a lot of time off. After releasing two "Scream" sequels in as many years, they're back again with an original tale, similar to (and practically as good as) their previous hit "Ready or Not". "Abigail" isn't a masterpiece of cinema, nor is it the most innovative or best vampire movie in history, but it's massively entertaining to watch; - especially together with an outrageous crowd of horror fanatics (like I did at the Brussels International Film Festival).

"Abigail" starts off with a clichéd premise. A group of criminals that don't know each other, and each with their own area of expertise, are brought together for a special assignment. They must kidnap the ballet-dancing daughter of a wealthy person and babysit her for 24 hours until daddy pays the ransom. The kidnapping went easy, and the babysitting is supposedly the easiest part because - honestly - what could a 12-year-old girl in a cute tutu do against six heavily armed and professional criminals, right?

After the derivative but mandatory first half hour (criminals showing off, traumatic background stories, pinky swears, ...) "Abigail" turns into a fast-paced and gore-soaked horror crowd pleaser with funny one-liners and superior make-up effects. The vampires don't look like traditional counts in cloaks, but more like demons with filthy teeth and blood red eyes. There are good performances from familiar faces (Kevin Durand, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton) and particularly the young Alisha Weir is impressive as the titular monster in her uncanny ballet dress. Good splatter fun, nothing more but certainly nothing less.

Abigail: A Bloody Fun Vampire Flick

[harishnj · 7/10 · 20 April 2024]

Okay, be prepared for gore in "Abigail." It's not for the faint of heart, but somehow that didn't stop me from being totally into this movie. It's one of those films where you're kind of horrified but also weirdly fascinated.

The atmosphere is fantastic. They definitely nailed the whole creepy, isolated mansion thing, which just added to the tension. It constantly had me on edge, always wondering what was going to jump out next.

The acting wasn't groundbreaking, but it was good enough to keep me invested. And honestly, the real star of this movie is the little girl who plays Abigail. She's got this unsettling mix of innocence and pure creepiness that works so well for the character.

If you're a fan of horror movies that are a little out there, and you don't mind some serious blood and guts, you might just be surprised by how much fun "Abigail" is.

Alisha

[HerbieStretch · 7/10 · 19 April 2024]

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.

A Mixed Bag

[vengeance20 · 6/10 · 19 April 2024]

So, having only seen a few previews for this, I was sort of half & half as to whether this would be any good or not.

The film sees a group of criminals who kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure. With the promise of £7 Million each for babysitting the girl until her father pays up, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl. It is then the true horror of what is going on quickly unfolds into a deadly bloodbath of survival.

I found the film to be pretty good. But pretty weird & out there too. It's got an ok story line & a sort of unique concept. It's gory, very very, very gory! So, not for the faint hearted! It's not necessarily graphic as such in terms of guts & innards, but there is plenty of blood splashing gore which was a plus for me!

There's plenty of familiar actors here, so that's good & they do well with their respective roles. There's some scary visuals & horrific scenes too as well as some good scoring by Bryan Tyler. With some good eye candy & humour added in for good measure, the film is pretty watchable.

The films pacing is good until the end where it does get annoying slow & dragging like. The runtime isn't bad at 1 hour & 45 minutes (105 minutes), but could've had a good 10 - 15 minutes shaved off to make it faster paced.

I also found the excessive screaming & sound to be deafening too! I mean, we get it, she's a vampire, but does she have to scream that much!? & also, does it have to be so deafeningly loud!? As with the editing & pacing, that was also an issue that could've been fixed!

Try to make the sound not so punishing on your audiences ears next time ok!? Jeez! Anyway, aside from that the film was good & had an alright but annoying ending... another female soul survivor ending, of course that & she was bitten by a vampire so not quite the survival happy ending I guess.

Overall, it's a good film, but not amazing & could've used some work! I'd give it a watch, but it's pretty overrated for what it is if you ask me! It's a mixed bag of a film...

6/10.

Exactly what it says on the tin!

[liamlovesmovies_ · 9/10 · 14 April 2024]

Just from the trailers alone I was so excited to see this! And thankfully, it delivers!

Abigail is funny, gory and packed full with a brilliant cast such as Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton and Kevin Durand.

Radio silence have given us another great horror film that adds to their already impressive resume (READY OR NOT & SCREAM)

2024 is shaping up to be an amazing year for horror.

Abigail is played by Alisha Weir who you may have seen in the movie musical Matilda. She is the standout of this film. She nails the comedy moments, ballerina stunts and acting as the sweet and innocent victim throughout the start of the film.

Abigail is also the last film to include Angus Cloud, R. I. P.

A lot of fun - worth seeing.

[gsdpjmcdgw · 7/10 · 25 April 2024]

This is fun - almost in the style of Hammer. It's gory, but not scary. A clichéd plot and characters, but directed and acted with enthusiasm, and a good nod to classic vampire films. All the references were there, we were just missing Vincent Price and Christopher Lee and an over-coloured palette.

There was a tongue in cheek patina right across the film. I'm not sure why it was rated 18 in the UK - unless to protect people with an aversion to tomato sauce. The gore was done with explosive fun - a real splat fest.

This was surprisingly entertaining, done with gusto. Absolutely worth 90 minutes.

Bloody Fun Original Vampire Film!

[estjake · 10/10 · 20 April 2024]

The trailer for this movie drew me in right away when I watched it a few months ago. A group of criminals kipnap a child for ransom and it turns out she's a vampire?! Who wouldn't wanna see that film. This movie is as crazy and bloody as it appears in the trailer with some good twists along the way. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet did a great job with this one, I really like their style of filmmaking. If you liked some of their other movies like Ready Or Not and Scream 5 & 6, you'll most likely enjoy this one. Melissa Barrera and Kathryn Newton stood out in this film and did a wonderful job. RIP Angus Cloud, every movie and show I've seen of his he was great like Euphoria and Your Lucky Day, it's so tragic what happened and I wish we could've seen what his career would've looked like, he was just getting started. I recommend seeing this movie in a theatre to get the full effect. If you want a fun night at the movies, go check out this awesome bloody horror vampire flick!

A bloody babysitting nightmare

[Howling_at_the_Moon_Reviews · 7/10 · 19 April 2024]

This was a surprisingly well rounded, well balanced film that I think will quickly settle into a "comfort horror" category for many.

It had the perfect ratios of suspense, comedy and spook. Had a detailed plot but yet simple and not overly convoluted. It had a solid cast that all worked great as an ensemble (Dan Stevens particularly stood out with a great performance). The sfx, blood, guts and gore in this are not lacking and quite gnarly when they hit. It had a great balance between its camp and scare factor and was just generally light hearted, enjoyable and fun.

It felt like it took awhile for the action to actually get started and the general run time definitely felt a bit longer than it actually was... neither of which are ideal. There was also a little family gathering scene at the end that, while I suppose fun, was totally unnecessary.

Despite these small issues there wasn't much to dislike about this experience. Don't go into this thinking you're going to get something revolutionary. They set out to make an absurd vampire flick about a little ballerina and they did just that, successfully might I add. 6.5 rounding up to a 7, would recommend.

Abigail: A few more like this and I'll have to shut up about Hollywood not being able to do horror anymore

[Platypuschow · 8/10 · 22 April 2024]

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.

Tiny Dancer

[cutie7 · 6/10 · 17 April 2024]

"Abigail," a 2024 release, offers a delightfully fresh twist on the thriller genre, mixing humor with horror in a way that keeps you glued to the screen. The story kicks off with a straightforward kidnapping: a group of would-be criminals attempt to hold the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure for a $50 million ransom. The plan? Simply watch her overnight in an isolated mansion. But the plot thickens as the captors start to disappear one by one, and they soon realize they're not dealing with any ordinary girl.

The film's standout is undoubtedly Alisha Weir, who plays the young Abigail with an eerie brilliance that steals every scene. Her ability to oscillate between charming innocence and unsettling menace adds a riveting layer to the film. The humor is spot on-dark yet uproarious, enhancing the campy, gory sequences that fill the movie, making them more entertaining than terrifying. The chemistry among the cast is palpable, making every interaction a blend of suspense and comedy. "Abigail" is also bittersweet as it features the final performance of Angus Cloud, whose presence is a poignant reminder of his talent. Fast-paced and packed with moments that will have you both laughing and gasping, "Abigail" is a true crowd-pleaser from start to finish.

Another soulless horror flick

[nscoby93 · 3/10 · 19 April 2024]

From the directors of Ready or Not comes this boring nothingness.

A Dracula spinoff or some vampire movie one off either way, I do not care. Abigail is about as horrifying and thrilling as this tired out genre continues to be.

Boring jump scares, typical boring a** hole characters that are neither interesting nor likable but I'm sure they're not meant to be or at least I hope not. There's a good cast here, but their material isn't.

The story for this poor excuse of a vampire movie is as boring as its characters. There's just nothing here! Sure, there's action, but action means nothing when you don't care for the characters in it.

I originally had no intention of watching this film, but my desire to see my celebrity crush (Kathyrn Newton) got the better of me.

Anyway, if you can turn your brain off, then I'm sure there's enjoyment to be had from this Dracula/vampire movie thing or whatever it's supposed to be.

IMDb: 3/10 Letterboxd: 2/5

Watched in Theaters.

When Abigail spins around, would that be a vampirouette?

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 19 April 2024]

In Abigail, a gang of desperate criminals kidnap a young girl unaware that their seemingly helpless ballerina hostage is in fact a savage vampire; it's the latest film from Radio Silence directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the guys who gave us Ready or Not and the last couple of Scream movies, and like those films, I thought that Abigail was simply average.

It aims to be a brainless popcorn horror, mixing laughs with the scares; brainless it most certainly is, but unfortunately the film is neither funny enough nor scary enough. And with the trailer having shown us most of the good bits, there are very few surprises to be had. It's a harmless enough way to kill a couple of hours, I suppose, and the occasional excess of splattery gore is enjoyable, but I had hoped to like the film a lot more than I did.

5.5/10, generously rounded up to 6 for Melissa Barrera, who deserves better than this.

Genre busting

[Padreviews · 6/10 · 21 April 2024]

As usual I went to see this film knowing nothing about & im extremely glad that I went to film without reading any reviews, so there were no spoilers

I had no idea what genre it was although I thought it might be horror & the trailers shown before the film confirmed that but of intuition.

Then the film started and I thought we are in for a edge of seat thriller like Taken or Die Hard but I was wrong I was very wrong

What you did get was a twist on various staple film stories but with twists . So there was a bit of knives out , a great deal of The usual suspects , a bit of horror comedy like M3gan and then a complete change in direction but I won't say what was as it'll spoil the surprise .

Did it work ?

I'd say no overall as it tried to be too many things in one film which ended up with plot holes , it's not a bad film it's just not a brilliant one & where it could have emulated the Usual Suspects it took a completely different path

It was full of surprises but not all of them were nice surprises

Pad. A 6/10.

It's No Ready or Not, but still a bloody good time

[NYC2TC · 7/10 · 6 May 2024]

I saw Abigail this weekend. I was especially excited for this film since Ready or Not is one of my favorite films, and this is from the same directing team of Radio Silence and had a similar look. Although I really enjoyed it, there is absolutely no taking Ready or Not's crown.

First of all, I cannot begin to tell you how exponentially better this film would be if the trailers hadn't given away its main conceit. Given how the movie was advertised, I assumed it would be revealed in the film right away. However the movie treats it like a mystery, and isn't revealed until almost an hour in. I can't imagine how entertaining it would have been to be legitimately surprised (if somehow you haven't seen the trailer, DON'T). Secondly it's a super small cast, so every personality matters. Based on the reviews I've seen, I'm obviously in the minority, but I absolutely couldn't stand Dan Stevens in this film. I've seen and read so many reviews talking about how entertaining he was in this and Godzilla X Kong, and I found him terribly obnoxious in both. I don't get the appeal, but I'm missing something.

Thankfully there were stand outs like Angus Cloud (RIP), Kevin Durand as the not so bright Canadian Muscle and especially Alisha Weir who is an Absolute ROCK STAR as Abigail. She is already so, so good, especially as a young actress.

This film is tremendously bloody, so not for the faint of heart. Unrelated to the film, but there was a 9 year old girl at the screening with her parents holding a stuffed animal while watching it, which was definitely an eye-opener.

Ballerina was Spooky

[anasalee-82877 · 8/10 · 18 April 2024]

Watched it in advance screening. It was a fun ride and something refreshing after few stale slicks. Lead child actor totally owned the role. The way she portrayed little vampire was chilling to the core. She was like a chameleon who convinced the viewers of her innocence at one point and instantly turns to someone very evil. Melissa is always a treat to watch on screen. Few of the goofy lines were there to add some comic garnishing.

Movie did not waste much time and jumped directly to the plot and that was a daring step from the director. The movie is an awesome package to watch. It will get you stuck to your chairs till the credit roll.

Enjoyable and different tale in the Dracula world

[cthirlby · 7/10 · 19 April 2024]

A very easily enjoyable movie for having fun with the vampire genre and looking at Draculas daughter instead of Dracula. The violence was pretty good although I don't feel like it was enough for an 18 rating. Angus Clouds last on screen appearance was memorable as he is funny in the movie and respect to the directors for putting the most they could of him in the film. The movie had some comedic moments in it as a whole from everyone. Quite a lighthearted film to just have fun with and enjoy a Dracula world tale. The little girl playing Abigail too did a good job especially from coming from a very different film playing Matilda. Had some unexpected moments in it especially towards the end so that was really thrilling. There was a character who appeared at the end who didn't look right for the character at all, it looked unbelievable and nothing great compared to other looks in other media. Had a predictable and standard horror ending though too. Pretty decent and just enjoyable.

October Comes Early! The Usual Suspects in a Haunted House Inhabited By a Pound for Pound Powerhouse of a Tiny Dancing Sabertooth Slasher! R.I.P. Angus Cloud.

[RightOnDaddio · 9/10 · 19 April 2024]

This movie has it all.

All star ensemble cast.

Ambience.

Mood.

Tons of humor.

Good writing.

Great action.

Little downtime.

Believable acting done by very likable actors In unbelievably awesome situations.

Melissa Barrera. Wow. What a siren!

She looks fantastic in her every role that I've seen but maybe never more so than here.

O. M. G.!

Her, in every single scene.

She is a star. Take my money from here on out whatever she's in.

Dan Stevens.

A true actor.

Loved him in Downton Abbey. Loved him most recently in the new Kong x Godzilla.

He kills it here as well. Just spectacular.

Alisha Weir as the title character. Simply stupendous.

Kathryn Newton. Kevin Durand. Always great.

Angus Cloud, you will be missed. Here, leaving us all wanting more.

This is just a great, fun movie with something for everybody.

Laughs. Anticipation. Interesting scenes and scenarios. It even adds a few new things to the vampire story.

The temperature may be rising outside but inside the theater, it'll feel like Fall is already here.

Just Alright

[glrichards · 7/10 · 20 April 2024]

The movie is an interesting take on Dracula films. The begging was interesting and kept me entertained, but after that it was just meh. Not much people haven't seen in other horror movies. It didn't give me the jump scare that I thought it would. If you pay close attention, the plot begins to start to become more and more predictable. Not much more after the 30 minutes into the movie keeps you engaged. Also, do not watch the trailers due to the fact that they reveal a lot of the movie. All in all this movie was fine. Not my top pick. I would recommend a lot more horror movies before seeing this movie.

Amazing!!

[greyKbarclay · 8/10 · 19 April 2024]

Intriguing and enticing premise; a group profession criminals are looking to make a quick but huge buck when they kidnap the daughter of a powerful figure. Things take a disastrous turn when they group are enlightened to the fact that have taken the vampire daughter of the biggest crime bosses to rule the world. The group are slowly picked off one by one by the tutu wearing Abigail (Weir) as she giggles, pirouettes and jetas her way through the isolated mansion.

Radio Silence have already proved themselves to be two insightful young filmmakers who truly have their fingers in the pulse of the horror genre (Ready or Not, V/H/S and the rebooted Scream films which also see Melissa Barrera as the lead). They have taken the motif of vampires and created a fresh new perspective that remains in keeping with all previous iterations that we have seen in the past.

A terrific blend of satirically comedy that is perfectly placed and the gore that has both purpose and substance through which I can't help but be reminded of Wes Craven, this film takes its audience on a fantastically gruesome ride. The beginning is a little slow, with the characters all being established to allow for the audience to care for them when they finally do bite it, but as soon as the action sequences begin they don't really stop. It's really just one turn after the other.

I highly recommend this horror film for people to see, and even though the fact that Abigail is a vampire is given away in the trailers, I really don't think it's detracts from the overall enjoyment of the film.

The trailer is the whole movie

[HarlequinKitty · 6/10 · 20 April 2024]

Enjoyable a day later, but on release as I was watching the movie, I kept expecting more. Some kind of twist and even a possible movie connecting during the ending. But alas, the movie is exactly what you see in the trailer. As a matter of fact, it's mostly what you see in the trailer. No surprises, no extra moments (except a very small surprise towards the end), just what you see is what you get.

I definitely did run a bit longer, I think they cut out that opening segmented and just start right away. It's Worth a watch if you have a season pass of some sort, but I wouldn't go out of my way compared to some others.

Underwhelming and Unimpressive

[knoxfan2008 · 4/10 · 23 April 2024]

Everything in this movie is mediocre except the cinematography and the production design. I was looking forward to this due to me really liking Radio Silence's 'Ready or Not'. I was hoping for a fun horror comedy akin to that, but 'Abigail' ended up being as frustrating and obnoxious as their 2 'Scream' movies. It was however, better than 'Scream 5', but that's not saying much.

The acting all round is pretty bad. Dan Stevens is hamming it up, Melissa Barrera is a blank slate, but the worst performance by a mile is from Kathryne Newtown. Newtown has been bad in everything I've seen her in ('Detective Pikachu', the 'Death Note' remake), but here she's impressively awful, she can't even scream convincingly. The little girl is good for a child actress, but her dialogue is embarrassing lazy and stilted. She's the exact same kind of "toying with her victims" villain we've seen a million times before, now just in child form.

There are TWO 3-minute exposition scenes in this movie where a character just stops the film dead in its tracks, and explains everyone's backstory. It wouldn't be as unbearable if these characters weren't stock and unlikeable, but not one of them has an interesting backstory, so wasting this time trying to "flesh them out" ends up being a complete, cliched waste. Theres even a gag where the big "muscle" character screams like a little girl, as if we haven't seen that joke a million times before...

There were no engaging twists or revelations, and the characters were impossibly stupid. Unlike 'Ready or Not', where the lead character makes smart decisions, and the villains only make idiotic decisions because that's core to their character, the group in 'Abigail' are "professionals" who only make moronic decisions to further the contrived plot.

One aspect that surprised me was how many loud and amateur jump-scares there were. None of them were effective, and the editing is akin to something you'd expect from a horror short on YouTube. The sound design is particularly egregious and insistent, and all but one of the needle drops are total cringe. There's no moments of tension or thrill. I doubt even a 12 year old would find any of this scary.

It even uses the same exploding-bodies trick from 'Ready or Not', but in a much dumber and unsatisfying way. It even ends in the same way, with one character saying pretty much the exact same thing as Samara Weaving in 'Ready or Not'. It's just them playing the hits from their one good movie. There's not an original bone in this movie, despite it clearly insisting that it's some fresh, slick new take on vampires.

I've seen a lot of stuff these two directors have done, including their sections in 'Southbound' and 'V/H/S', and it's clear that Gillet and Bettinelli-Olpin only have one good movie in them, and that's mostly due to the fact that the premise in 'Ready or Not' is really hard to screw up. I don't ask for much, I've seen tonnes of tiny budget, straight-to-streaming comedy horrors that are far more inventive, funny and transgressive than this forgettable chore.

A Good Horror Film Held Back by an Underwhelming Conclusive Chapter

[Sahil47 · 7/10 · 21 April 2024]

This is a good film that could've been great if its second half lived up to its amazing first half. I don't think people realize how much a slasher film like this is carried by its characters and their dynamics. The characters make these films engaging throughout, as the plot is run-of-the-mill almost all the time.

Abigail has an amazing cast; they are all well-performed and stand out on their own as all of them have their unique quirks. Also, most of the jokes in the film land, like I don't recall many scenes where I wasn't, at least, chuckling. The actors do a great job making all these characters likable. I sincerely haven't encountered such a good main cast in a modern horror film in quite a while. This leads me to talk about what I didn't like about the film.

My singular main complaint regarding the film is that for this cast; They should've gone a different route in the concluding chapter of the film instead of going the generic slasher horror movie route where you just waste all of their potential. To be more precise, my lament lies in the film's final act. With such a well-established cast, one yearns for a satisfactory ending for all of them. From the beginning to most of its runtime, it feels like this film is a bit out of the norms of this subgenre and is trying something new and that something new was so good until, sadly, the filmmakers opted for the familiar path of the slasher horror trope and then it just goes the generic route. With its potential squandered, the climax lacks the impact it deserves, which, in my opinion, significantly hurts this film's overall quality. I was about to drop an 8.5 or 9 score before that.

Still, "Abigail" remains a commendable entry in modern horror. Its atmospheric setting, a mansion cloaked in shadows, while underutilized, does what it is there to do. The practical effects, especially the visceral gore, are well done. Lastly, and most importantly, the cast is always entertaining until the final act does injustice to all of them. 7.5/10.

Ballerina Vampire

[jack_o_hasanov_imdb · 6/10 · 20 April 2024]

The movie's trailer piqued my interest. But I wish they had not revealed that the girl was a vampire in the trailer. Perhaps they did this to sell the film. I recently learned that the film is a reboot of "Dracula's Daughter." I liked the movie. All of the characters were interesting. Even the quiet scenes with dialogue were engaging and interesting. First and foremost, I enjoyed all of the acting. They were really good. Alisha Weir was amazing. I watched with my mouth open. I was going to give the movie 7 points, but instead gave it 6. Because the film was incredibly predictable. First and foremost, I had no idea the film would be a reboot, but I could predict how it would end at the start. It was a little obvious. Jump scare scenes were used. I wish it hadn't been used. The movie was also good technically. It was a fun movie for me. I had a lot of fun in the cinema.