Universal has struggled to lately to carry again its basic horror franchises like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and so forth., makes an attempt that have been maybe too literal. But because of the filmmaking collective referred to as Radio Silence they’ve, with Abigail, maybe stumbled onto a strategy to preserve the occasion going. In this case it’s again to the immortal vampire story to finish all of them, Dracula, however right here the bloodsucking title star is his 12-year-old daughter, not the notorious man himself who’s decreased to a mere cameo.
Last yr the studio tried a variation on the story with Renfield, which starred Nicholas Hoult because the sidekick to Nicolas Cage’s campy tackle the legend however misplaced its method. I’m completely happy to report that utilizing a mix of a heist flick married to ghoulish and grand over-the-top supernatural bloodletting does the trick in Abigail, a movie that at its coronary heart (albeit with a stake in it) is a LOL comedy besides.
Not to be confused with killer doll movies like Annabelle, this younger woman is such a seemingly harmless budding ballerina it comes as a shock to see her whole-hog transformation into daddy’s little demon later within the movie. Alisha Weir, morphing into probably the most terrifying youngster since Linda Blair bought an Oscar nomination for doing it in 1973’s The Exorcist, is the title star who turns into the sufferer of a kidnapping plot by a gaggle of badass, however kinda dumb, criminals enlisted by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito, in for a few scenes), who has been employed to carry them collectively by an unseen however fearsome crime boss as a way to snatch Abigail and demand a $50 million ransom to be paid by her very rich father. The job goes comparatively simple as they infiltrate the household mansion and steal her away to a abandoned, gothic-like home whereas awaiting fee for the gig. But as they may quickly be taught that is no abnormal job. “I’m so sorry for what’s about to occur to you,” Abigail innocently says at one level to one in all her clueless kidnappers.
At this level we get to know this oddball crew simply as they get to know one another since they’ve been individually chosen for his or her uniquely totally different abilities together with the driving force, the sniper, the medic, the muscle, the hacker, and the skinny man (aka head of ops). They have no idea the true id of one another and have been given different names. Thus we meet Joey (Melissa Barrera), who appears the neatest and most organized of the bunch, somebody who can get proper all the way down to enterprise and assess among the dimwits she is caught with. They embody the extreme and frenetic Frank (Dan Stevens), the flighty blonde Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Rickles (Will Catlett), Peter (Kevin Durand) and Dean (the late Angus Cloud), all because it seems with backgrounds that belie their collective lack of intelligence when requested to work as one on this mission.
Watching this unfold I saved pondering of Agatha Christie’s endlessly copied and remade And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians), and positive sufficient later within the movie the screenwriters, Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, do certainly reference that inspiration fairly actually. Any informal moviegoer is aware of while you collect a gaggle of strangers in a dilapidated mansion, one after the other they will be goners. It is only a matter of time — and how. After numerous bickering between them, plus the invention that Abigail is not any abnormal little ballerina, we begin to see some imaginative, bloodcurdling sequences, and the movie earns it stripes within the style; that is positively hard-R horror. Of course, with Frank main the resistance, they activate one another in a bid to outlive as Abigail exhibits she inherited the household genes and expertise for sucking the blood out of their misbegotten plans whereas on the identical time niftily exhibits off her balletic abilities in shelling out with this crowd.
Although I’ve been getting weary of the identical outdated tropes utilized in so many horror movies of late, the limitless parade of sequels doing mainly the identical factor, Abigail is definitely numerous enjoyable, maybe a part of its inspiration coming for a lesser-known 1936 Universal basic, Dracula’s Daughter, however nonetheless a totally totally different storyline than that one. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence), who managed to clean up the drained Scream franchise over the past two installments and are additionally liable for the unique Ready Or Not, present an actual aptitude for injecting humor and horror in equal doses into the proceedings and actually preserve this factor constructing to the inevitable crescendo required of such a premise. Short of giving this materials to a genius like Guillermo del Toro, they do a positive job in bringing all of it to life, helped enormously by Brian Tyler’s sensational Grand Guignol-style rating.
You can see why Stevens, an in any other case severe actor, would possibly need to tackle a gonzo position like Frank as he utterly devours it with no fear that an excessive amount of is, uh, an excessive amount of. Barrera, who labored with the administrators on Scream, exhibits she additionally has the chops for this form of factor. Newton is pure enjoyable, as is Durand who will get among the greatest strains. Cloud has the true nutso character however sadly is out of the movie a lot too early, although it’s sufficient to exhibits the potential the Euphoria star had for creating some out-there characters. Gone method too quickly. The movie is devoted to him.
Producers are William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, Tripp Vinson and Chad Villella (the latter additionally a part of Radio Silence).
Title: Abigail
Distributor: Universal
Release date: April 19, 2024
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Screenwriters: Stephen Shields and Guy Busick
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Alisha Weir, Giancarlo Esposito, Matthew Goode
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 49 min
Content Source: deadline.com