Happy halfway-to-Halloween everyone! At this time of the year (when many people just ignore Walpurgis Night) what better way to celebrate than dressing up like a Monster High doll, grabbing my complimentary commemorative lunchbox (hell yeah, #merchalert) and going to see a new horror movie? I know that’s what I did!
Just like last year’s fun springtime treat “Renfield” Universal Pictures has decided to take another twirl around the classic horror dance floor with “Abigail.” Employing hit creative team “Radio Silence” (makers of “Ready or Not” and the two most recent “Scream” films) the film doesn’t seem like a horror film at all for a while, and that’s what makes it interesting.
Starting out like a heist thriller, our film concerns a group of professional criminals successfully tailing, invading the posh home of, and swiftly making away with a very wealthy little girl (Alisha Weir.) Arriving at a crumbling—but somehow ornate—country estate, the group are met by their boss Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito, in what’s essentially a very fun cameo.) Lambert gives them “Kidnapper Gremlins Rules” — no real names or life stories, keep the kid blindfolded and restrained, limit their interactions with the kid to one person, stay at the house for 24 hours, and help yourselves to the ample food and alcohol. He even makes things easy on the group by nicknaming them all after the Rat Pack so they stop being tempted to use names. They get through this and they’ll get a fantastic payday. Easy enough right? Wrong. So, so wrong.
Soon the group is letting their guards down, making barroom bets, and a couple of them are getting very sloppy. We have immature, horny getaway driver Dean (the late Angus Cloud) making clumsy, drunken passes at sassy, ditzy hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton, continuing a streak of fun horror performances.) We have suspiciously cool headed, bespectacled Frank (Dan Stevens) waiting to clock out and cash out, and over on the other side of the bar is Peter (Kevin Durand)—the big, dumb, friendly hired muscle. Then there are the loners: a smartass sniper called Rickles (Will Catlett) and slightly aloof, sweet-toothed team medic Joey (Melissa Barrera.) While everyone else is making an absolute fool of themselves, Joey claims she’s abstaining so that she can check on their charge. Soon, she’s off bonding with the child, who tells her that her name is Abigail, is trying to ask her questions about her past and loved ones, and selling the “daddy doesn’t love me” routine hard. It’s enough to make Joey feel for the kid. Frank has a different opinion and suddenly trades in his cool act for some hot-headed foolishness. He interrogates the child at gun point, forcing her to confess that her father is a boss—the kind you don’t mess around with. Everyone else is horrified that Frank is losing it, and worried about what will happen to them when daddy finds out they have his baby, but Abigail has had a long, long time to practice this little pity play.
Much like its classic predecessor “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996) the studio marketing department decided not to worry about protecting what an untrained audience would consider the twist (that Abigail is a vampire,) and that’s probably a good thing. Audiences need the “wait for it, wait for it” level of gleeful amusement that builds up for that payoff to work and then to go along for the rest of the high-concept ride. There are many more surprises in store after that first one, and many callbacks and clues to who Abigail’s daddy really is (I see you family crest.)
The set design is magnificent: the house has all of the haunted house trappings (if this movie isn’t the basis of a “Halloween Horror Nights” attraction I will be very surprised) and is used well as both location and prop. Cobwebbed walls crumble and exposed plaster explodes as the team are hunted down by a kid who is very strong, quick, and light on her feet. The calculated decaying glamour of set pieces such as the library and the cage elevator also hint at the influences the film draws from, as does the makeup and prosthetic work.
At one point, the characters have a discussion about what kind of vampire they’re dealing with, and they name off a bunch of “sexy” or “romantic” imaginings… but someone working on this film saw “Fright Night” so we are in for a shark-mouth style vampire—and it is glorious! It’s not used often and the visual contrast of elegant, dainty Abigail going into beast mode and showing off her buzzsaw smile is a treat. The other makeup effects, including absolute pools of gore, are impressive.
One of the best creative choices in “Abigail” was not fully switching genres and dropping the “heist film” element from the story. The film balances humor and horror well—even engaging in some good old-fashioned slapstick. The ensemble cast each contribute entertaining performances, but this is Barrera’s and Weir’s time to shine. Barrera’s grounded portrayal of Joey shows us a woman who is haunted by her choices and determined to survive. She is a carer, which is both her most noble trait and her biggest stumbling block. Weir’s performance as Abigail uses her innocent appearance to lull her aggressors-turned-victims into false senses of having control and power over her, while also betraying that some of what she’s telling them actually is horribly, painfully true.
In “Abigail” the creative team has made a movie that pays homage to classic Universal Horror (a franchise which celebrated a full century of existence last year) while adapting their storytelling to subvert the expectations of the trope-literate modern viewer. Viewers will have a great time with “Abigail” dancing her way into their hearts… and then taking a great big bite out of it!
P.S.— If you did happen to catch one of those “romantic” vampire shows from a few years back—there’s a very fun bonus cameo towards the end of the movie you’ll get a kick out of!
Late Blooming Horror 
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