"ABIGAIL" Scares the Laughs Out of You

(Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)

You heard that right. This film is more of a dark comedy then it is a horror. Not sure if that was the intention or not but that's exactly what this is. Normally, I'm not a fan of dark comedies but this actually entertained me a bit.

If you’re unaware, Abigail is a preteen ballerina vampire. Having kids star in horror films isn't anything new but to have an entire movie be based off of this is pretty cool. Being a fan of horror myself, it’s nice to see this type of film be made. Most people would probably turn away from that sort of thing because having kids play these monsters with blood and gore isn’t something a lot of people are a fan of but that’s what makes this film different than others.

Right out of the gate we are in the middle of a kidnapping. We know nothing other then these people are trying to kidnap this girl but we don’t know anything about anything really. Bottom line, 5 strangers are brought into an old mansion together who kidnapped a little girl in exchange for money. It’s a “24 hour job”. Keep the girl for a day, get paid. It’s a classic kidnapping. But then someone dies, another one dies and before you know it, it’s revealed she’s a vampire and now the remaining few are trying to survive the night. I can see where this would be a good concept and it, honestly, worked out well but it seemed “too easy” or predictable. There’s always a main character that outlasts the rest and in this case, it was Melissa Barrera (Scream 2019).

For those watching this for the gore factor, there's not much. A head falls off someone, Abigail gets her hand burnt off and starts to grow it back and a few people explode from the sunlight resulting in gallons and gallons of blood all over. So if the sight of blood bothers you, don't watch this film. I will say that they made Alisha Weir look pretty frightening as a vampire child. From the teeth to the eyes, it's enough to haunt your dreams if you watch this before bedtime. The same goes for the others who get bit and turn into vampires. Especially Kathryn Newton's character who somehow manages to look very close to Miley Cyrus when she's a vampire.

As far as story goes, there’s not much to it. Pretty bland. One thing that did catch me by surprise was to find out that Giancarlo Esposito's character actually was a vampire the whole time as well. He’s responsible for recruiting everyone and putting them into the house with the girl in the first place. Turns out the whole reason why he put them in the house with her is because they all have bad pasts and for Abigail, it’s really just for her to hunt them and kill them in the house. Of course, our own Melissa Barrera makes nice with the vampire girl in the beginning of the movie so she becomes spared. This is a problem for me. Why would Abigail just let Melissa walk away? No one knows that Abigail is a vampire so letting Melissa walk away potentially means she could expose them. I get the heart to heart, but that’s still weird to me. I think I would’ve liked it better if Abigail just killed them all.

(from left) Dean (Angus Cloud), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Abigail (Alisha Weir, back to camera), Peter (Kevin Durand), Frank (Dan Stevens, background), Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Rickles (Will Catlett) in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.(Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures)

For characters, I'd say they did pretty good with casting. They all seem to mesh really well and provided their own state of humor. Especially Kevin Durand's character, Peter. He seems to be the funniest one out of all of them. What I did find unique, and a bit annoying, was how they decided to introduce the characters to us. Remember, in the beginning, you're right in the middle of a kidnapping and the characters don't even know each other yet. Melissa decides to reveal everyone's background once they get settled into the mansion. What's unique about this is she gets everything right. I think we're supposed to be impressed, but my actual reaction was "really?". After that, one of the characters reveals that Melissa is actually a junkie. This coming from Dan Steven's character, Frank, who plays a retired detective so that observation makes more sense. What also makes sense is Melissa Barrera being cast in it since this film is also directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. If these names sound familiar, it's because they also directed Scream 5 and 6. Don't get your hopes up, this isn't anything like the scream films.

Final Thoughts

Abigail is an entertaining film. It’s got a lot of core features that keep you engaged. Is this an Oscar winner? No. Will your kids get scared? Probably. It might have just enough horror to it where you can watch it with a friend and they won’t ask you to turn it off or hide under the covers. This movie is currently streaming on Peacock and I think it’s definitely worth a watch. If you've seen this film, what did you think?