TL;DR – A bloody joy when it is working and a bit of a slog when it is not.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Abigail Review –

Have you ever heard a film premise and immediately thought, “I need to see that”? Well, that is what happened to me when I first heard about Abigail. A group of thugs think they are kidnapping a little girl, but they actually take a monster. I mean, there are whole fairy tales based around concepts just like this and how they turn out. Add in the team behind Ready or Not, and you will have me sold.

So to set the scene, one evening, a group of professionals start casing out a house, waiting to capture the person within. Frank (Dan Stevens) is the boss, Joey (Melissa Barrera) is client control, Sammy (Kathryn Newton) is their hacker, Rickles (William Catlett) is the sniper, Peter (Kevin Durand) is their muscle, and Dean (Angus Cloud) is their car man. But the person they are kidnapping is a little girl, Abigail (Alisha Weir), who just got back from ballet practice. People are not okay with kidnapping a kid, but $7 million is $7 million. However, when they arrive at the creepy house run by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) and must hold the child for 24 hours, it would be a shame if there was also a monster stuck in there with them.

If you have seen Ready or Not before, then you will see some of the similar thematic elements here, as well as just so much blood, so much blood. Like, did they use all the fake blood in Ireland? So much blood. There is a slow burn at the start, but the film knows that you know what is about to go down, so it plays into that, waiting for the first one to drop. I did like that they had to take a moment to work out what sort of vampire they were, only to fail spectacularly. This is when Alisha Weir gets to shine as Abigail as they lean into the juxtapositions of a child that can rip your head off while dancing on points. When the film is playing in this space, it shines, as all the cast members know exactly what kind of film they are in and play into it.

However, while there is a lot of this film that I really liked, I did walk out feeling that there were some missed opportunities. While there was a strong build and a fun second act as people started dropping. But you can feel the film begin to drag once we start getting into more lore than it needs. The third act really starts to drag when you feel that the movie is ready to tie things up, but we have twenty minutes on the clock. There is a tight 90-minute film here that feels a bit dragged out. Then there are those odd moments where you go, “There is no way they didn’t smell that when they walked in”. While there are things that hold it back, it always goes back to the weird fun, which is a delight.

In the end, do we recommend Abigail? Look, if you want a bloody gory mess, then this is a film for you. If you liked Abigail, we would recommend to you Talk To Me.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Abigail
Directed by – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by – Stephen Shields & Guy Busick
Music by – Brian Tyler
Cinematography by – Aaron Morton
Edited by – Michael Shawver
Production/Distribution Companies – Project X Entertainment, Vinson Films, Radio Silence Productions, Wild Atlantic Pictures & Universal Pictures
Starring – Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito & Matthew Goode
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 18A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 18; United States: R