ABIGAIL - A Great Modern Vampire Flick (USA, 2024)
Apparently children can be such monsters. Which is why I chose to remain childfree and adopt cats.
Vampires suck. No really, they do. Not just literally, but personally I don’t think vampires are that awesome of a horror movie character. Too many rules for my liking and too much variation between titles. Kind of like zombies.
Child vampires are nothing new either. I grew up when Interview With A Vampire was one of the most popular movies of the year - thanks mostly to Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and not Kirsten Dunst - but that was hardly a traditional horror film. More like a bromance with a curly haired vampire child.
However, Abigail decided to give the audience almost everything they wanted in a horror movie: plenty of gore. And I mean plenty of gore. The exploding body scenes are some of the goriest and hilarious scenes you’ll ever see in a modern horror flick, and the make-up effects used to bring Abigail (and others) to life look terrific.
PLOT
Six random criminals are hired to kidnap a young ballerina and hold her for random for 24 hours while waiting for her father to pay her $50million ransom.
Holed in a gothic looking mansion in the middle of nowhere, the truth about her father spooks some of the criminals, and they quickly realise Abigail isn’t just a teenage girl - but a vampire ballerina who is really, really hungry.
ABOUT THE FILM
It’s quite a fun plot. Reminds more of an action movie where a group of people have pulled off a heist and need to hide out while waiting for the heat to die down, and give themselves code names as to not divulge identities.
In this case, we’ve got the rat pack. A random but fun reference that’s brought to life in the bar scene.
On top of the gore and vampires, the other thing this movie has going for it is its comedy. It’s very black humour, there is no intention here to make a parody film or traditional comedy horror, rather the humour is used to bring a lighter side to both the characters and the violence.
Speaking of characters, they’re thankfully not as annoying as most modern horror titles - like the cast of It’s A Wonderful Knife and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies who were truly awful and vile people. Sure, there are a few annoying characters, but overall there’s nothing disappointing here at all.
If you’re a fan of traditional vampire films, then I am not sure what your mileage will be with this film. As someone who doesn’t like vampire movies, I am not sure if you think this does them justice or if this movie is a travesty.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
From my point of view, which is the purpose of this review, I actually enjoyed this film. The exploding bodies are just fantastic, I could watch that over and over again, and while the ending was fairly predictable, it was a fun ride to get there.
I’d recommend this one.
Genre Horror Thriller
Director Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Starring Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton
Original Title Abigail
Country of Origin USA
Release Date 19 April 2024
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