ABIGAIL (2024)

Studio:   Universal Pictures
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Writer:   Stephen Shields, Guy Busick
Producer: William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, Tripp Vinson, Chad Villella
Stars:    Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Alisha Weir, Giancarlo Esposito

Review Score:

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Summary:

Tables are turned on a group of kidnappers when they become locked inside an isolated mansion with a little girl who turns out to be a vengeful vampire.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Using codenames based on the Rat Pack, a mysterious man named Lambert assembles a heist team that consists of sympathetic medic Joey, hotheaded bagman Frank, marksman Rickles, flighty hacker Sammy, dimwitted strongman Peter, and stoner wheelman Dean. Following her return home from a ballet recital, the crew kidnaps 12-year-old Abigail and brings her to a remote mansion where they are instructed to hold the girl captive until her father pays a multimillion-dollar ransom.

Assigned as the only person who should interact with Abigail, Joey forms a bond with the girl based on the fact that Joey is a struggling single mother. When Abigail cryptically says she is sorry for what is going to happen to her, Joey infers that Abigail's father could pose an unanticipated threat, even though Abigail claims her father doesn't care about her.

Concerned by the potential danger, Frank forces Abigail to reveal her father's identity. After learning her father is feared crime boss Kristof Lazaar, the kidnappers become alarmed due to Kristof's legendary reputation for vicious vengeance.

Upon finding Dean dead from a brutal decapitation, the crew concludes they have been targeted by Valdez, Kristof's hitman who is known for animalistic executions. Rickles decides to abandon the assignment, but everyone discovers they are locked inside the mansion. Rickles is killed not long after.

Abigail privately tells Joey that Frank is supposedly Valdez working undercover to secretly slaughter her father's enemies. Joey confronts Frank with this accusation. Frank responds that Abigail is merely trying to turn them against each other, and she is evidently too cunning to be left alive.

Joey stops Peter from killing Abigail. Abigail suddenly grows fangs and leaps at Peter. Frank shoots Abigail, but she quickly recovers, revealing herself to be a powerful vampire who killed Dean and Rickles since she was capable of escaping her restraints all along.

Following more arguing amongst themselves as well as fighting with Abigail, the remaining kidnappers eventually subdue and recapture Abigail. Abigail admits that Lambert works for her, and she arranged the entire evening because she enjoys hunting the humans she feeds on. Abigail also reveals everyone's real names while individually identifying them as people who previously crossed her father's criminal empire. Abigail further taunts Joey by calling her out as a recovering addict who abandoned her son. Joey counters by claiming she took this job hoping the money would provide a fresh start for her family.

Abigail bursts out of her cage to attack Frank. Joey unblocks a window, allowing sunlight to explode Abigail's arm, which immediately begins to regenerate.

Having been bitten during an earlier encounter, Sammy becomes a vampire under Abigail's control. Abigail puppeteers Sammy into killing Peter by biting his neck. Sammy subsequently chases Joey and Frank until Joey kills her with reflected sunlight.

Joey and Frank find Lambert in a hidden surveillance room where he had been monitoring the evening's events. Lambert reveals he was turned into a vampire two years earlier, and he had been tasked with bringing enemies of her father to Abigail as playthings. Wanting out of his arrangement, Lambert offers Frank a deal to help him kill Abigail. However, Frank has to become a vampire first, and then kill Kristoff too so Frank can assume control of the entire criminal enterprise.

Frank agrees to let Lambert turn him into a vampire. Immediately after transforming, Frank kills Lambert. Abigail tries to attack Frank, but Frank fells her by biting her throat.

Frank attacks Joey after she leaves an emotional voicemail for her son Caleb. Abigail rescues Joey, and promises to let her go if she helps Abigail kill Frank. A violent faceoff ensues that ends with Abigail and Joey causing Frank to explode.

Abigail's father arrives. Kristof implies that he may also by Count Vlad Dracula. Abigail asks her father to spare Joey since she helped save Abigail's life. Kristof agrees. He and Abigail then allow Joey to leave the mansion.

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Review:

Every time a new "Star Wars," Marvel, or DCU project makes an announcement, online discourse gets dominated by heavy-sighing accusations of supposed "Star Wars" and superhero fatigue. It doesn't make sense that fans would want less, not more, of something they presumably love. Nevertheless, perceived declines in popularity and profitability end up attributed to the existence of too many movies, which can turn keeping up with everything into a second job.

Horror has its own versions of similar situations. For quite a while after the success of "The Blair Witch Project," the genre was drowned in nonstop waves of "found footage" films everyone eventually grew tired of. "Scream" birthed a new slasher boom whose various waxes and wanes over ensuing years have been the subject of countless retrospective editorials. And the less said about anything "Amityville," the better.

Curiously, no one ever seems to say much about "vampire fatigue," even though someone really should. In fact, someone should have said something before Universal Pictures pumped no less than three Dracula-related films into theaters in the 12-month span between April 2023 and April 2024.

"Renfield" kicked things off with Nicolas Cage as a bombastic Drac in a dark comedy centered on The Count's insect-eating lackey. "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" (review here) went for more traditional chills with its expanded origin story set during Dracula's ocean journey from Transylvania to London. "Abigail" then brought up the back end. I've seen some seesawing on how much of a Dracula movie "Abigail" really is. Given that "Abigail" opens on a sequence set to the same "Swan Lake" song used in the Bela Lugosi original, and that a certain person claims he's "gone by many names over the countless years," the movie doesn't do anything to downplay the notion that it's at least peripherally connected to the classic character.

All three movies found some supporters, although all three movies underperformed to the point where they're considered commercial disappointments. So why would people fail to turn out all three times for three completely different uses of Bram Stoker's sensational creation?

Frankly, vampires just aren't as compelling to modern audiences anymore. They're fixtures of folklore from a bygone era when people needed a scary story to frighten children or explain odd events, and they no longer fulfill those functions. We've since seen them transform into various animals, combust in sunlight, howl at crucifixes, and drink so much blood that everything they do is no longer novel. If you want to make vampires exciting again, you have to do something radically different. And simply plugging one into a plain plot where a small-sized fangster tears through a half-dozen hapless heisters isn't enough to sustain a 105-minute movie.

At some point in its history, "Abigail" held the secret up its sleeve that the titular 12-year-old, a budding ballerina who is kidnapped by criminals out to extort her fearsome father for ransom, is actually a vicious vampire champing at the bit to turn the tables on her unsuspecting abductors. Keeping that twist under wraps was too much for the movie's marketing to handle though, so virtually everyone who has seen a trailer or a talking point already enters the movie well aware of the surprise in store.

That leaves "Abigail" with more setup than story as it turns into a mere meat grinder of chases, decapitations, neck bites, and impalings featuring single-note characters. The cast stocks up on popular genre actors, hoping their natural charms can compensate for underwritten alter egos, except slim scripting stunts them from forming personas with pop to remain consistently engaging.

With everyone outfitted in Rat Pack code names, Kevin Durand plays Peter, a muscular meathead relegated to a Rob Gronkowski role where he's constantly the butt of dead-horse gags highlighting his dimwittedness. Angus Cloud gets his own dopey joke to beat into the ground as his stoner's unwanted advances are repeatedly rebuffed by Kathryn Newton, whose character asks, what if the hacker stereotype was also trust fund trash? The sole trait for Dan Stevens's Frank is that he's a surly hothead who thinks he's too suave for this eclectic crew. Will Catlett's ex-Marine marksman barely sticks around long enough to register. Melissa Barrera rounds out the roster as the requisite crook with a heart of gold who builds a motherly bond with Abigail. Because what would a cinematic kidnapping even look like without such a sympathetic character?

The team flirts with a few romantic possibilities that fizzle out about as fast as they flicker on. Other than that, they're only grist for the mill once Abigail bares her fangs and bears down on exposed necks. "Abigail" attempts to introduce a minor mystery about who's behind the bloodshed at the beginning, but again, the whole concept of the film is "vampire girl flips the script," so there's no suspense in any angle of some mystery man maybe being locked inside the abattoir with everyone.

If you want to see impossible amounts of blood gush, spray, create waterfalls, fill pools, and explode crimson colors like the world's worst version of a gender reveal, well, "Abigail" at least has that. Stylish though these visuals may be, their repetitiveness wears thin after the umpteenth scene of something or someone bursting apart. That level of gooey gore might be enjoyable enough to placate horror hounds hungry for the kind of action Radio Silence is famous for. Others who want to gnaw on more fresh meat than old bone, on the other hand, may find "Abigail" too lean on substance to be truly tasty.

Review Score: 55

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