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Abigail (Alisha Weir – Wicked Little Letters) is not your average run-of-the-mill ballerina, but a team, arranged by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito – Far Cry 6), is brought together – led by Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Frank (Dan Stevens – Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire) – to kidnap her for a $50m ransom, because she’s the daughter of a very wealthy man.
Early on, she tries to gain the trust of her captors by crying as if she’s 12-year-old girl who’s vulnerable, when actually, she’s a centuries-old vampire.
The entire first half is scene setting, including the group of randoms having a guessing game about everyone’s background, but when it finally lets the blood fly in the second half, it really delivers – even on the jump scares, making this one of the better examples of a horror movie from 2024, and with some great gore that was allowed by the 18-certificate, some of which had me inadvertently bursting out laughing because the scenes were so well put together.
That said, it is a busman’s holiday, as far as acting is concerned, since no-one really needs to put forth the effort.
You soon get that Abigail is one of those horror movies when people die one by one at the impetus of ‘Matilda’, but in which order, and will anyone survive?
However, there’s still time for a fair bit of humour, such as when one of them asks, “What do we know about vampires??”, and another replies, “They’re not real”. That’ll help 😀
A few random thoughts…
- Why did they all hole up in a big mansion? That was never explained.
- Before long, they want to leave, but aside from the potential danger they were in, I was more concerned about the fact they had to hand in their mobile phones at the start, and I wouldn’t want to take off without mine, even though it would only require a few hundred quid to buy a new one (against potentially losing my life) as well as popping down to the Three store for a new SIM.
- Why does anyone try and kill her? Just stay away!
- Could Kevin Durand, as Peter, look any more like Elon Musk? In fact, he looks more like Elon Musk than Elon Musk!
There’s also a very brief post-credits moment, as you’ll discover in the video below, if you missed it in the cinema.
Abigail is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 109 minutes
Release date: April 19th 2024
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7/10
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Producers: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Chad Villella, Tripp Vinson
Screenplay: Stephen Shields, Guy Busick
Music: Brian Tyler
Cast:
Joey: Melissa Barrera
Frank: Dan Stevens
Abigail: Alisha Weir
Rickles: William Catlett
Sammy: Kathryn Newton
Peter: Kevin Durand
Dean: Angus Cloud
Lambert: Giancarlo Esposito
Father: Matthew Goode
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.