Abigail is a horror movie loosely based on Dracula's Daughter. A group of criminals are hired to kidnap a tween ballerina heiress only to discover she is more than she seems.
The cast is excellent- Melissa Barrera as Joey the medic and defacto lead, Dan Stevens as Frank the former cop, Kathryn Newton as Sammy the tech wiz, Alisha Weir as the titular Abigail among others. Its a lot of talent and they do a good job imbuing the story with some immediacy, humor, and stakes. The script is simply not as strong as the cast and there seems to be some tension in tone. The movie can't quite decide if it wants to be a pedal-to-the-metal horror comedy romp or something with legitimate emotional stakes, in trying to do a bit of both it dilutes the impact of both approaches.
Visually slick, mostly set in one location(a haunted house!), with an eerie score and some cool Victrola diegetic songs. It works and it works on what now would be considered a "small" budget($30M). The action scenes are effective, the wire work by Weir and her dancing and bloody decapitations and dismemberments are really fun. The script simply needed to be punched up(who knows if the production timeline was expedited), its a great idea, and a decent execution, but it falls a bit short from being a homerun, a solid double.
Diverting but not ecstatic.
Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.
Rent It.
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