Abigail

Abigail was another film I missed the same weekend as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, but dear God did it take forever and a day to come down to a reasonable rental price. 

I've been looking forward to catching up with the ballerina horror (comedy?) as it seemed like a fun, quick story to sink my teeth into. Sorry couldn't resist!

Abigail is a film that perfectly met my expectations and thus those examples usually create pretty short rapid reviews. 

Inherently, there's nothing "wrong" with Abigail or anything I actively disliked other than how predictable it all became. Though it is a film where the ceiling of how excellent it could be is largely limited by the premise itself: a group of criminals gets trapped in a mansion while holding a little girl for ransom. Little do they know that she's a vampire, and a ballerina to boot! As mentioned, it all ends where you'd expect and given that starting point, I do think this is probably the "best" version we could have received, so this really becomes a movie where you're watching it for the fun more than anything. 

What Abigail does incredibly well is nailing casting. Melissa Barrera - which the Scream series is likely to desperately miss - brings her signature swagger and determination. She has proven she can lead a film of this nature, and Abigail is no different. Other key players like Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, and Giancarlo Esposito all bring their types of charisma and talent, rounding out a well-selected cast. Angus Cloud (RIP) felt a tad out of place to me, but otherwise everyone fits nicely. And that's not to forget one of the film's bigger surprises in Alisha Weir, who plays the titular character. She fluctuates from evil to innocent on a dime and is clearly having a blast. She was much better than I expected. 

As you may guess, Abigail does a lot of killing and attacking, another strong point for the film that anchors it very nearly into the comical-horror genre. Kills are gory, many laughably so, and the film isn't afraid to pull its punches. It reminded me of The Boys in that way, where it removes some of the natural tension because kills are so outlandish, but dials up the humor. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of pizazz to any of this as Abigail is a generic film from any technical perspective. The editing, visuals, and camera work is all very basic, as are things like the original score and sound effects. 

Abigail is a perfect rental - especially now that it's a reasonable price - as it's truly a fun "turn off your brain" example of absurdist horror, almost veering into comical horror. It owes a tremendous amount to the well-chosen cast and won't stay on your mind very long, but for the time I was watching her performance, Abigail didn't disappoint. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10