Vampire movies never interest me, and you can thank the Twilight movies for that. Before I saw Abigail, the only vampire film I enjoyed was Hotel Transylvania.
Giancarlo Esposito is one big reason I saw this movie, but he didn’t get enough screen time. Thanks to his ability to perfectly play a cold, serious kidnapping mastermind and a manipulative, bloodthirsty vampire during a twist with his on-par acting, he made every second count.
Alisha Weir, as Abigail, made up for the lack of Esposito’s character time. When she is seemingly a regular, scared, rich little girl, I feel bad for her whenever she cries on screen. She is great at convincing me she is completely innocent, even though she has way more in her closet than ballet slippers.
Most horror film monsters are supposed to look terrifying just to scare you through cheap jumpscares, but a vampire who does ballet as she chases her victims is much more effective, thanks to Weir’s performance. Abigail can make her ballet skills terrifying and disturbing, which is to be expected when she dances with a headless corpse. The imagery of her screaming with her shark-like vampire teeth, widened mouth, and cursed eyes has the potential to give anyone nightmares.
When Abigail shows her true colors as an evil, savage vampire who plays with her victims often, I become even more invested in this character. She lets it show before her verbal backstory is revealed by making clever kills of some kidnappers. When she kills one of the kidnappers, I predict a slit throat, as decapitation seems to be her specialty. Then, I was proven wrong when his half-eaten face was revealed. No predictability. Awesome.
Abigail also had many great one-liners, like “I like playing with my food,” while her mouth was covered in blood. After seeing her murder the criminals in grotesque ways and playing mind games with them, like scaring them with rats before decapitation, the line gave me goosebumps. Speaking of rats, There was a moment when a jumpscare was just a closeup of a rat, which was annoying with the loud jumpscare sound.
Each of the kidnappers has an interesting background that can alter your opinion of them at the reveal. Still, even before that, I get invested in them thanks to some of their personalities and motives. Dean made me laugh with his stoned personality. He even made me laugh after a jumpscare as he pranked one of the others with a mask. Random jumpscares get on my nerves, but Dean, being playful and laughing with a stoned tone, immediately wiped my annoyed look.
The only other kidnappers I noticed were Joey and Frank. Frank is an ordinary bad guy who only does this for the money, and it goes to nobody but himself. At first, it is unoriginal, but when he gives up his blood to a vampire so he can turn himself into a powerful, bloodthirsty monster, he makes the rising point of the movie even better. Seeing a selfish villain get even more power than they need elevates the excitement of the final fight for me. Abigail is the main monster, but Frank is more of that with his even more manipulative personality.
Despite Abigail being the best character, Joey was the one I rooted for the whole time, thanks to her heartbreaking backstory of her losing her kid due to a drug addiction, which she is now sober from.
During this movie, I keep thinking of who lies whenever Abigail tries to lure the kidnappers into traps or when they try to make a deal with Abigail and get out of the house alive. I never know if one lie or trick can successfully shed more blood or escape, which is relieving because it makes the movie hard to predict. Even when Abigail gets conned, she uses her strength to escape a cage and get the last laugh, which I did not see coming despite her vampire strength.
This movie has possibly the most blood I have ever witnessed, and I’ve seen all of the Saw movies. Whenever a vampire is killed, either from sunlight or from a stake, they explode with blood going everywhere. This may be a vampire film, but the enormous amount of blood from a vampire kill is exaggerated. Vampires love blood; we get it!
As I am slowly getting more and more into horror films, this is one movie that helps me realize that these kinds of movies are very fun to watch thanks to the interesting protagonists and entertaining kill scenes. Not to mention, Abigail is one of the best vampire characters in recent horror films. I look forward to seeing this movie again in future screenings or movie nights.
Abigail gets a 7.9 out of 10
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