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Abigail<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stephen Shields and Guy Busick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brian Tyler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Aaron Morton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 19, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito, Matthew Goode.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Abigail<\/strong> is the best ballerina vampire movie ever made. It\u2019s also the only ballerina vampire movie ever made. If it hits, we might see more ballerina vampire movies in the near future. Considering what gets released these days, is that such a bad thing?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Directed by Radio Silence guys Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Ready or Not, Scream 5 & 6), Abigail <\/strong>is good, not-clean B-movie fun. It concerns a group of low-level criminals who get more than they bargained for after they kidnap the preteen daughter of a vicious crime boss. We first meet Abigail (Weir, Matilda: The Musical) dancing \u201cSwan Lake\u201d to an audience of none. When she gets home (to an empty house), her abductors-to-be are waiting for her. They drug her and take to a mansion where their handler Lambert (Esposito, Do the Right Thing) orders them to hand over their phones and not disclose any personal information to the girl or each other, dubbing them with aliases derived from the Rat Pack. Their job is to look after her for 24 hours while her father comes up with the $50M ransom. It sounds like a walk in the park except it\u2019s NOT.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The group consists of \u201cJoey\u201d (Barrera, Scream 5 & 6), a former Army medic and recovering addict with a young son; \u201cFrank\u201d (Stevens, Beauty and the Beast), an ex-cop who acts as group leader; hacker \u201cSammy\u201d (Newton, Lisa Frankenstein); sociopathic driver \u201cDean\u201d (Cloud, Euphoria); dimwitted muscle guy \u201cPeter\u201d (Durand, Legion) and shooter \u201cRickles\u201d (Catlett, A Thousand and One).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Joey makes a connection with Abigail, promising to make sure no harm comes to her during her stay with the group. HA! Joey has no idea who\u2019s she dealing with. It turns out Abigail is more than capable of taking care of herself. You see, she\u2019s a vampire. Once she frees herself from her restraints, it\u2019s open season on her abductors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Although revealed on Wikipedia, I wouldn\u2019t dream of giving away the big surprise plot twist in Abigail<\/strong>. I\u2019ll only say it has to do with the girl\u2019s father. I already knew it going in, but it didn\u2019t actually affect my enjoyment of the film which successfully unites dark comedy with bloody horror. I can safely say it contains the movie quote of the year: \u201cWe kidnapped a f***ing vampire. A ballerina vampire!\u201d How can you not love that line? It perfectly and succinctly expresses the fun, untethered spirit of the film. Along those same lines, Olpin and Gillett wisely refrain from attempting to make some grand statement about one or more of society\u2019s ills. Good on them!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The actors likewise never try and pretend they\u2019re making some kind of cinematic masterpiece. Abigail<\/strong> certainly isn\u2019t one of those no matter how you slice it. They treat the gig like the gory romp that it is and do a good job of it. Irish actress Weir, so amazing as Matilda Wormwood in the musical remake, is equally awesome as the title character, a limber girl with an unquenchable thirst for blood and bloody mayhem. The scene where she dances with a headless corpse is really something to see. She\u2019s coming from a sad place with the revelation that her crime boss dad doesn\u2019t care about her and isn\u2019t likely to meet the kidnappers\u2019 monetary demands. In short, this little girl is a star about to happen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The makers chose well when casting Abigail<\/strong>. Instead of going down the list and talking about each individual performance, I\u2019d like to say the actors work well with each other. This is a team effort and they score a victory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0For years, I\u2019ve railed against CGI and how it\u2019s ruining effects-driven movies, horror in particular. I\u2019m happy to say Abigail<\/strong> utilizes practical effects. The gore and body effects look startlingly real, all beautifully captured in shades of blood red. The production design is also top-notch. The mansion itself, reminiscent of Clue and Rady or Not, is a virtual funhouse from which there is no escape. Did I neglect to mention the characters are literally trapped inside with Abigail? They are. What\u2019s interesting is that there is a logical solution to this predicament, but it takes them almost the whole movie to think of it. Well, nobody ever said they were rocket scientists.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Abigail<\/strong> is wonderfully insane! It isn\u2019t afraid to lean into the horror aspect and go crazy with it. It earns its R rating and then a little more. At the same time, it lovingly mocks the genre by goofing on some of the tropes- e.g. what happens after a character gets bitten by Abigail. I had a blast watching it. I wouldn\u2019t even mind seeing a sequel to it at some point. There\u2019s more to be done with the idea of a ballerina vampire.<\/p>\r\n Abigail (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language, brief drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stephen Shields and Guy Busick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Brian Tyler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Aaron Morton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 19, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Abigail-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Abigail-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C981&ssl=1\")
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