Abigail is a Bloody, Gory Good Time

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April 27

Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer

Plot: Abigail follows a group of criminals hired to kidnap the daughter of a powerful and wealthy drug lord. The kidnapping goes off without a hitch and all that's left to do is watch the 12-year-old ballerina long enough to collect their $50 million dollar ransom. Problem is Abigail isn't just a sweet little girl with a penchant for ballet, and as the night goes on these criminals learn the bloody and gory way that crime doesn't pay.

Review: Produced by Radio Silence, the creative group behind Ready or Not, Scream (2022) and Scream VI, these guys have been consistently releasing some of the more entertaining horror movies out there. Blending action and horror together, they also have a good eye for casting and that streak continues here with cast of Abigail. Melissa Barrera, who played Sam Carpenter in the last two Scream movies, plays Joey, the kind-hearted crook of the bunch, while Dan Stevens, fresh off his scene-stealing turn in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continues his streak here as Frank. Kathryn Newton (Freaky), Kevin Durand (Legion) Giancarlo Esposito (The Mandalorian), Matthew Goode (A Discovery of Witches) and the late Angus Cloud (Euphoria) round out the cast with last, but definitely not least, Alisha Weir as the titular Abigail.

Keep telling yourself, 'She's just a little girl'

I haven't seen Matilda: The Musical, but after watching young Alisha as Abigail I can confidently say she's about to break out in a big way. Weir effortlessly switches between sweet and innocent to unstoppable monster and she even went as far as to do some of her own stunts here, making moments of Abigail stalking and decimating her prey even more terrifying.

Smart writing, sharp dialogue a swift pace and all the blood and gore a horror fan could want makes Abigail fun from beginning to end and it could've easily made my Top 5 horror for 2024 if not for one fatal error. I would give a SPOILER WARNING if the trailer didn't beat me to it.

I think she's gonna need more than a time-out

The big reveal of the movie is Abigail isn't a little girl, she's a vampire, something I wish Radio Silence would've kept out of the trailer as it would've made viewing it for the first time much more impactful. You see the first half of the story is spent with the criminals trying to figure out who is after them, mistrusting each other and paranoid as they fall prey to whatever hidden enemy is taking them out. If they had just kept Abigail's secret out of the trailer, the audience would've been fully invested in the mystery just like our gang of crooks. Instead, we're just sitting there waiting for them to catch up to us. A well-timed reveal could've made Abigail's "twist" as iconic as something like the ending of Saw. I go out of my way to avoid trailers for this very reason but even I fell victim to this as the trailer was shown before The First Omen in cinema. My fault I guess for always getting to my seat on time.

Misstep aside, it was genuinely fun to watch this twisted take on a vampire story. Weir's turn as Abigail was fantastic, and I could totally see myself watching this and M3GAN as a fun and twisted double feature. It's no masterpiece but it's the kind of horror movie that's most fun to watch with a group of likeminded friends. And I enjoyed myself enough to hope we get a sequel sometime in the future.

Sommer's Score: 7 out of 10

Have you seen Abigail? What did you think of it? And you can check out more horror reviews from Robot Mango Reviews below:

Julien "Editor Jules" Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like "13 flavours of awesome sauce". Read more.