Abigail (2024)

April 19, 2024 12:16 PM

[TRAILER] After a group of criminals (Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand) kidnap the ballerina daughter (Alisha Weir) of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that what they're locked inside with is no normal little girl.

Also starring Angus Cloud, William Catlett, Giancarlo Esposito, Matthew Goode.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett. Written by Stephen Shields, Guy Busick. Produced by William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, Tripp Vinson, Chad Villella for Project X Entertainment/Vinson Films/Radio Silence/Universal Pictures. Cinematography by Aaron Morton. Edited by Michael Shawver. Music by Brian Tyler.

82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now playing in US theaters. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (14 comments total)

This looks like fun!
posted by maryellenreads at 1:06 PM on April 19

The premise reminded me of the O. Henry story "The Ransom of Red Chief" if Stephen King had written it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:33 PM on April 19 [4 favorites]

I thought that this was, as the kids say, a banger. If you see the trailer you pretty much know what to expect story-wise, but the execution of it was a lot of fun.
posted by Pryde at 7:48 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

This was very fun. Very much in the same neck of the woods as Radio Silence's Ready or Not, in that it's essentially a horror comedy paced like an action movie.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:20 PM on April 20 [1 favorite]

Really enjoyed it, and appreciate your comment, DoT, because I didn't know it was the Ready or Not people. It makes a lot of sense in retrospect: functional, witty, gets you in and out without too much dithering, does what it says on the tin. Nobody's reinventing the genre, but just doing something competent, tightly written, well executed.
posted by Shepherd at 1:35 PM on April 21 [1 favorite]

Funny you mention "tightly written"... My kid and I (for nerd reasons) have started running a timer during movies. The first act break for this one hits at about twenty seconds past the thirty minute mark. The pacing in this one is textbook.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:17 PM on April 21 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Dan Stevens' line delivery on "those are fucking onions" is a thing of beauty. A whole masterclass in how 99% of people would have loaded all the emphasis on onions and he made a meal of it by just shifting that around.

With Godzilla v Kong this seems to be part of a Dan Stevens sea change to "I play seedy guys and I might just be super high while playing them" that I am 100% here for.
posted by Shepherd at 1:39 PM on April 22 [3 favorites]

If you want to see Dan Stevens as a dangerous wackjob, the movie you want is The Guest, produced by MeFi's own Keith Calder.

Try this scene.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:46 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]

With Godzilla v Kong this seems to be part of a Dan Stevens sea change to "I play seedy guys and I might just be super high while playing them" that I am 100% here for.

I had an unintentional Dan Stevens double-header Sunday when I took my son to GxK and my daughter to Abigail. He was excellent in both, although I pretty much hated GodKong.

Abigail was a lot of fun, but I wish the trailer hadn't given so much away. I would have loved it if I went into it thinking Abigail was nothing other than a normal human girl, albeit one with some sort of mob boss for a dad. If I had seen it completely blind and then a third of the way through she fangs out and goes to town that would have been epic. Maybe in ten years I can help someone else have that experience, if they've never seen it and have forgotten the trailers.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:37 AM on April 23 [4 favorites]

I really liked this but I agree that in hindsight, I wish they had buried the reveal more. I think I would have given it a solid A if they managed to hold back "oh shit y'all, babygirl is a vamp!"

Honestly, if Giancarlo Esposito shows up and that doesn't twig your Danger Will Robinson radar, I don't know how to help you. Dan Stevens giving line readings for the ages and looking like a flopsweat-coated undercover cop gives me life. And of course, Matthew Goode also continuing his career of playing vamps, just in this case, much much less attractive.

Okay, so full disclosure: I have never seen Euphoria, so Angus Cloud was confusing to me. Shepherd pointed out that if Mac Miller were also alive if he too could have filled the mumblemouth Soundcloud rapper vibe the character had.
posted by Kitteh at 8:58 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

And I definitely came out of this a Melissa Barrera fan.
posted by Kitteh at 9:33 AM on April 24

I wanted to like it, in a Cocaine Bear kind of way, but I just thought it was boring, rote, and dumb. It didn't have anything going for it except 'gross' and shooting blood. The characters were all super annoying and everyone did everything just to move the story forward, not really reacting to the events unfolding in front of them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:07 AM on May 13

This was fun enough. And yes fairly dumb. It's as good as it needed to be I think. I'd heard the twist but somehow managed to forget it between then and now.

A whole masterclass in how 99% of people would have loaded all the emphasis on onions and he made a meal of it by just shifting that around.

I feel like actors commonly do this too much tbh. It worked here because swear words intensify stuff, but I really notice when actors do it too much and it kinda ruins it. A sentence like, "I wasn't talking to her" doesn't really have a lot of leeway to completely remove the stress from her, even if talking is stressed. I've wondered before if that's something they do in acting class and some actors just over-apply it. End pet peeve!
posted by fleacircus at 6:01 PM on July 28

My boyfriend and I watched this today. I put this on without telling him anything about it and he was delighted with the vampire reveal. One or two scenes played a bit too much to expectations for me, but on the whole I thought it was well-written, competent, and consistently entertaining. It didn't hurt any that the jokes all landed for me, as in many films they don't.
posted by johnofjack at 2:37 PM on August 18