Abigail

Review by Mike Finkelstein

There was a time where Universal really wanted to make “proper” reboots and relaunches of their classic Universal Monsters line. That plan pretty well failed with the bombing at the Box Office of both The WolfmanA reboot of Universal's classic Wolf Man series, this was pitched as a high budget, artsy film but the results were more of a turgid, uninteresting mess. and Dracula UntoldOne of Universal's many attempts to drag their Monsters into a modern, shared universe, this one tried to cast Dracula as a tragic hero, but audiences barely paid attention.. Then Universal pivoted and tried to do their own connected, cinematic universe (a la the MCU, as was the style at the time) called the Dark UniverseUniversal's attempt at making a shared cinematic universe of anti-hero monsters, which died with little fanfare after the abortive launch of The Mummy in 2017., which immediately crashed, burned, and was buried after the release of The MummyAn attempted reboot of Universal's Mummy series, which was also supposed to launch the connected Dark Universe. It failed on both counts.. Lacking any clear direction on where to go, the studio elected to just let filmmakers make their own visions of these monsters, free of the needs of franchise filmmaking the studio was trying to place on them. And, finally, that’s when things picked up.

The first of these titles was The Invisible Man, a modern reinvention of the horror icon that became a massive hit in 2020. While reinvention follow-ups RenfieldA version of the Universal Dracula story, this time from the perspective of the vampire's put-upon minion, the film worked as a kind of action-comedy, although audiences didn't seem to care upon its release. and The Last Voyage of the DemeterA different interpretation of the Dracula story, this time focusing on the fated sea journey of the Demeter where, in the novel, all the crew of the ship are quickly dispatched by the vampire. weren’t as successful, these movies were made on smaller budgets and weren’t as big of flops for the studio. And once these takes on the classic monsters were past, the studio looked ahead to other properties they owned that could get the revisionist treatment. That’s when Radio Silence, who worked on Ready or Not and Scream signed on to take a crack at a monster, and they settled in for a revintention of Dracula's DaughterThe first sequel to Universal's 1931 Dracula, and the only sequel in the series to not feature the famous vampire himself, instead focusing on a female bloodsucker and her very (implied) lesbian encounters..

To be clear, this is only a remake of Dracula’s Daughter in name (and technically not even that as the title was changed to Abigail during production). This is a movie about a girl who (spoiler if you haven’t seen anything about the movie including the trailer) turns out to be a vampire, and the daughter of a vampire. But all other aspects of the original Universal Monsters film from 1936 are set aside. None of the plot, none of the characterisation, none of the under the surface exploration of lesbian content (which, probably a good thing they didn’t do that since Abigail looks like she’s 14, even if she’s a centuries old vampire). This is a different movie with a different vibe, so just go into it wanting to see a fun vampire film with no other expectations.

The movie focuses on a team of six criminals – leader Frank (Dan Stevens), medic Joey (Melissa Barrera), sniper Rickles (Will Catlett), hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), big man Peter (Kevin Durand), and getaway driver Dean (Angus Cloud) – who are hired by Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to kidnap the daughter of a rich and powerful industrialist. They follow the daughter, Abigail (Alisha Weir) back to the family mansion and kidnap her late at night when her father isn’t home. They take the girl back to a remote estate Lambert has set up for them, and then are left to keep an eye on the girl, who they keep locked in a bedroom, while they wait for Lambert to make arrangements and contact them when the money is received. One day, in a remote mansion, where they can just relax and keep an eye on things.

Except, of course, it’s not that simple. When one of their number mysteriously dies, in a brutal and horrible fashion, the remaining members begin questioning who it is they kidnapped and what is really going on here. The kid they kidnapped isn’t just some rich girl, she’s actually the daughter of Kristof Lazaar, an infamous crime boss who has his powerful fingers everywhere. Worse, as they soon discover when the house suddenly locks itself down, both Lazaar and his daughter are vampires, and suddenly the whole team is locked inside this death trap with the tiny monster. The team will need to work together to try and find a way to escape, or kill the girl (or both) if they’re going to have any hope of survival.

Abigail is, honestly, a strangely constructed movie. It’s the kind of film where, like Predator or From Dusk Till DawnThe first collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, this movie is half crime flick, half vampire adventure, and a wild and strange ride., you (and the characters) aren’t supposed to know what’s about to happen to them until a sudden, mid-story twist changes all the rules. We go from a down-to-earth crime flick into a spontaneous monster movie, and everything we thought we were in for is suddenly not the actual plot of the film. This is, at this point, a tried and true formula that, when done right, gets you shaken up when, suddenly, the movie shifts gears out of seemingly nowhere.

The issue for Abigail is that, unlike those other films (and many others like them), we’re never really settled into the vibe of just the crime film because it always feels like there’s something sketchy going on. The mansion out in the middle of nowhere is too convenient. The team being forced to sit and wait for a full day seems a little too suspect. It’s clear from the beginning that something isn’t right, and it leaves this sense of dread over the whole film such that when the twist comes, that the girl they’ve kidnapped is a vampire, we were already anticipating it and waiting for it to happen.

Certainly it doesn’t help the film’s twists and turns that all the main details of the plot are spoiled in the trailer. The fans of the film have even called it out, noting how much of the film is taken away by the trailer when the movie itself tries to set up something off-putting and twisty. If you know going in that Abigail is a vampire then when she turns and reveals herself (at about the halfway point of the movie) it doesn’t have the same impact it could. Even the studio noted after the fact (when Abigail limped out of theaters to only marginal financial success) that the advertising campaign for the film really dropped the ball.

But even if the film didn’t have its twist ruined before you even got to the theater, there are still some structural issues with the movie. For starters, the film doesn’t really invest properly in its vibe. It has a sarcastic, almost tongue-in-cheek tone, similar to Scream. Radio Silence were hired for this film because of their work on the 2022 Scream continuation and its equally successful sequel, and you get the sense the studio said, “we want this. Horror and comedy in equal measure.” While that tone works in Scream, because the whole franchise is meta and comedic while still being horrifying, it doesn’t work as well here where the audience is supposed to get caught up in the story before it twists and dissects itself. The off vibe doesn’t do this film any favors.

And, honestly, the last act of the film needed some work. It rushes through the last bits of story and twists, piling on one hook after another without letting the story breathe. Then it all comes to a conclusion that is full of action but light on any kind of in-universe realism. All of this culminating in an ending that (without spoiling it) doesn’t really fit the narrative tone of the film at all. It all feels very mashed together and, frankly, a little silly. It deflates the film right when, at the climax, it should have built up to something more. It doesn’t function right.

Despite this, though, there is fun to be had with the film. While I don’t think, overall, the tone for the film works, there are times where the horror and comedy blend well and the characters properly come into focus. The film has plenty of solid action, and a good amount of gore, and it all works well in individual scenes and sequences. I think the actors do well, even if their characters are purposefully underwritten (by design, and to suit the same kind of “set em up and knock em down” mentality that this film shares with Predator). There are plenty of things to like about this film, it’s just that it’s in service of a movie that doesn’t really hold together quite right.

Or maybe I’m just being too picky. I suppose if all you want is a vampire trifle with a lot of action and gore, this film has that. For the right audience, in the right way, I could see this movie working. It’s a decently budgeted, low-rent vampire flick, good for popping on late at night when you have a bunch of friends to laugh and heckle it. I’m sure that wasn’t what Radio Silence or Universal were going for, but that’s what they got. If you can get into this mindset, the film kind of works. If you wanted something more, though, then Abigail fails to deliver.