The directors of this movie were Matt Bettinelli Olpin and Tyler Gillett under their names Radio Silence Productions which reflects their highly creative style, this movie intention come with highly intriguing horror with a crime and suspense plot and even a bit of black humor coupled with the traditional blood suckers a very commercial side of Vampires.
The story is told in a isolated mansion where a group of criminals who happen to have misguided themselves and latter on kidnapped the innocent daughter of a scary mob boss as a result ending in major trouble. The initial plan kidnap the girl and ask for ransom enough to retire becomes complicated when they realize their kidnapped victim is a centuries old vampire with a personal reason for her abductors to pay, becomes a very unique movie idea for a bloody action thriller that changes things for the audience bringing something different to the table.
Each of the characters in Abigail provides their own unique performance, lending a new style to the movie to what we commonly see on Vampire theme movies. Joey, one of the main characters, the sympathetic medic herself is brought to life by Melissa Barrera while Kristof Lazar is perfectly executed as the evil criminal underworld figure by Matthew Goode but with very little screen time to my taste. The main character of the movie played by Alisha Weir was simply outstanding as a child like vampire with disturbing behavior.
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Release: April 17, 2024
The Genre Bending Brilliance of Abigail
Abigail is such a movie that feels very even and contradictory to many genres in a very pleasant unusual way, the movie appears to have successfully tread familiar grounds in movies with crime thriller themes, horror genres, and dark comedy, but with a broader appeal overall. A Hybrid in film genres turn out to be one of the most attractive features of the movie that takes the audience out of guard probably asking themself what am I watching? and still be intrigue on how things going to end.
Horror and Suspense
But fundamentally Abigail is a horror movie that still make the audience feel afraid to the little monster that Abigail is, including her savage at the same time innocent look from the times her face shape shift. The gothic atmosphere with the creepy house surrounded with fog, narrow corridors with hidden rooms is the perfect combination for the developing horror. It utilizes seemingly overused elements of horror storytelling, the villain vampire and isolated location and yet it does it in a fresh and refreshing manner. The tension is also high from the onset and the segregation of the characters to different parts of the mansion heightens the doubt about what is going to happen next.
Crime and Thriller Elements
The aspect of the film being a crime thriller enhances the story and the characters more too with the kidnapping scenario and appearance of hoods add themes of greed and moral ambiguity to the story, specially greed during the entire script, these are all aspects that extend through the drama and suspense of the movie which the story develops and understand the motivations of individuals and their commitment to surviving. In my opinion the idea of touching on themes like crime and punishment of back lash for the greedy kidnappers takes out from the horror side of the movie, this can thrown off part of the audience that was there to watch a vampire movie with the classic gothic environment from the start.
Dark Comedy
Abigail is a horror film that does not differ from an average blockbuster in terms of the impact on the psyche of the audience, but it also has some moments of black humor which act as a comic relief between scenes. The violent actions and arguments between the criminals, their predicament of been trapped with a Vampire, and the general fear to get jump at any time by Abigail make for fine elements of hilarious humor that elevates the movie tension at the same time been fun, laughing at someone else pain basically, I personally find this very interesting way to keep the audience entertain, a movie for adults only, in real life this is not a good practice but as entertainment medium I believe its ok.
The Cast: A Symphony of Talent
The many major and supporting actors of Abigail have been part of the key for the movie success, each one of them performs their part with different energy and charisma, we got from the kind medic, the all muscle guy, the boss that out smart everyone, the group of characters created brings in different type of personalities from each one but interestingly some of them getting wipe out by Abigail without the expected order or way the audience would expect. There are various aspects about Melissa Barrera’s performance as Joey that makes it outstanding is giving herself the full emotional range during the movie while the other characters having their own agenda but she is the only one trying to show empathy to Abigail, although without knowing her dark side, after all, her character’s transformation from a passive team member in the kidnapping to an aggressive protector of Abigail is intriguing but there are reasons to it latter on reveal during the movie.
It is also worth mentioning the performance of Alisha Weir who plays Abigail, in my opinion her performance was perfect with her constant shape shift physically and emotionally, from kind and innocent to manipulative and business, latter on to aggressive and mostrous effortlessly.
Other notable characters include Dan Stevens, who plays Frank the leader of the criminal team who Kidnapp Abigail and is calling the shots; Kathryn Newton as Sammy; Kevin Durand as Peter the all muscle guy but funny too, each one of them bring in those unique personalities and keep the movie interesting.
Abigail (2024) is an impressive example of an emphatic genre bending and proves the efficiency of movies directed by Radio Silence Productions to mention a few examples Reader or Not and Scream VI. The acting by the entire cast proves to be amazing with the actors and actresses adding great value of drama on the screen as its not easy to keep the audience interested while the movie is develop in a close environment, there is so much focus on the characters that not only the script needs to be on point but each character needs to bring something interesting to the table that makes contrast between each other.
With all its betrayals and secrets, within the group of criminals and within Abigail family itself, this movie is a tale of human nature in many of the sins you can think about making it shine, its a movie that does way more than only to entertain, but also to make a person sit and think and talk about the many aspects of the movie after it has ended making it a great candidate for a serial killer horror film and for the entire genre as well as being a movie that forces a person to think and discuss the characters’ actions, for example it was not clear from the start if Abigail is was like any other Vampire considering child Vampires is not a common thing and even within traditional Vampire movies they are not suppose to turn child into vampires because they become too savage and out of control because their thirst for blood is out of the scale, details for someone who is use to horror movies change everything. At a certain point on the movie it just stops been a horror movie about a Vampire and now takes a drastic change and pivot the story to a gangster murder case of betrayal and survival between assassins, think about this many aspects coming together makes this movie a great watch.
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