2024 horror has been a mixed bag so far during the marathon – Does Abigail have fangs, or will it wither away under the spotlight?
It’s no easy feat to tell a novel vampire story these days. Abigail attempts to do so and largely succeeds, despite reliance on some common tropes along the way. The plot kicks into motion as a very different – but very familiar – genre movie. A crew of professional criminals are brought together for a job, and none of them know each other. Code names, individual specialties (hacking, getaway driving, etc.), the whole deal. It could be a heist/crime movie a la Ocean’s Eleven or Baby Driver. The job involves kidnapping a powerful crime lord’s twelve-year-old daughter and holding her for ransom overnight in a big, remote mansion. The rub, which you already know if you’ve seen even a lick of the film’s promotional material, is that the kidnapped girl is a vampire, and the crew of kidnappers are in at least as much danger from her as she is from them. Conceptually, we have certainly cleared the novelty bar, although it’s not as though there aren’t familiar elements. There are several examples of young, female vampires in horror cinema, potentially ancient creatures who have had their their prepubescence metaphorically frozen in amber by the vampire’s curse. Kirsten Dunce had her career launched via an excellent performance in Interview with a Vampire, and Lina Leandersson and Chloe Grace Moretz have both earned praise for the original Let the Right One In and its remake. For my money, though, Alisha Weir takes the concept to new heights with her insanely kinetic and fun performance as the title character of Abigail.
I won’t get into the plot machinations any further than the setup, partly because I think you should all go watch this movie, but mainly because they don’t really matter. Characters’ true motives and who is double-crossing who are all fine and necessary elements for a story like this, but the specifics aren’t so important. When you strap in for this particular ride, you want to see gangsters get picked off one-by-one by a pint-sized killing machine, and that’s certainly what’s on offer here. The criminals are a lot of fun, especially Dan Stevens as an ex-cop and immoral prick, but it is Weir who makes the movie. She chews just as much scenery as her character does flesh, and her schoolyard taunting through a mess of fangs and omni-present ring of blood is always terrific. The character’s affinity for ballet, something my own 8-year-old is involved in, also pays off tremendously by giving the fights with her victims this incredible juxtaposition. She comes off somewhere in between a disciplined artist and a feral animal. The generous helping of blood and mostly practical effects on display only enhance the experience.
I wouldn’t really call Abigail a gory movie, but also its sort of crazy not to call Abigail a gory movie. There is a ton of violence and viscera, for sure, but it is missing the truly stomach-churning, unflinching body trauma of something like the latter-day Evil Dead films or Romero’s zombie franchise. To the extent that vicious bite marks, stabbings, gunshot wounds and buckets of ichor can be considered innocuous, this is fairly innocuous. Which is totally cool for someone like me, who, despite my affinity for horror (including the latter-day Evil Dead films and Romero’s zombie franchise) tends to be a little squeamish about the truly gnarly stuff the genre has to offer.* It also helps that you don’t really have anybody you are overly concerned for, so you can just sit back and enjoy the carnage, worry-free. Sure, there are a couple of the criminals who seem like genuinely decent people in a bad circumstance, but they did sign up to capture a twelve-year old girl straight from ballet class and extort her parents for money, so my sympathies only extend so far. Ultimately, once the plot is set in motion, Abigail, and Abigail, deliver exactly what you want them to the rest of the way. It isn’t going to make you think, but it is sure to capture your attention.
* I am planning to kick off modern horror cinema’s most notoriously gory franchise for my Halloween day review, and for probably the first time in the ten years I’ve been doing this, I am legitimately nervous about watching a movie. Should be a good time.
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