'Abigail' Is a Perfect Movie in an Imperfect World
The marketing campaign has already spoiled a major reveal in this otherwise-entertaining horror-comedy.
Okay okay okay: so Abigail, the latest film from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, isn’t actually a perfect film… but it is a damn good one. And while some of the fault for its shortcomings does lie with the filmmakers, some of it is really capitalism’s fault. So. You can go ahead and add that to the the list.
In an ideal world, all anyone would know about this movie is that it’s about a comedic thriller about a kidnapping gone horribly wrong (Abigail being the name of the girl they’ve kidnapped); that the kidnappers are played by Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein), Kevin Durand (the Ridley Scott version of Robin Hood), Angus Cloud (Euphoria), William Catlett (Black Lightning), and American goddamn treasure Giancarlo Esposito (no qualifying credits necessary); that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett also helmed 2019’s Ready or Not and the two most recent Scream movies (which both starred Barrera); and that Guy Busick, who wrote or co-wrote those three films, shares screenplay credit on Abigail with Stephen Shields (The Hole in the Ground).
If, by some chance, this is all you know about Abigail, and all of that sounds appealing to you, I’d advise you see the movie without reading any further or even watching a trailer. It’s good! You’ll like it!
As for the rest of us… well, the marketing campaign has already spoiled Abigail’s first major twist: it’s being sold as the “ballerina vampire” movie. That’s understandable from the perspective of putting butts in seats, but a bummer from the perspective of actually watching the movie. The reveal comes a little later than you’d probably expect (but not too late, as in Sting), after a couple of characters have already been killed; up until they learn that Abigail is a vampire, they think there’s an especially brutal hitman working for her father in their midst. And so there’s a good 30 or 40 minutes of the film where you’re waiting for the surviving kidnappers to figure out what you already know. Those 40 minutes aren’t bad, but they’re also not quite good enough to stop the viewer from feeling impatient for the movie to deliver what the trailers have promised. And there’s so little to suggest where the movie is actually going that I imagine the moment where Abigail lets the truth be known would have packed a real wallop if you weren’t already aware that it was coming.
That’s the shortcoming for which capitalism bears the burden of responsibility.
The shortcoming for which capitalism does not bear the burden of responsibility is Abigail’s final act, which is kind of a mess. There’s just too many major plot developments and twists in too short of a timespan; it feels rushed and non-sensical, and while it isn’t so bad as to retroactively ruin the rest of the picture, it does serve as further evidence that simpler is usually better.
The other issue I have with the film is, it’s a bit predictable. You will likely see the twists and turns that weren’t spoiled by the trailer coming, and you will probably be able to correctly guess which characters aren’t making it out of the movie alive. Abigail is not as inventive as Ready or Not, which is also about someone stuck in a big house with people trying to kill them.
That Abigail is as entertaining as it is despite these defects is a testament to its quality. The cast is terrific (standouts include Durand and Newton, who have an easy kind of cool uncle/niece-type chemistry, and Stevens, chewing up the scenery while doing his best Queens accent), the dialogue is funny, the kills are over-the-top, and the characters are exactly as well-developed as they need to be: yeah, there’s only time to paint these roles in broad strokes, but they’re distinct and memorable and their motivations are clear, which is more than I can say for the ensembles of Rebel Moon, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Boys in the Boat, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, or any number of other recent films. Abigail is one of those movies that could be taught in a Screenwriting 101 course; it goes above, if not beyond.