“Abigail”: A Comedy Full of Extravagance and Blood

The directors of the last two installments of the Scream franchise bring us a new film with a good mix of horror and comedy.

Summary

Six criminals are hired to kidnap the 12-year-old daughter of an unknown, influential man. The group takes the girl from her house to a secluded mansion out of the city, where their only task is to keep her safe and wait for the rescue money. Soon they will discover that they have gotten involved with the wrong family and that the little girl under their care is not as defenseless as they had thought.

Laughs and Blood

I decided to watch this film after I heard someone online compare it to Violent Night. I had to see that. And while Abigail doesn’t reach the same level in neither comedy nor violence, it does a good enough job to be enjoyable.

The movie presents us with a group of characters of whom we know nothing, and we have to discover throughout the almost two hours who they are and how they ended up there.

We have Joey (Melissa Barrera), a drug addict who is trying to become clean and is participating in the kidnap to make enough money to go back to her young son. Or Frank (Dan Stevens), a former police officer who got in trouble with the law. Or Sammy (Kathryn Newton), a rich girl turned hacker and thief who messed with the wrong people. This group of six, apparently unrelated to each other, were hired for a very specific reason.

The explanation for everything may be a little too simple, but in the context of the film, it works. After all, Abigail is a comedy.

The Cast Sells It Well

Following the protagonist’s increasingly desperate attempts to escape and seeing how they are eliminated one by one in the most bizarre situations (always involving tons of blood) is entertaining. Personally, I was expecting a bit more in that regard. The deaths are not as interesting as I was hoping for, and when I watch this kind of movie, I want to be more shocked. Still, it’s far from being boring, and considering the film didn’t have a big budget, everything looks convincing. 

This is, in part, because the cast seemed to be very compromised with the job. They all gave good performances. Melissa Barrera, who quickly stands out from the rest for her nurturing nature and her friendly relationship with Abigail, is convincing as a troubled mother who is trying to get her life together. I enjoyed seeing her on screen.

Alisha Weir shines as the title character. Her only job I had seen before was Matilda: The Musical, and this project demanded something quite different. Transforming into a vampire doesn’t look easy. Her scenes attacking the kidnappers while dancing are hilarious and some of the best in the film. One in particular, when she takes control of Sammy’s body and makes her dance along her, was my favorite.

Box Office

The reported production budget for Abigail was $28.000.000, and so far, it has made over $15.000.000 in the worldwide box office. It’s important to point out that this was only its first weekend in theaters. To break even, the film should make around $85.000.000.

As far as I’ve seen online, the reviews are positive, and the lack of a number of big releases right now could give Abigail a chance to succeed. In the past couple of years, we have seen low-budget horror movies surprise with amazing box office results. Whether that will be this film’s case is yet to be seen.

Is Abigail for everyone? Probably not. If you want to be really scared… Maybe watch something else. If, on the other hand, you enjoy the genre and understand what the film is trying to do, you’ll have a lot of fun. It is supposed to make you laugh. In that case, I recommend you give it a chance.