Movie Review: Abigail (2024)

Synopsis: A team of criminals is hired to abduct Abigail, the young daughter of an unknown wealthy man with the promise of being paid a percentage of the $50 million in ransom money. They hold Abigail in a remote mansion with the expectation of it being a simple 24-hour job. Instead, they soon learn the mansion is an elaborate and unescapable trap and their hostage is really a centuries-old vampire.

Who's in it? The movie stars Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, Alisha Weir, Dan Stevens and William Catlett.

Review: I came across this movie on Peacock a few days ago and, while I was concerned the trailer gave away too much of the movie for me to be surprised by it, I gave it a chance last night. It turned out to be a great choice.

I'll start out by saying that group of criminals had to be some of the dumbest people I've ever seen in a horror movie. Not only were there red flags to begin with, starting with the whole "hand over your cell phones" thing, they still didn't even seem to remotely suspect their lives were in danger as soon as they were locked in the mansion and bodies had already been dropped. One or the other would have had me realizing there was no money coming my way.

That said, despite what I mentioned above, this ended up being a very entertaining film.

Abigail herself (Weir) was an awesome antagonist because she was much more unpredictable than expected. Her ability to manipulate people into thinking she was weak and vulnerable made her all that much more dangerous, as did her ability to turn her victims into puppet vampires. She also had a bit of a cat-like side to her, playing with her "food," adding to the entertainment.

The film was also surprisingly unpredictable, with Abigail's victims dying in an unexpected order (one of them I was sure would survive until the very end) or being left alive when it looked like she would kill them. This was especially true of Joey (Barrera), a character that Abigail seemed to have a soft spot for, even after Joey gave her reasons to kill her. This left the ending of the movie all that much less expected. 

Final Opinion: This is a fun and entertaining vampire movie that we enjoyed watching. I'd recommend giving it a chance and can't wait until the sequel.

My Grade: A