–"I got the garlic."
–"Sammy, those are fucking onions."
Go in blind without seeing the trailer for this one. The trailer ruined the first and part of the second act for me, it's basically a whodunit mystery in a mansion with the characters being clueless and blaming each other. We've all seen the trailer! That first act is worthless. Why show us the twist it's so frustrating.
Abigail is Ready or Not but with a vampire twist, nothing original and not as good as Ready or Not but it's still a decent fun time. Perfect set, lots of blood, lots of action, and some laugh out loud moments. The tone is completely off though, it's campy most of the time but also tries to be a heartfelt drama at other times—those are polar opposites, it doesn't work! The vampire powers were so interesting, probably my favorite aspect of the movie.
Don't let the title fool you, this movie should be called "Dan Stevens" cause he steals the spotlight as he usually does. The moment when he says "I feel great" and everything after that was peak. As much as I enjoyed him, it's a shame that he steals the spotlight from Abigail (Alisha Weir) because this was supposed to be her movie. She's excellent in the role, always believable, so confident and actually scary. Kathryn Newton was absolutely killer in a certain scene. Melissa Barrera's best performance yet, I wasn't a fan of her acting in Scream VI but she was actually believable here.
As good as the cast is, it tries too hard with the characters. They're not that interesting and the execution for the character buildup could have been better handled. Constantly having to build up those characters in between action scenes slowed down the movie considerably when they should really be dying instead sinse this is a horror movie. It also had no right being this long, a good 20-30 minutes could be cut out. The last twist was laughable and overstayed it's welcome.
Wild to bring your private cell phone on a kidnapping job.... Complete with a picture of you and your kid on the lock screen.
Lazy writing.. Long-winded shock and awe.
These Hollywood "highly recommended professional criminals" sure are the same unimaginative rag rag bunch of annoying cartoon characters in every single movie. Somebody please update that fucking template already.
As for the rest of it - simplistic, derivative, lazy, predictable, plot hole rich mess that relies on one gimmick that is built to become a franchise.
They should have made it a sequel to M3GAN and called this ABIG4IL
"Sammy, those are fuckin' onions!"
Alisha Weir is mesmerizing, Dan Stevens is delightfully unhinged, Kevin Durand and Kathryn Newton are hilarious, and Melissa Barrera looks great covered in blood. What more could you ask for?
RIP Angus.
sometimes a movie is just a movie...it's a fun watch. take a timeout, relax and have a good laugh :popcorn::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :crazy_face:
This is a lot of fun but some clunkiness in the exposition and storytelling hold it back a bit. Well worth seeing but doesn’t hit the heights of Ready or Not.
Wow. Alisha Weir as Abigail nails it and steals everyone the show. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: She's so much fun to watch as she unfolds her two personalities Abby and Abigail. She's a very good ballet dancer and her dancing skills got well integated into the script and movie.
Dan Stevens as Frank is hilarious and I loved every scene with him. His performance as the bad guy is gripping, intense and just cool. He is an excellent actor, very versatile and shows here again a cool performance.
Kathryn Newton as Sammy has her big moments and it's a joy to watch her. She was before in horror themed movies like Lisa Frankenstein and Freaky and is an actress to keep in mind.
Melissa Barrera as Joey is a troubled character and she plays her role with heart, witt and heavy punches. After Scream VI and Scream it's her third movie with the directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who did an over-the-top bloody reminiscence to their own movie Ready or not.
This movie tells nothing completely new, has a lot of references to the horror movies from the 30s and the Rat Pack from the 60s, is a well made genre mixture and funny, hilariously bloody and gory, with some nice twists and turns. There is no time for boredom. The story, the actors, the thrills and horror sucks you in and keeps you entertained and gripped to your seat till the finale.
If you liked Renfield,then check this one here out.
It's a good one and keep an eye on future project with Alisha Weir. She's absolutely stunning as Abigail.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Abigail’:
Wow, that young actress has quite the acting chops! Who knew ballet-dancing vampires could be so creepy? She was fantastic.
I felt like the group picked up on the “vampire” thing a liiiiiiittle too quickly lol… coming from someone who went in blind and didn’t know what she was right away. But she was indeed a vamp, and I appreciated the fairly unpredictable and clever take on the mythology here.
I love Dan Stevens, and even more so since he’s alllllll up in the horror genre! But why does he always play such a dick? Lol.
I should have never doubted Radio Silence, these guys deliver, always.
Surprisingly much better than I had expected, as it was on Amazon (and just personally I have found their horror... lacking), but it was fun, I was entertained from beginning to end and would recommend it to anyone who likes a low-to-low/medium amount of gore (you see blood, most violence is quick and not explicit).
Disgusting movie!! Don't watch it!!
I haven't seen a movie with such good plot, effects and acting lately. It was amazing. The last scene was a little weird but okay. As every good thing has an end, we have come to the end of this beautiful thing. Thank you for your efforts, it was legendary.
Bloody (and) disgusting. But it struck the right balance for me.
I'm a reluctant horror watcher, but I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to, and I wanted to give it an 8, but knew the treatment wasn't quite "Classic" territory. Nevertheless, I was entertained the entire time, despite the fact that the film starts under the auspices that the audience doesn't know what's going to happen... but does it really? Look at the tagline.
But here's the thing-- to me, it didn't feel like that. Considering viewing environment, etc. YMMV, but I'm a sucker for sepia glow lighting in sumptuous old world micro-mansions, and ballet/ballet music, so I actually enjoyed watching all build up to the reveal (and subsequent raucous revelry.) I really only had disdain for one character, and that was fully intended by the film. If anything, the (initial) reveal would be a bonus for the younger viewers watching a few years from now.
The Cast
I only ever remember seeing Kevin Durand as a Gual'uld in Stargate-SG1, so it was quite amusing to see him playing a lumbering, room-temperature IQ Quebecois heavy. He's got plenty of charm to make Peter palatable and fun to watch. Really, everybody played their parts to the page, except, surprisingly, I found Esposito to be a little too on-brand, and then too hammy, which didn't ring quite as true as the others. Barrera's lead, Joey, started out feeling underdeveloped compared to the rest, but she developed along with the plot. It was a sympathy story, which can often turn me off when it's badly executed, but I was invested, especially with the rapport that Willam Catlett's Rickles ("Rinkles!..." lol) developed. I'll have to watch out for him in the future.
Dan Stevens (is English?!) was perfectly effective as the New England skeezy slimeball ringleader. The onions bit was hilarious, partly due to how believable it was, but his exasperated performance sold it perfectly. In fact, all the screwball bits played out extremely well, both in that I always laughed, and that it seemed to be perfectly balanced within the overall tone, which is always the deciding factor. I'm not a big fan of the "idiots getting killed" trope, but here I cared about the characters just as much as I was supposed to, and it's not something I watch much of, so I'm not 'troped out'. It was terrible in Prometheus, though, since they were all supposed to be leading scientists.
Just in case you haven't already spoiled yourself by looking at the cast list, I have to say that Matthew Goode is not the first name I would have thought of to play the part he was cast for, but it really made sense while watching, especially the voice once I heard it (and I actually did go in blind regarding the identity.)
I'd never seen Alisha Weir in anything before this, but I was appropriately disturbed by the performance, partly in a meta sense, given I wasn't sure about the actual age. But even so, I'm still not sure how I feel about a fourteen year old in such a role. But she did not disappoint--in character, or in toe shoes.
I also hadn't seen Kathryn Newton since she appeared as one of the kids in the phenomenal Halt and Catch Fire, but she really got to show off her range here, even if not quite in the traditional sense.
I can't say I'd be mad about a sequel, but I assume it will more likely be another joint feature starring Barrera with the same writer-directorial team, which I'm totally up for. Actually, I'd be happy to see any of the cast return for similar hijinks. I'll just make sure to also eat beforehand, as I, thankfully, did before witnessing such a-literally-visceral display.
A barrel of laughs. Nails the horror comedy balance expertly. Good setup and execution. Phenomenal over the top kills. Reminds me a lot of Redfield in that regard which I also enjoyed quite a bit. Punches above its weight and thought Barrera was great. For this style of movie this is near elite without quite reaching it. Strong 7.5.
Boy did this one catch me by surprise! I absolutely loved watching 'Abigail'! An unexpected gem!
I knew nothing pre-watch aside from that it was classed, on Wikipedia at least, as horror, so was simply expecting the usual fare à la 'Imaginary' and/or 'Immaculate' (former bad, latter good fwiw). Clearly, what I in fact saw knocked my socks off! I had a tremendous amount of fun with every second of this, it's unsettling as it is amusing... every department did a grand job!
Not even sure where to start with my list of many positives. Alisha Weir is the star of the whole thing, what an utterly brilliant performance from the youngster - so damn convincing, particularly early on. Melissa Barrera is also outstanding, I previously found her fairly forgettable in 'Scream' but here I undeniably liked watching her act. Dan Stevens (another I've found 'meh' elsewhere) impresses as well, as does Kathryn Newton. Heck, everyone onscreen is great.
I love how they showed the bloody (and the blood in general) body implosions, great use of (I assume) practical and special effects - proper thrilled me each time. I was happy to see the film get straight into the plot too, no messing about. It does a good job after that opening portion in setting up the characters before the mess truly hits the fan, which is when the movie seriously clicks into gear. Everything from that point on was an absolute blast - quite literally, eh?!
Going back to that opening few scenes, I was actually a touch concerned when it went from the initial fun escape to a one-location dynamic; I thought that was going to slow it down and make it more in keeping with the vibes of those two earlier 2024 movies that I noted at the top of my review. However, each moment in that one location is fantastic to watch, I have zero complaints. It's all paced to perfection!
Almost stunned at how much I enjoyed this, probably because I wasn't expecting anything from it. Looking at my ratings I've just now realised that I weirdly haven't got a favourite horror movie. According to the Letterboxd sort, I haven't even rated any films from this genre at anything above 9/10 - and even with that score it's only nine flicks, none of which I strongly adore. An unnoticed blind spot in my taste is evidently no longer.
The reviews for this seem generally favourable (at worst), which is nice to see. I've seen many online in agreement with me, what a ride! Not that it needs stating, but I'd highly recommend you check this one out!
It started off very slow, then got weird but, I liked it!
watched legion recently and David is here .
I never watch movie trailers. I thought this would be a horror movie in the style of Don't Breathe and a bad one with all those lazy jump scares). That supernatural reveal caught me by surprise.
It's a fun movie with some unpredictability.
I'm not into the whole vampire genre in general but this is an awesome exception.
What a captivating and fully entertaining movie. Funny horror with some gore blood scenes but without giving horror vibes. Also i'm with people saying that the trailer gives too much, i didn't want that on the trailer.
Excellent funny moments, the monologue of the girl explains the whole gathering was awesome, in general the interaction between the gang and Abigail was unique and very funny. This is the type of movie a "maybe-horror" fans want. Of course it is not scary but is wildly fun to watch.
And having Joey running with a tight top is helping a lot!
This movie ended up being way more awesome than I though it would be. Because I started watching it thinking the trailer spoiled the entire plot. It did to a certain extent. But, there were many more high-octane thrills in this one. It's like they mashed-up SAW, Omen, Chucky and a few other crazy things together to come up with this. Alisha Weir might have created a whole new franchise for herself here. That kid's awesome.
Solid crime/horror/thriller thing with the right amount of camp. Go in BLIND. It's worth an hour and fifty minutes of your time. If you read too much of the reviews or watch the trailer, you won't enjoy it as much.
When I imagine the perfect entertaining movie that is extremely fun to watch, I imagine something like this movie.
It's got a great horror story that's also fun, lots of twists and turns, great characters and performances, all the elements that keep your attention the whole time. In addition to all this, it also has the feel of an 80s movie, but with a modern style, everything here sounds efficient and very cool.
From Radio Silence comes the frightening horror film Abigail. The story follows a group of kidnappers who are hired to abduct the daughter of a promenade businessman and hold her for ransom; but they soon discover that the girl is not what she seems, nor is anything else. Starring Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, and Kevin Durand, that cast is pretty solid, and newcomer Alisha Weir gives an impressive performance as Abigail. Also, the script is well-written, with a number of twists and reveals, and the fight scenes are intense and exciting. Still, the blood and gore is bit excessive at times, and a couple parts of the plot are left a little vague. However, minor quibbles aside, Abigail is a solid film that delivers the scares.
I really enjoyed this movie.
It was scary, funny, intense, violent, well paced and had a good story line. Haven't seen the trailer so didn't know what to expect.
Glad I watched it, well worth a viewing. :thumbsup_tone1: Abigail was spooky yet childlike as she should be. :thumbsup_tone1:
A Kidnapping gone horrifically wrong.
Characters 8/10
Story 7/10
Pacing 8/10
Visuals 8/10
Rewatchability Factor 6/10
Enjoyment or Emotional Value 8/10
Average Score 7.5/10
More "comedy" than horror. Probably good as entertainment, but certainly not scary. Even the effects are more for comedy than pure horror.
Is it a horror movie or a horror comedy?
I wouldn't say horror movie, because it wasn't scary. Horror comedy rather, at least you can watch the movie without turning it off first.
Whatever it is, I didn't like it anyway.
And were they really trapped in the house? I mean the houses in America are only made of thin wood and cardboard, if they could not all „punch“ a hole in the wall together. You can also see that when Joey tries it in the room with the round window, couldn't the others have helped instead of sitting around?
And they could have killed Abigail too. When she was unconscious, couldn't she have been brought/put in the sunlight instead of "locking" her in the elevator?
And why was Giancarlo Esposito taken for the role, you only see him 4-5 minutes in the whole film.
Felt like 3 really solid movies in one. Some funny moments, good scares, and really self referential moments that I really enjoyed. The move runs a bit long and I think could've been tightened up a bit, but as a 2024 Saw / Scream type of horror I fully enjoyed it.
Much better than expected. And like Ready or Not, also not shy on the gore.
This is a good time "horror" movie. I've never seen any trailer, so I went in blind. I had a great time watching this. Would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for their next spooky movie.
This one bored me. The idea of a ballerina vampire was kind of cute, but it just came off as gimmicky. I didn't even see the trailer, but so much of this was predictable. The actors all did well, but their roles were all caricatures, so even with their best efforts I didn't care about any of the characters. The only part that I found at all interesting was at the very end when "Daddy" came home, as I wasn't really expecting that and wasn't sure how it was going to play out. Overall, it was not really worth watching for those last 2 minutes, though.
6.5 / 10
A gruesome thriller about a child vampire ballerina. The final act of the movie is ridiculous, but then again it's a movie about a child vampire ballerina. it's never particularly scary, but does a decent job working with it's premise. There's no reason to make a sequel, although it might have teased one.
Very fun to watch, okay?
This movie had me laughing. A lot. Very entertaining, not scary at all. But worth the 90 minutes or so!
I knew what this film was about, but I had no idea how great the cast was or how fun of a ride this would be! Genuinely, a blast! It is bloody and dark humor, just like all great vampire content should be.
Rating: 4.5/5 - 90% - Highly Recommend
Pretty good, another variation on the theme of nocturnal predators. ;)
Rest In Peace Angus Cloud
He did such a fantastic job in one of his career's final performances.
Abigail has gotten flak regarding its trailer giving away a "twist". While this is partly true, I felt the trailer made it seem like there would be non-stop ballerina dancing throughout. It came off feeling like it would be a schtick that never stopped. Thankfully the ballerina aspects are kept close to a minimum, albeit never fully explained.
The strength of the film is its ability to keep you guessing, not only what is happening to each character as they are dealt with, but to guess as to the extent our groups of characters are good or secondary villains. Whereas there are some dumb things that happen in the first act, the bulk stays away from dumbing down the audience. We know generally what to expect when it comes to our lead villain, but the rules of the genre are well hidden and only revealed when it is necessary to move the characters forward. Although we get a lot of insight into what the villain is, we do not understand much about who they are. How often she play her game? What type of life does she normally have? Who has to clean up the mess each time?
Some questions wouldn't get answered, but the audience shouldn't have to ask them in the first place. The story is self-contained and doesn't have anywhere to go other than a prequel. It sure is set up for another film to possibly expand what little characters it set up, and it's this lack of character that leaves me feeling unfulfilled. Still, if succeeds a lot more than it fails, nitpicks aside. Deaths could use some diversity, but it's still a bloody good time.
I don't love this as much as their other movies, but Abigail is definitely another win for Radio Silence.
One where if you don't watch the trailer it would have been better. Great actors and the dialogue is fun, but nothing too original unfortunately.
Very bloody and funny at times. Just that marketing ruined half the fun.
Rated a Connor 10, normal 8
The first 2 acts were great fun that would have also been much better without the spoilery trailer. I feel like I would be way more surprised and the tension would grow greater with the potential traitor in the midst. I still liked the setup and the characters overall. They were chill and all likeable except for one or two. Some were underdeveloped tbf. I think the final act had too much going on and soured the experience a tiny itsy bit, but it was still fun for me. Alisha Weir deserves serious praise aswell and was amazing.
At Time of Review:
Solid 7/10
Story and Characters: 7/10
Presentation: 7/10
Enjoyability: 7/10
Dead Silence deliver on the blood, gore and action, however as a horror film; the project falls flat.
I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I actually did. I wish I had waited until the price came down before renting it.
This was a lot more fun than reading comments about it would suggest. I appreciate the pace and characters. It wasn't trying too hard like an A24 film might, but was pliable with tropes to twist them just enough to stay interesting. Good effort, kept me from getting bored or frustrated, particularly at the turns.
Very good film the best in recent years. I saw it and I really like it.
Good for passing time but not as hyped.
I actually liked a lot of scenes, but most of it is down to the choreography, cast, and creativity. I didn't like how every plot point was basically ruined by the marketing and how the pace kept switching from slow to fast. The story wasn't really going anywhere, but the performances and comedy took this to places I didn't really expect. Loved the soundtrack and the closed off sets, made it feel homey. I was bored from how many times it cut from dialouge to action. Almost like they cut scene at every tense point. Angus, Melissa, and Alisha carried almost too hard.
The movie was 109 minutes long and had a total of 167 instances where the word "fuck" was used. This means that the frequency of usage was approximately 1.47 times per minute.
Contemporary comedy chops and a punchy delivery elevate this fairly by-the-book vampire feature into a fun, frantic twisty thriller. The Ready or Not DNA is very apparent, so if you’re a fan of that movie you’ll be right at home here. Solid fun and entertaining popcorn horror flick, the onion joke will live rent free in my head for the next week.
RIP Angus Cloud. You will be missed.
the movie progression/development is so crazy, so random and bad (Michael Jackson's bad), and i really liked it
I mean, I didn't think it would turn into a vampire movie. At some point I thought it was some sort of satire/dark comedy due to the nature of the dialogue, and how the characters related to each other.
It's a creative horror tbh. I would recommend it as a background activity. It's light and has a fresh perspective on the horror genre.
Abigail - :heart:x7
This was an interesting and different Vampire movie. I especially liked the Ballerina-KungFu. A sequel would be welcome.
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
I love the movie. The acting was great and great story . I’m glad to add this movie to my collection. Highly recommend to watch this film
Why did Sammy look SO MUCH like Miley Cyrus after becoming a vampire? lol it's UNCANNY.
In the versions of 30 days of night:vampire_tone1::bat:
This movie had potential. What a missed opportunity. The director literally killed what was a promising movie. With that said, it is a MUST NOT WATCH.
Enjoyable movie even though the twist was already spoiled in the trailers. I still think there's enough fun to be had.
Great fun, nice to see vampire movies get a makeover from the standard.
I like horrors but don't usually like vampires in stories, It's because I mostly think that vampire stories are super cheesy but that's coming from the books or films I've already consumed, (Vampire Diaries, Twilight, A Discovery of Witches) This was nothing like those other vampire stories, this was dark, this was gory, this was thrilling.
Alisha Weir, (who made her film debut last year in Tim Minchin's Matilda) returns once again to a titular role. This time, as a young 12 year-old ballerina/vampire. She absolutely scared me in this film with her expressions and her breathy dialect and delivery.
When we look at the setting and the way it was filmed, the setting wasn't anything unique. An abandoned house, pretty standard for a horror film wouldn't you say? But the way it was filmed is what truly drew me in. One piece of cinematography and editing that stood out to me is the parallels between Sammy and Abigail in the dance scene in the latter half of the film. As this is showing Sammy transitioning into a vampire I love how they chose to cut between Sammy and Abigail showing what type of person Sammy was turning into.
The acting overall was quite good and actors managed to pull if an edge of mysterious. I wasn't really fussed on the acting from the guy who played Dean. I found it dry and one-dimensional, however luckily I didn't have to put up with it for that long.
My main gripe with this movie, (the reason I'm docking a star) is I felt the final ten minutes was repetitive. I swear that Abigail died at least 4 or 5 times in this short period but she just kept coming back to life. I know it's a fantasy but this gave me no real sense of urgency. However I loved how at the end of this movie they tied back in the idea of the pinky promise between Joey and Abigail to show that there is something human inside Abigail though she may often be deemed as a monster.
Overall, this is a truly thrilling watch but it's not for the faint of heart. If you want a film that may keep you up at night then Abigail is the one for you.
Like fingerprinting on a map with a hemophiliac's blood, Abigail gets a little messy and is all over the place.
A hired crew carries out a kidnapping job, only to find their 12-year-old victim isn't as harmless as she seems.
The story and execution is a little sloppy, but the plot and especially the cast (Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton and Dan Stevens are particularly strong) make this horror film a cut above the norm.
I found this movie entertaining, though not nearly as good as Ready or Not. A good chunk of the beginning of the movie is dedicated to setup, assuming there will be tension regarding what the actual premise of the movie is in regard to the girl they kidnap. However, the trailers spoiled this aspect of the movie, so I found the beginning setup to be a bit slow. Once it kicks into gear though, the movie alternates between the type of fun horror I've come to expect from these creators, though sometimes it takes itself a bit too seriously. The motivations, development, and drama between all the characters end up not being very important, so I feel like the movie could have ignored some of those aspects entirely instead of trying to build them and then have characters make actions that do not align with those backstories at all (or have those backstories become fully irrelevant). But when the movie shifts away from a lot of this setup and embraces its pulpy, over-the-top core, it ends up being a ton of fun. I loved seeing Dan Stevens and Alisha Weir fully embrace their roles, and there is plenty of gore and silliness that works really well. I just think Ready or Not was a more balanced and complete movie that still managed to lean into these aspects more, but this isn't bad and ends up still being better than their two Scream movies.
When you watch "Abigail," you quickly realize that this film was made by the same team that created "Ready or Not." The setting in a mansion, the gore effects, and the humor are strikingly similar. And since I liked "Ready or Not," I also enjoyed "Abigail," even if there were no major surprises.
If you've seen the trailer, then you pretty much know where the journey is going. Despite the general predictability, the movie is fun, which for me is mainly due to the supporting characters. Kathryn Newton and Kevin Durand, in particular, make the most of their roles. And Dan Stevens is always good anyway. Lead actress Melissa Barrera, on the other hand, is less convincing, but she also didn't really bother me.
Ultimately, it's simply entertaining when a vampire ballerina hunts down a dysfunctional group of criminals. And directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have also made the right decision not to skimp on fake blood, despite some CGI effects. This gives the fountains of blood a much greater impact, distinguishing "Abigail" from many of its genre competitors.
It was good and entertaining, with blood and gore, good for the vampire girl.
This movie gave me Ready or Not vibes (didn’t realize it has the same director). I really liked this movie. The movie didn’t take itself seriously which made it hilarious. The fact that Abigail LITERALLY does ballet as she chases the mercenaries proves this. This is 100% a comedy (though you might jump at some parts). This was a fun watch. Would recommend you watch with friends because that made it better.
Wow! What a ride! It sure is a gory movie. I would recommend this movie if you don't mind gory & horror movie mixed with some comedy. This isn't a serious movie at all but I enjoyed it! Very cliché but it works, entertaining for sure. I give it a 7.5 out of 10
Shout by Jim222001VIP6BlockedParent2024-04-18T23:16:13Z— updated 2024-05-08T18:40:40Z
Despite being one of those movies that gave away way too much in the trailer. Knowing most of the twists “from the trailer.” Abigail was still a really good time. With a star making performance by Alisha Weir as Abigail.
This is one of the best vampire movies in recent years.