Abigail (2024) -

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I had mediocre expectations going into this movie as I think practically every horror movie is overdone and ends up being a bust, but Abigail was a pleasant surprise. This movie is decently well paced, well acted, and has fine shots. The special effects weren’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but that seems to be a common theme in newer movies with tighter deadlines requiring effects artists to rush. As far as the horror aspect goes, the movie doesn’t have much going for it, as it relies primarily on jumpscares and shock value, but for the most part the shock value is well done. Another common gripe I have with horror movies tends to be the lack of smart decision making. I find that whenever characters make such horrible mistakes that only one would make for the sake of our entertainment in a movie, it completely breaks the illusion and immersiveness that the film has worked so hard to garner to that point. Though there are certainly questionable moments throughout the film, for the most part the characters do a decent job of staying on their toes and not making abhorrently awful mistakes that lead to their demise.

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I must say that the pool of bodies was probably the most unexpected “twist” this movie had. In all seriousness, though, I almost feel like this movie would have served better if it stayed on the track of a real-life possible murder mystery. The first portion of the movie was arguably the best part, as the idea of Valdez potentially breaching the perimeter of the house, or even being one of the criminals within the group seems to be where the movie is heading. Eventually it is obviously revealed that Abigail is in fact a vampire, and the movie’s direction suddenly turns from a murder mystery to an escape the killer type of film. Abigail as a deranged 12 year-old serial killer (rather than vampire) who serves as a hitman for her mob boss father would have made for quite the movie in my opinion. Who wouldn’t want to watch a reverse Home Alone? From the start it becomes clear that Joey is sympathetic toward the kidnapping of the girl and even befriends her to an extent, pinky promising her that she won’t let anyone hurt her. From this point on it seems obvious to the viewer that Joey will probably be the only one getting out of this alive, if anyone manages to at all. We also see Joey manage to vaguely guess how everyone has gotten to the point that they are all at in their lives, which is eventually called back to later when Abigail does the same thing, only with more detail. This is some next level writing that is never really seen in the realm of horror movies. Is it perfect? No. But is it beyond what I would expect for a horror film? Absolutely.

My main problems with this movie seem to lie in the overall structure of it. It felt at times like it was dragging, and that the same loop is followed over and over until there’s only one (or two) people remaining: Have a problem -> Think of solution -> Split up to find so-called solution -> Someone dies -> Find new problem -> Repeat. Let’s break down this structure more. First, the group splits up to keep watch of the building, trying to wait out the time before Dean suddenly dies in the kitchen. Now they have the obvious problem that someone has died. They then split up for what seems to be no apparent reason, despite the fact one of them just died because of this. This leads to the death of Rickles. We get a break in this cycle with three of the four remaining attempting to kill Abigail with their stakes, garlic, and crucifix, but with no luck. After some more random events and twists thrown in, we have them splitting up once more to try to locate power within the house to shut it off. Once more, some people end up dead. You get the idea. This cycle is really only broken up briefly in the event where the group attempts to kill Abigail together, and when they manage to trap her in the cage. Outside of this, basically any point of the movie can be categorized into an iteration of this cycle. The end is arguably where we see this fade, with the transformation of Peter into a vampire, but this short section of the movie feels somewhat underdeveloped and insignificant. It seems like this is supposed to be where everything that has happened thus far culminates into a grand finale, but things happen so quickly to the point where it doesn’t make a lot of sense and if you went to the bathroom briefly during the wrong time, you would come back wondering what the f**k happened. In the last 15 minutes or so of the movie we see Peter become a vampire, Lambert die, Abigail and Joey team up, and meet Mr. Lazaar. I don’t know if the ultra fast pace of the end was intended by the writers, but it leaves little time for questions or processing.

Regardless of some of these cons, I enjoyed the movie a surprising amount. There were times where I felt it fell short of its potential, but as a horror movie it wasn’t half bad. The characters were fine, the decision making was meh, and the overall plot was decent, but I still feel like it did its job of entertaining throughout nearly the entire thing.