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Abigail (2024)

 

Abigail is a horror involving a team of people who kidnap a ballerina vampire.

Directed by Scream V and Scream VI duo: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the film is a spiritual successor to the amount of blood they had in Ready or Not. The duo also brought along their writer, Guy Busick, since the team has been so successful lately when it comes to these types of films. They're really improving their craft on all ends. The new member of the team is Stephen Shields who is a relative newcomer and was probably just along for the ride to learn the ropes. It was tightly written, the characters were fleshed out completely, and the only narrative problem was the minor exposition between the entertainment.

Speaking of Scream V and VI, Melissa Barrera has been working with them for a while now. They really know how to make her look both good and a believable action star. I'm not a hundred percent on seeing any movie that has her in it as she has some iffy-looking movies coming out later this year. That being said she's still gorgeous and a great scream queen.

Kathryn Newton is in her second horror movie this year. The first was more of a romantic comedy in Lisa Frankenstein. She leans into her manic pixie dreamgirl persona that seems to be her shtick. You might know her as Cassie Lang from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or from Pokemon: Detective Pikachu as the love interest. 

Veteran Kevin Durand is in the film. He is supposed to be playing a man in his thirties despite being fifty. His character adds some comic relief and pairs well with Newton despite their age differences, she's twenty-seven at the time of release. You might remember him from X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Fred "Blob" Dukes or the under-rated 2006 film Smokin' Aces.

The best actress in the film by far is Alisha Weir. If in 10 years she's not a household name it would be a travesty. She sells the vampire girl better than anyone on screen in the past twenty years. She was the lead in Matilda: The Musical.

The film was really surprisingly entertaining. It wasn't scary though there were some jump scares. It has a lot of blood in it and is borderline between A- and B+. I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone so it'll probably be stuck as B+ but I'll update the blog if it grows on me. Result: B+


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