It’s a fantastic time for horror with the likes of Jordan Peele, Mike Flanaghan, James Wan all consistently delivering strong unique horrors. Then there’s a rise in smaller directors who are just consistently being given the keys to big horror franchises, building their trust to allow them to do whatever they like. Directing duo known as Radio Silence, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, have built up enough trust in me from revitalizing the Scream franchise, with Scream V and Scream VI which that they can now put out any film and I’ll watch it. The trailer for Abigail really grabbed me as just a simple fun horror film with a great cast, reteaming themselves with Melissa Barrera who was the lead in their Scream films.
Abigail follows a group of thieves (Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand and Angus Cloud) who are tasked to kidnap a young girl (Alisha Weir). When they bring her to the destination, they are tasked by the organiser (Giancarlo Esposito) to keep her alive for 24 hours to get the father to pay a ransom to free her. However, the thieves quickly realise it’s them who will have to survive 24 hours with the young girl.
Melissa Barrera has cemented herself as a modern day scream queen thanks to Radio Silence. It may have been her role in In The Heights that got her the big break she needed in Hollywood, after having mostly appeared in Mexican Television before then. Horror is the genre for her, after she has now appeared in 5 horror films since then, and continues to deliver good performances in every single one, and if anything she’s growing as an actor, despite the setbacks she had off screen for her political opinions.
Barrera shines alongside Alisha Weir (best known for playing Matilda in Matilda: The Musical) who does a fantastic job, in what is a difficult role, playing what is essentially an older lady in a young girl’s body. She has great chemistry with Barrera, and clearly has fun in the role as well, something which I didn’t see from her in Matilda. I certainly can see her getting more roles as her acting ability grows.
The rest of the cast does a great job, and again you can see how much they had a good time on set through their performances. I wasn’t fan of Dan Stevens in Godzilla x Kong, a felt like his character was lazily added but here he earns his place. Kathryn Newton, William Catlett and Kevin Durand all clearly enjoy being there getting to do something different for them, with a shoutout to Angus Cloud who the film is dedicated to after his passing last year.
Radio Silence do a fantastic job balancing the line of a horror and almost comedy. It certainly leans more towards horror but the light hearted moments definetly benefit the film and give breathing room between all the bloody moments, something they definetly borrowed from their time working on Scream, which is well known for those moments. The film is really well paced, never dragging slowly down briefly before ramping back up again meaning the 1 hour 49 minutes run time flies by, and you don’t want it to ever end.
A big shout to the production team of this one, who cover this set and the actors in blood, as well as the make up team who again helped cover the actors, and helped fleshout this film in a unique way. The look of Abigail once she becomes a vampire works really well, feeling both realistic enough to fit in the real world and yet surreal enough to make you disbelieve.
Abigail is a really fun horror film, that is gruesome enough to satisfy horror fans but not too scary for general audience watchers. Radio Silence have delivered previously with their Scream films and Ready or Not, and deliver another enjoyable horror, I can’t wait to see what they do next.
What did you think of Abigail?
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