With Abigail, Radio Silence expands its horror empire toward one of the most beloved creatures in horror: Vampires. Besides being filled to the brink with blood, guts, and creative death, Abigail ends with a bang and the promise of sequels.
Abigail follows a group of professional criminals hired to kidnap the daughter of a mysterious wealthy man. Their goal is to hold the girl in a secluded mansion for 24 hours while the person who ordered the hit, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), negotiates a $50 million ransom.
It seems like an easy job, but the crew soon finds out that the girl (Alisha Weir) is the only child of Kristof Lazar (Matthew Goode), a powerful and dangerous crime lord. She’s no girl either, as Abigail reveals herself to be a hundreds-of-years-old vampire who wants to feed on her captors.
Why does Abigail hunt down the criminals?
Abigail was turned into a vampire by her blood-thirsty father because he wanted to have an immortal family of his own. However, the crimelord stopped paying attention to his daughter as the years passed. Abigail is desperate to win back her father’s affection, which is why she has been hunting down people who crossed him.
For instance, Joey (Melissa Barrera) is a former military doctor who was dishonorably discharged after getting addicted to morphine. Joey began to work for criminals to pay for her addiction, patching them up. One day, she was high while performing a bullet extraction surgery and accidentally killed one of Lazar’s business associates. This unfortunate event would put Joye on Abigail’s blacklist.
Abigail’s modus operantis is quite simple. She turned Lambert into a vampire, binding her to her will. Lambert is in charge of putting crews together and offering a vast sum to kidnap the girl. Every crew ends up in the same mansion, where Abigail toys with the criminals until she has killed them all. The bodies of previously hunted criminals can be found on the mansion’s inside pool as bizarre souvenirs of Abigail’s hunting habits.
Who is ‘Abigail’s true villain?
In the ending of Abigail, we learn that Lambert wants to stage a coup and take control of Lazar’s criminal empire. He convinces Frank (Dan Stevens) to join him in working together to kill Abigail and Lazar – the crimelord is coming to the mansion after being summoned by the traitor. As a power-hungry asshole, Frank lets Lambert turn him into a vampire, gaining the creature’s strength and healing powers.
Frank’s first choice as a monster is to kill Lambert, exacting revenge for being tricked and trapped in the mansion. When Abigail finds Frank and Joey, the newly-turned vampire bites the girl on her neck, apparently killing her. Then, he goes after Joey, who has constantly disrespected his authority as crew leader.
Joey escapes to the library, but she’s no match for Frank and his vampiric powers. Fortunately for Joey, Abigail is still alive. The tiny vampire is weakened, but she can still fight since Frank didn’t drain all of her blood. The two women join forces to take down the movie’s true villain.
Frank overpowers Joye and Abigail. He also takes a note from Abigail’s book and bites Joey. However, Frank does not feed Joey vampire blood, the final ingredient for a total transformation. Humans who get partially turned can regenerate their wounds but become puppets to the vampire master that bites them. However, that’s a power that takes years to master. Joey takes advantage of Frank’s ignorance and pretends to obey his commands. That creates the perfect window for her to stab Frank in the heart, killing him. Frank’s death undoes the vampiric curse he put on Joey, releasing her from her destiny as a creature of the night.
What happens to Melissa Barrera’s Joey?
Since Joey helps Abigail remove Frank, the child vampire permits her former prey to leave the mansion. After the horrors she experiences, Joey gains a new appreciation of life and is ready to return to the son she abandoned, whom she only wanted to see after being paid the heist money.
Joey’s happy ending gets cut short when Lazar arrives, who we learn is Count Dracula. Dracula jumps over Joey, ready to drain her life. Abigail stops him, telling her father that Joey saved her life. Abigail also confronts Dracula about his absence and tells the vampire lord that Joey was there when she needed someone. Dracula apologizes to his daughter, saying he’s there for her now. Finally, Dracula greets Joey and tells her to leave before dinner. Joey leaves, ready to claim her life back.
Abigail does not have a post-credits scene, but there are many loose threads Radio Silence could use for a sequel. Count Dracula and Abigail are still alive, meaning a sequel can explore their shaky relationship. Secondly, Joey is free after learning the truth about Lazar’s identity, so she can be dragged into another paranormal incident. Considering the hype around the vampire ballerina movie, we might see Abigail return sooner rather than later.
