Review: ‘Abigail’ would’ve been a must-see horror movie if its own marketing hadn’t sabotaged it

After making horror history by breathing new life into the Scream franchise, creative collective Radio Silence is back in theaters with Abigail. Unfortunately, despite how good Abigail might be, the movie is sabotaged by a misguided marketing campaign.

Starring a phenomenal cast that includes final girl Melissa Barrera and the young and gifted Alisha Weir (Netflix’s Matilda the Musical), Abigail follows a group of criminals tasked with kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy man. Taking a note from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, the team uses fake names and hides personal details to ensure everyone’s safety in case things go south and one of them gets caught by the police. The secrecy surrounding the job is so great that no one knows their target except Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), the mastermind who ordered the hit. Their goal is to snatch Abigail (Weir), take her to a secluded mansion, and hold her for 24 hours until a $50 million ransom gets paid. However, dangerous and inexplicable things start to happen in the mansion.

That’s it. That’s the movie. Or at least, that’s all the audience should have known about Abigail before going to theaters. Unfortunately, every trailer, image, and interview released as part of Abigail’s marketing campaign ruins the movie’s twist and reveals *spoiler alert* that the titular character is a vampire.

Abigail begins as a heist movie, slowly introducing all the players involved in the daring abduction. Since each crew member has a specific job and quirky personality, forced confinement doesn’t take long to become a source of hostility among them. These are all strangers, bound by a common goal but comfortable enough with the underworld to turn against each other. When rumors about their target’s identity emerge, they are ready to point fingers – and guns. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett masterfully use the movie’s introduction to enthrall the audience with a perfect balance of tension and comedy. That’s why it’s a shame people won’t enjoy the first arc of Abigail for what it is, as everyone will be impatiently waiting for Weir to show her fangs and begin the hunt.

While Radio Silence’s last original movie, Ready or Not, also deals with a twist spoiled by the trailer, the change of pace comes early in the film. Because of that, it doesn’t get in the way of the story the directors are trying to tell. With Abigail, though, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett want to trick horror fans into buying a house invasion thriller and getting a vampire slaughter-fest. It takes Abigail over 40 minutes to introduce her authentic self in a moment that should flip a button and cleverly tie all the clues the story subtly left behind. If Abigail existed in a marketing vacuum, the bloody reveal at the end of the first arc would be nothing short of genius. Instead, because everyone knows what’s coming, it feels too much like a long wait.

For the rest of Abigail’s runtime, Radio Silence delivers gruesome deaths in a blood-soaked battle for survival as the vampire toys with her prey. That gives the directors the excuse to showcase their best work yet regarding gore. The death and mutilation in Abigail is incredible because Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are committed to practical effects, knowing all too well that horror looks better when it doesn’t rely too much on CGI. So, for horror fiends who rejoice in well-cooked brutality – this writer included – Abigail is a delicious feast.

Story-wise, Abigail has many similarities with Ready or Not, which are easy to understand when we realize Guy Busick co-wrote both scripts. The two movies deal with a group of people pitted against a resourceful killer inside a fabulous mansion, leading to creative deaths and a non-ending cat-and-mouse game. Abigail, however, inverts Ready or Not logic by turning the killer into an antagonist instead of the final girl. Nevertheless, things will more or less evolve similarly until the third arc, when Abigail tries to subvert the movie’s logic again, to mixed results.

Abigail is also similar to Ready or Not when mixing ghastly violence with comedic moments. Not every joke lands, and some moments of Abigail feel uneven, while Ready or Not is a nearly perfect masterpiece. Nevertheless, Radio Silence’s vampire tale is highly entertaining, a popcorn story tailored to become an easy choice in a movie night with friends. Still, after the credits roll, we can’t help but wish Abigail had not traded substance for style, as this might be the least memorable entry in Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s filmography.

In their previous films, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett showed an exquisite talent for crafting popular horror stories that still had something human to say. Both SCREAM and Scream VI are brilliant deconstructions of contemporary horror tropes. At the same time, Ready or Not takes down the final girl archetype to turn Samara Weaving into a liberating female character. Abigail tries to find an emotional core through the backstories of Barrera’s Joey and Weir’s vampire. Unfortunately, the supposed character growth of both characters is too sudden and superficial to hit the mark. It also doesn’t help that Abigail’s most significant attempt to anchor the script into grounded human connections comes too late, in the middle of a messy third arc that keeps adding new twists for shock value alone.

All of that said, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are true horror aficionados. They understand all the tropes and clichés associated with vampires, using the audience’s knowledge against them every chance they can. The script by Busick and Stephen Shields has a lot of wiggling room to test all the traditional weapons against vampires or to delve into the different rituals of vampiric transformation. That’s an extra treat for horror fans, who can discover the truth about Abigail’s blood-sucking creatures and the cast of criminals.

Finally, something has to be said about Weir and Barrera. The young actress is having the time of her life playing a savage monster. It’s also delightful to see Weir dancing around covered in blood after cute musical acts for Netflix’s Matilda. Despite her young age, Weir has already proved her brilliance, and we can only hope she gets more diverse and exciting roles in the future. As for Barrera, her exit from the Scream franchise raised some questions about her career, but Abigail proves she doesn’t need Ghostface to shine as a scream queen. Watching the two together is a spectacle on its own and enough reason to give Abigail a chance.

Abigail is currently available in theaters.