Abigail

In spite of their popularity within pop culture, not a lot has been done with the Universal monsters. This is more than likely due to the failure of their planned cinematic universe, which would’ve starred high-calibre actors portraying these roles in a modern, overly serious, shared storyline, but things never materialized after the financial and critical bomb of the 2016, The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise. While certainly a good idea to bench this set-to-implode universe, it’s a shame that it retroactively put a halt on any other projects tied to these iconic characters. However, they are still a few properties that are coming out that use these characters; director Leigh Whannell did pretty good with his 2020 take on The Invisible Man before floundering with his 2025 take on The Wolfman, Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Frankenstein film starring Jacob Elordi  and Oscar Isaac performed well with audiences and at the Oscars, and while Dracula himself didn’t get a film, his daughter managed to snag one in the 2024 horror comedy, Abigail.

A group of six criminals take part in a mission where they kidnap the daughter of a supposedly wealthy man in order to hold her for ransom. This group (using pseudo names to hide their identities) consists of Marine sniper, Rickles (played by Will Catlett), burly but dim-witted mob enforcer Peter (played by Kevin Durand) sociopathic getaway driver, Dean (played by the late Angus Cloud), wealthy hacker Sammy (played by Kathryn Newton), former NYPD detective Frank (played by Dan Stevens) and recovering drug-addict and former Army medic, Joey (played by Melissa Barrera), who specifically is uncomfortable with the thought of holding a child hostage. The child in question, Abigail (played by Alisha Weir) seems innocent enough and the team are instructed by their informant, Lambert (played by Giancarlo Esposito) to wait out the night in order to secure the deal, but things start to get a little weird once some of their team start to get picked off. It’s quickly revealed that Abigail is in fact a vampire who has tricked the team by adopting the facade of a helpless child in order to lure them to a secluded location and feast on them one by one, forcing these would-be criminals to team up and try and take down this blood-sucking foe.

Performing generally well with both critics and audiences and doing okay at the box office, Abigail is a crazy ride that does suffer from scripting issues, certain moments of pacing, and an occasional dose of shallowness, but with an entertainingly wild tone, simple but effective premise, and a lot of great actors, makes for a gory fun time.

As a dive back into the classical world of these famous monsters, Abigail adopts a more campy, overly exaggerated personality that is more akin to the Hammer Horror era of these characters, rather than the richly atmospheric and gothic realms they started in. This works to the film’s benefit as the premise of a group of characters being locked in a house with Dracula’s daughter definitely works better as a haunted house-like experience rather than something that’s going to chill you to the bones, and everything from the direction, acting, visuals and even production value supports and uplifts this mindset. The directing duo for this film was Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (otherwise known as Radio Silence) who directed two of the newer Scream films, but were also responsible for other horror properties like the V/H/S franchise, Southbound, Devil’s Due, and Ready or Not, with the latter having a lot of similarities in personality and attitude to this movie, which does come with its own pros and cons. A problem with the movie is that while the idea of these people trying to survive in a house with a child vampire is a fun idea, it’s also one that doesn’t have a lot to work with outside of its original spark, which means that once the main agenda gets going, it doesn’t really have a lot to offer outside of just ”try and survive”.

The screenplay by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick isn’t very good, spouting exposition in a horribly forced manner, holding back obvious reveals for way too long under the assumption that people can’t figure them out, and attempts to flesh out its own cinematic universe, but does so in such a detached and un-engaging manner that it never truly sucks you in. The directing can also feel a little off at times, with the opening in particularly being a little awkwardly paced and jumping from quiet build up to in-the-moment tension a little too quickly, but once the secret of Abigail gets out, things start to heat up in a good way. The film is aware of its goofy nature, and plays with it in an appropriate manner, resulting in an experience that, while certainly not scary and contains its fair share of painful jump scares, is playfully grotesque and on slight occasions a little atmospheric. The overall story is fairly limp and come the end of the picture, it’s hard to say the film really lives up to its potential, but what it does offer is still worth experiencing.

The cast is laced with people who aren’t huge names, but are recognizable, and that slight notoriety feels perfect for this kind of unassuming yet campy horror flick, also made better by the film not restricting them to acting seriously. Horror comedy is a genre that would be great to act in, as the actors are allowed to play a scary scenario with enough plausibility to still feel genuine, yet with enough wiggle room to have some absurd humorous deliveries or reactions, letting the audience know they’re also in on the joke. For this movie, it doesn’t ever feel scary, but it does at least have a slight creepiness to its environment, and when the jokes do come in, they don’t feel out of place and the actors do a great job delivering them. This film acts as not only the final film before Angus Cloud tragically passed away, but it also somewhat acted as a redemptive arc for the lead, Melissa Barrera, who was fired from the latest Scream films by the studio Skyglass Media Group due to posting about hopes for a ceasefire in regard to the Israel/Palestine war. Whatever stance someone takes on the matter, that is a pretty poor reason to fire someone, so Radio Silence gave her another chance in their new movie, and she works pretty good here.

While she does have an occasional stilted delivery, you buy her as this character who’s done bad things and is trying to do better, carrying an attitude that feels reserved without being boring and has the presence and conviction that makes her work as a leading character in a horror film. The rest of the cast are fairly archetypal and aren’t always written the best, but the actors do a really good job bringing life to them. Not all of them work like Giancarlo Esposito is barely given any screentime, and people like Will Catlett and Angus Cloud aren’t the most effective, but Kevin Durand gets a few good lines, Kathryn Newton continues to prove that she can be surprisingly funny when given the right material, and Dan Stevens is pretty cartoonish and over-the-top throughout, but seems more comfortable in that space and looks like he’s having a ball (especially during the final act). The real star, however, is Alisha Weir as Abigail, as she is truly fantastic, being both funny and even a little creepy in the right moments. She really sells the scared little girl, but the second she becomes a vampire, her acting ability feels very mature and works off the others effortlessly. Her kills are insanely over-the-top, her performance is dripping with patronizing jeer which is incredible to witness, the element of making her a ballerina results in a lot of great imagery and wonderfully contorted movements that look elegant and inhuman, and while definitely played up as a jokey idea, there are still enough tragic parts sprinkled into this idea of Dracula’s daughter that it feels right in line with the mythos of this world, she is clearly the runaway hero of this film.

The film had a relatively small budget of $28 million (which is ironically pretty big for most horror films, but not a lot by general Hollywood standards), and you can feel that due to the minimal locations shown off (it’s really only the one house) and the mostly B-list casting, but for a film of this calibre, it still gets away with some large splats of gore, and even a few nice shots. While most of the cinematography by Aaron Morton is nothing new for this type of setting, the opening in particular is presented in a pretty great fashion, gifting the audience a precursor of the tone they’re about to experience through a solo dance recital that is pretty and fancy, yet also off-putting and unhinged, it really fits even if nothing in the rest of the film really matches this tone.

The score by Brian Tyler is also deceptively good, taking what would otherwise be a normal atmospheric piece of music and making it a little more interesting by including various ballet themes on occasion. Tyler as a composer has proven to be able to take pre-constructed music and add it into a score for theatrical purpose in a clever manner and this is no different, bringing a wonderfully active and cool presence to the opening and several scenes involving Abigail dancing. Ironically given the nature of the score, it does play a part in making the jump scares worse, as due to its more vocal presence, the quick dips before the jump are incredibly noticeable and therefore, make the scares even lamer, but outside of these moments, it’s a showcase of a great talent.

As a modern-day outing for a Universal monster-themed picture, Abigail isn’t a head-turner but is still a satisfying popcorn flick to check out when you want to be entertained by a blood-sucking demon of the night. It doesn’t seem like this film is pushing the needle enough to bring these characters back in a big way, but they do at least show that people are willing to experiment with these iconic faces and for the most part, they turn out something distinct and entertaining. This is a gory, flashy film that can get a little bogged down by dumb jump scares and poor scripting, but is propped up by good actors, a likeably crazy tone, and a new icon in the horror space that will live on thanks to a great performance. Silly, but definitely in a good way, this is a film worthy sinking your teeth into.