Abigail

Ready or Not meets Jaroslav Soukup's The Vampire Wedding and, purely subjectively, The Usual Suspects (if Abigail profiles everyone from the elevator cage like Kobayashi once did at the pool table, then Giancarlo Esposito is Agent Baer and Matthew Goode is Keyser Söze)! It has issues with pacing and creativity, and the interesting cast didn't really push themselves beyond wiping gallons of fake blood off their skin (Kevin Durand's dullard doesn't work, and surprisingly neither does Dan Stevens with sharper teeth), but as a visually appealing Dracula story with Pink-Red Swan vibes, it doesn't quite drain your blood despite the slightly overlong runtime. "I fucking hate ballet!" (05/15/2024)

It's exactly what you imagine it will be. I must add, however, that the running time is quite unwarranted with such a simple plot, revealed by the trailer and synopsis. In fact, there are zero surprises here, and many elements look very familiar in the filmography of these filmmakers. I have nothing against filmmakers repeating schemes and ideas that have worked for them before, but I'm a little worried whether Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have run out of steam as writers. Either way, Kevin Durand should be cast more often and in bigger productions! (05/26/2024)

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, from Radio Silence, deliver their tried and tested recipe once again. Why change something that works. Here we have a group of thieves who kidnap a little girl and are tasked with guarding her for 24 hours in a huge mansion, but what seems like an easy job soon will cost them their lives – they have no idea whose daughter Abigail is. A very likeable cast (I enjoyed the original introduction to the characters, where Melissa Barrera uses details to identify everyone like Sherlock Holmes), the big surprise is Kevin Durand, who is a very funny insert throughout the film, and it was nice to see Dan Stevens as well. The film has a very fast pace, nice visuals, effective jokes, it's decently suspenseful, there a few twists and turns at the end, and it's also decently gory (the house ends up painted in blood from the roof to the basement, so evil can't be pissed) The final explosion was literally a gore epic!!! Too bad the atmosphere doesn't work much and some of the vampire rules change to serve the script, but never mind that, it's the cool ride that they promised, and delivered. Quite possibly the best Vampire movie of recent years? And if you doubt about it, give me a better choice. 8/10. (04/26/2024)

I usually enjoy Dracula themes, but this one really missed the mark for me. Radio Silence basically rehashed their excellent Ready or Not, but this formula doesn't work as well with more annoying characters and a vampire twist. Abigail feels like a stale mess, and not even the excellent Dan Stevens could save it. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett will need to seriously impress with their next project to make up for this disappointment. (07/14/2024)

The film delivers what the trailer promised - it offers neither a hair more nor a hair less. A seamlessly filmed, comedy-horror gory showdown between a bunch of thugs and a little vampire ballerina in an old-fashioned family mansion. My enjoyment is practically spoiled by a couple of things that basically stem from the fact that the Radio Silence duo have done something almost identical before (and better). Ready or Not remains unsurpassed, having offered a more likeable and charismatic protagonist in particular, as well as slightly more imaginative plot motifs. Abigail is four-fifths of the way through, behind the viewer who saw the trailer. It's not until the very end that a few twists happen that you don't necessarily expect. (04/20/2024)