Radio Silence creators Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet deliver a slightly underwhelming, but endlessly entertaining re-imagining on 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter.
After kidnapping the daughter of an important crime lord, a group of criminals slowly realize that they’ve kidnapped the daughter of Dracula.
Acting as a modern re-telling, Abigail deviates greatly from its source material. In many ways it functions as a fun, modern vampire story. However, its lacklustre writing and slow third act let down the whole picture.
“I’m sorry about what’s gonna happen to you”
In the last year, there has been three different interpretations of the classic universal version of Dracula. Last year the campy Renfield starring Nicolas cage was released, as well as the slightly underwhelming The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
Abigail is just as campy as Renfield and has better scares than The Last Voyage of the Demeter. The issue with Abigail is that it doesn’t lean into either comedy or horror hard enough.
Comedy-horrors have been on the rise in the last decade, and with Radio Silence making their debut with 2019’s Ready or Not, the studio made it clear that they were able to balance both tones, perfectly.
Most recently, the directorial duo directed Scream (2022) and Scream VI. Coming off of the heels of both of those films, the duo were able to put a lot of the lessons they learned when making those films into Abigail.
The group of criminals, affectionately called “The Rat-Pack”, all stand out from one another. Each has clear traits and identities, but they do fall into the stereotypical horror roles. You’ve got the wise-cracking final girl to the annoying first kill character – they’re all here.
The actors behind the roles are all pretty great. Mellisa Barrera does a great job as lead character Joey, and the late Angus Cloud plays the aggravating, but strangely lovable Dean very well.
The true stand out is Abigail herself, Alisha Weir. At only 14 years old, she is able to play an incredibly endearing and terrifying vampire. She bounces from terrified little girl to scheming psychopath with all the grace of a vampire ballerina.
Staying with the usual Radio Silence formula, the violence and gore is over the top. People explode, heads fly off, and a chest is stabbed with a crucifix. It’s all very campy but the effects are truly top notch. Every single character gets covered in blood at some point.
“What can I say, I like to play with my food”
The main issue I have with Abigail is the pacing. Its almost-two-hour run time is never justified, with roughly 20 minutes of the film feeling unnecessary.
Clocking in at just under one hour and 50 minutes, Abigail moves slowly in the beginning and rushes towards a very slow end, with Abigail only becoming a vampire almost 40 minutes in.
A longer run time could have worked, but the multiple scenes of overly obnoxious exposition about the lead characters back grounds drag it down.
Another problem is the third act as a whole, without going into spoilers, the film does a complete 180 and becomes a campy action movie like Blade until the credits roll.
It feels completely out of place compared the genuine scares the beginning of the film used.
There is genuine fun to be had with Abigail. A notable moment involves a group of characters attempting to figure out what kind of vampire Abigail is, which was a lot of fun.
But for every fun scene, there are three lacklustre ones that follow. Jokes don’t land, payoffs are fairly obvious, and character writing is spotty.
“I f*cking hate ballet“
Abigail isn’t a bad film by any means, it’s just one that has been done better before.
As someone who loves everything Radio Silence has put out so far, I was slightly underwhelmed by Abigail. It was fun to watch but it overstayed its welcome.
I’d wait to see this one on a streaming service, if I had to recommend it.
Featured Image Credit: Ign.com
Fourth year Film and Journalism student
Deputy editor
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