Review by C.J. Bunce
M3GAN. Orphan. Maggie. The Clearing. Glitch. Wednesday. If you like supernatural, ghosts, and altogether scary tales, it’s hard to beat the creepy little girl trope. From The Shining to The Ring to this year’s latest surprise vampire horror flick Abigail, nothing will cause you to duck under your arm more than those we assume to be innocent as the bad guy. If mixing the beauty of a lovely ballerina perfecting her work on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with bad guys getting revenge on other bad guys in a supernatural operatic bloodbath might be your thing, you’ll want to check out the 2024 theatrical release Abigail, now streaming on Peacock.
Although the trailers give away the key surprises, Abigail for starters is a vampire gore fest starring Scream’s Melissa Barrera, Freaky’s Kathryn Newton, Legion’s Dan Stevens, The Mandalorian’s Giancarlo Esposito, familiar horror face Kevin Durand, and young Alisha Weir as Abigail, the daughter of one of the nation’s wealthiest individuals, abducted for ransom.
The first two acts of the movie stick to the stuff of mainstream horror, the new Blumhouse style we’ve seen in films from M3GAN to Happy Death Day, to Freaky and The Black Phone. But the third act goes into more of that operatic bloodbath style found more in the slasher genre. This is for fans of The Orphan and Orphan: First Kill, Ready or Not, and M3GAN. It follows many of the horror beats of Ready or Not, thanks to the shared horror directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, also known for their work on the Scream franchise.
What makes Abigail something different is the set-up as an action movie with all the character types of a heist movie. Dan Stevens is a little bland as the designated leader, but it’s really Melissa Barrera in the driver’s seat, with Kathryn Newton, fresh off of starring in Lisa Frankenstein (and veteran of Freaky) who gets the best opportunities to shine as the quirky tech gal. It’s also a locked room mystery that at times conjures the vibes of a spooky Clue/Cluedo meets Scooby-Doo minus the comedy.
Guy Busick and Stephen Shields’ script works harder than your average horror movie at building layers and backstory. It’s nice to see, but also bogs down the third act. You may have seen The Offer’s Matthew Goode in the billing, but he only shows up for a brief scene. That said, the scene is a great set-up for a sequel. Abigail is on par with The Orphan, and if The Orphan rated a sequel, so should this.
We’ve discussed the creepy little girls trope many times before, found front and center in scary flicks with one or more creepy little girls–enough that we defined its own sub-genre–and not only do we acknowledge them we recommend them, too. From Poltergeist to The Ring to The Exorcist, Let Me In, Paranormal Activity 3, The Watcher in the Woods, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, The Sixth Sense, The Shining, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Alphabet Killer, We Are What We Are, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Turn of the Screw, House at the End of the Street, The Orphan and Orphan: First Kill, Crimson Peak, The Others, and The Woman in Black… they give us the heebie geebies, but if we want to see something that gets us to lift up our feet in the theater seats, it seems the secret weapon for filmmakers is clear, and Abigail is a worthy addition to this very strange subset of films.
