Marketing for movies can be difficult. Sure, trailers are fun to drive hype, but they can easily show too much of a movie. As much as people have maligned Marvel Studios for lying to us in many of theirs, it’s actually a genius idea to make the audience think they know what to expect and then pull the rug out when they get into the theater. Abigail makes the mistake of explaining the entire film in the trailers which is a letdown as not knowing the big reveal in the second act would have made it all the more interesting. Instead, we get a somewhat fun but watered down experience because we know exactly what to expect, and there are no surprises.
Abigail (Alisha Weir) appears to be like any other normal ballet-loving little girl except she has a big secret – her father is a rich and powerful crime lord in New York City which makes her an extremely valuable target. A rag-tag group of “professionals” successfully kidnap and bring her to an abandoned mansion to hold her hostage until the ransom money is paid. The group, unofficially led by former NYPD detective Frank (Dan Stevens) and Joey (Melissa Barrera), figure the job will be easy from here on out and decide to party it up until Abigail reveals who her father is which turns their sense of gaiety to dread. Fearful for their lives, they attempt to flee the house only to find themselves locked in to hold up their end of the bargain. As things start to go bump in the night, they are now convinced that her father’s highest enforcer has figured out where they are and will stop at nothing to rescue Abigail from her captors.
At times, this can be a fun little movie that plays off its horror and suspense themes well. Something seems off from the moment it starts, and that sense of unease only continues to organically grow until the story aggressively plunges into chaos. It has no problem diving into blood and gore as the hunted are gleefully dissolved into viscera from whoever is stalking them in the darkness. The setting itself eerily helps with this making it a haunted house that feels exactly as expected.
Abigail and Joey are stand outs in the cast as they bring both heart and suspense to the story. While Joey is more one-note, she is believable as someone who is recovering from the consequences of her poor decisions and is only doing this last job in order to put her past behind her. Abigail is the crux of what unfolds though, and Alisha Weir is fantastic in her portrayal of the sweet, yet enigmatic little girl.
Dan Stevens though. Oh Dan, I was able to enjoy your shenanigans in Godzilla x Kong, but here you are just annoying and grating. Yes, we get that you’re a horrible person, but you’re so over-the-top that it’s just never fun seeing you on screen. But I don’t think I can fully blame that on you as much as the script.
It’s bad. One of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. Moments are so blatantly foreshadowed that there is no way you couldn’t see them coming. Most of the dialogue is stunted and bland, and its only strong point (the twist) has no power since it was taken away by marketing.
Abigail ends up being the most honest movie I’ve ever seen in that it literally delivers exactly what is in the trailer, no more and no less. If you do have a chance to go in completely blind, I feel it will be a much more enjoyable experience for you, but barring that, its flaws overwhelm the positives. I went in rooting for this one but walked out feeling drained, and considering how exciting this could have been, it ended up being a disappointment.