#squeamish

gore(?) meat warning

“Abigail”

I saw Abigail last night at an early screening. I enjoyed it, it’s a bloody good romp of a vampire movie. Alisha Weir plays the ballerina vampire. She’s 14 but looks maybe 10 or 11. (By the way, Weir was also excellent in 2022’s movie musical Matilda.)

The premise is that 6 criminals are hired to kidnap a young girl and hold her for 24 hours until they are paid $50M in ransom from her mega rich father. But will any of them survive to collect their payday?

The two main bad guys are played by Dan Brown and Melissa Barrera. Of course Brown is best known for playing prime and proper Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey. He’s fun here as a former cop gone bad. (Is he using a Queens New York accent?)

Barrera has been in the news lately for being fired from the cast of the next Scream movie. (Barrera spoke out against the treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza which wasn’t considered Kosher by the powers that be in Hollywood.) Besides Weir, she’s clearly the focus of the movie and I think she’s good.

The plot pretty much involves: Act 1: the kidnapping and introduction of the characters; Act 2: they discover who/what Abigail really is and try to back out of the deal; Act 3: Lots of blood and mayhem - the movie is Rated R for a reason.

At some point I was reminded of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. That was deliberate because later that book is a minor plot point.

Overall I think it’s well paced but towards the end there’s a little too much Monologging. But it quickly gets back to the explosive climax that directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin Tyler Gillett are known for. (If you saw their 2022 film Ready or Not you’ll known what I mean.)

Abigail is not for the squeamish but if you enjoy vampire movies, check it out.

Speedart under the cut :)

Now, just yesterday, I spent all day looking at corpses from various homicides-- and let me tell you-- I got some great sleep and ate a 3 course meal afterwards.