Aqib Rasheed
Directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known as Radio Silence, have carved a nice niche for themselves. Emerging on the scenes with the 2019 sleeper hit Ready or Not, these two have become the premier horror-comedy directors of the past 10 years. After Ready or Not, Radio Silence revived the Scream franchise with 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI, both of which are quite good. Their latest—another horror-comedy and a reimagining of 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter—Abigail is in line with all their previous endeavors, for better and worse. When Abigail lets loose and gets gross, it’s a bunch of fun. When Abigail gets bogged down in exposition and lore, it’s less interesting.
Mysterious boss Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito of The Mandalorian) recruits a group of kidnappers to kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a wealthy man. The group doesn’t know each other and refers to each other as names from the Rat Pack. The group is told to watch the girl in a secure house for 24 hours, after which they will be handsomely rewarded. What Joey (Scream alum Melissa Barrera), Frank (Dan Stevens, seen down the multiplex in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), Sammy (Lisa Frankenstein‘s Kathryn Newton), Rickles (William Catlett), Peter (Kevin Durand), and Dean (Angus Cloud) don’t know is that Abigail (Alisha Weir of Wicked Little Letters), the girl they kidnapped, is also a centuries-old, bloodthirsty vampire.
The logline alone—kidnappers get trapped with a murderous child vampire—makes it very clear this has the makings of a Radio Silence film. They can get creative with vampire kills by using a ton of blood and gore. Also, they can use that over-the-top violence and absurd premise, and add comedy into the narrative. Without the Scream franchise or mythology hovering over them, they could get as creative as they wanted with Abigail.
Radio Silence’s job doesn’t start smoothly as the movie’s opening act is clunky and filled with unnecessary exposition. The trailers give away the gimmick of Abigail being a vampire, so it makes sense to get to that point as quickly as you can. The audience is there to see some gnarly kills and Abigail takes too long to get to that. The kidnappers emphasize anonymity but we still get a long scene where each of their pasts has to be revealed. Even when Abigail is revealed to be a vampire, the movie moves too slowly into becoming a haunted house flick.
However, when Abigail turns into a kidnappers vs. child vampire movie, it’s a total blast. Everything that made Ready or Not or the two new Scream movies a hoot is in (most) of the last two-thirds of this romp. Between preposterous kills, limbs being torn apart, and gallons of blood spewing, this movie has it all. These sequences are as gross as they are funny. You can’t help but laugh at how committed to the bit Radio Silence is. This determination is what sets them apart from other horror directors and why I am a big fan of their movies.
The characters in Radio Silence films are self-aware but not in an annoying Ryan Reynolds-esque way. These people acknowledge the ridiculous nature of the situations they are in but still act within the walls of a movie. To some, their movies may seem glib and indulgent (and Abigail may get too glib at times), but I think they walk the line better than most. Not to mention, they don’t bother with making prestige or trauma-based horror that all scary movies seem to employ these days. Not saying there isn’t room for those, but horror movies should be fun and lively—something Radio Silence has been doing for years.
Just as the directors are committed to the horror-comedy bit, they find actors who are as dedicated. They reunite with Melissa Barrera after two Scream movies and she has carved out a role as a reliable and strong final girl. It’s good to see Barrera on the screen after she was unfairly fired for speaking out against the genocide in the Middle East. I hope we continue to see more of her and in more Radio Silence movies. The rest of the cast is having a good time, even though they’re given light characterization to work with.
Alisha Weir gives a wacky performance as the titular Abigail, though I would have liked to see her venture into madness a bit earlier. I also think they could’ve leaned into the ballerina killings way more than they do. Kathryn Newton, Giancarlo Esposito, and Angus Cloud are game for whatever is asked of them, and Dan Stevens shines in the last 20 minutes.
Ready or Not and the Scream movies have a pacing issue where most of the kills and gore happen in quick succession and Abigail is no different. There are stretches in Abigail where there is very little action and no deaths and then, all of a sudden, four people might die in eight minutes. It seems odd to say, but a more balanced approach to the eventual deaths could have helped the pacing of the movies and caused less of a whiplash effect. And, just like the opening 10-15 minutes, Abigail goes on for 10-15 minutes too long. I’m not sure why, but the directors felt they needed to add some sloppy lore to the end and connect it back to Dracula’s Daughter. This drags the movie and could have easily been edited out.
Even with its issues, I had a great time watching Abigail. Sometimes, you want a 100-minute movie where a ballerina vampire rips off people’s heads and Radio Silence delivers that. It’s not perfect and may even pale in comparison to their other films. Neverthless, this is their third straight year giving us a horror-comedy that’s a good time at the movies. I hope we get one of these every year. I hope they’re full of blood, gore, and hilarious kills. Most importantly, I hope Radio Silence is behind the camera.
