STARRING: Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud and Giancarlo Esposito. Written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Budget $28 million. Running time 109 minutes.
A group of professional criminals, lead by Frank (Dan Stevens), Peter the muscle (Kevin Durand), Sammy the hacker (Kathryn Newton), Joey the medic (Melissa Barrera), Rickles the sniper (Will Catlett) and Dean the driver (Angus Cloud) are hired by criminal mastermind Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to kidnap Abi (Alisha Weir) the ballet-loving daughter of a super wealthy man and keep her hostage for 24 hours while they wait for the ransom to be paid.
Holding up in a mysterious country house, the gang soon begin to realise that something isn't right when one of their number is discovered horrifically and gorily butchered and that they're sealed inside the house with something that wants to eat them.
What that thing is and why they've been chosen is delightfully revealed over the next 109 minutes in fantastically gruesome detail, mixing a funny, but not OTT script, with a very likeable bunch of characters, a superb set, and some brilliant practical special effects subtly augmented with CGI.
I sadly missed this at the cinema, which is a shame cos it would be one of my favourite films of the year. I've begun of late to think that I was growing tired of the cinema and that I could no longer enjoy something so downright and outrageously enjoyable as Abigail, and I'm delighted to have discovered that I can still sit through something like this and bloody love every single second of it!
I've not enjoyed a film this much, nor found one so satisfying in a long time. For me this is what a good film can be, something that doesn't need to be desconstructed or analysed to the Nth degree, something that's just bloody enjoyable, end of! And Abigail is that, indeed I've not had this much fun since 2020's The Hunt.
The great thing about Abigail is how it develops over its running time, changing from a standard crime caper, to locked in a house horror film, before changing gear again for a deeply satisfying ending with a very funny final line from our sole survivor.
This takes the old, tired vampire genre and gives it a much needed shot in the arm, making vampires exactly what they should be, disgusting blood-sucking monsters!
As gory as hell, as funny as fuck, but never to the detriment of the story, and a satisfying film plot to boot.
Stake through the heart recommend!
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments, unless they're how to make money working from home, are gratefully received.