Vicious vampire kids with a thirst for death and destruction have long been an entertaining staple in horror. Abigail, a comedy-horror from Ready Or Not and Scream-reboot directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, toys with both the melancholy of being forever young (as portrayed so memorably by Kirsten Dunst in Interview with the Vampire) and the outright amount of fun to be had with the concept of a bloodsucking tween.
When ballerina vampire Abigail (Alisha Weir from Matilda fame being a little bit more than naughty) is kidnapped by a gang of criminals and relocated to a creepy mansion that turns into an inescapable fortress complete with metal shutters all hell breaks loose.
Melissa Barrera leads a great ensemble cast of actors as smart ex-army medic Joey who deduces who her anonymous co-workers are with a Poirot-like sensibility. She’s joined by Frank (the ever-wonderful Dan Stevens as an ex-cop with Serpico style dress-sense and reasons for leaving the force), ex-military man Rickles (William Catlett), rich-girl hacker (Kathryn Newton once again being hilarious), hired muscle with a heart Peter (Kevin Durand) and the driver (played by the late Angus Cloud).
There are meta references to vampire film lore including Twilight and the classic Universal horror Dracula. The film plays with expectations by ripping up the book on certain tropes and creatively using Swan Lake throughout. It’s a thrilling and laugh-out-loud funny bloodbath of a film directed with infectious gusto by the duo of directors who slather the screen with innards and an enormous amount of splatter and effectively turn up the sound design to eleven for a fully immersive and visceral horror house experience. The screenplay co-written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick has plenty of tricks up its sleeve and is a pleasingly silly combination of Agatha Christie meets The Lost Boys with a sprinkling of Saw-style game-playing and decapitations.
Abigail is out now in cinemas. Read our interviews with Abigail stars Kevin Durand and William Catlett here.
