The Dark Universe was a planned series of monster movies distributed by Universal Pictures. It was supposed to be a reboot of the Universal Monster movies and have a shared universe. This unfortunately didn’t work out. Still, Universal has been able to put out monster movies such as Renfield and The Invisible Man. With Abigail, their newest film, they succeed with another home run.
Abigail is the story of a group of people kidnapping a young girl to make money. Unfortunately, they don’t know that this is no ordinary little girl. Abigail is a ballerina vampire who has the group right where she wants them. This is a funny, insanely gory hell of a good time.
The Story
The best thing about Abigail is that it knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be, for at least 98 percent of the time. We start off the film with pretty good character development. We learn about our characters and pretty quickly we can tell them apart. We spend time with well-written dialogue and good humor that we almost forget this is a horror comedy. This is a compliment as I could have spent more time with these characters in a different movie.
Abigail may not be a scary horror film, but how entertaining it is is impressive. You see the trailer and think you know what you are getting yourself into. You don’t. There are plenty of fun surprises and twists to go around. If you are looking for a frightening horror film, this may not be for you, but it never tries to be that type of film. It is full of cheese and schlock in the best way possible. This is not to say it’s cheap. It just delivers a great time and does not take itself so seriously.
The Acting/Effects
The cast of the movie is phenomenal. We have Melissa Barrera, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Dan Stevens, and more. Each actor brings something to the table and you can tell they are having fun with what they are given to do. Everyone is given the chance to shine with well-written comedy and just given the chance to let loose.
Dan Stevens is a standout for sure as the unhinged ex-cop. He chews almost every scene he is in and it sure is glorious. Alisha Weir steals the movie as Abigail. The young girl is one to watch for sure because she is a star. You can’t take your eyes off of her as she rips apart the cast while showing off her moves.
I said earlier that the movie knows exactly what it wants to be 98 percent of the time. The only complaint is there is a subplot about Melissa Barrera’s character having a son. This is fine, but she has a monologue about him and on one hand, if the filmmakers meant for this to be included with the cheese, it’s fine but that doesn’t seem like the case. This is a small nitpick but for some reason, Melissa Barrera and monologues don’t mesh. It didn’t in Scream 5 and doesn’t here.
Overall
Abigail is not here to scare you. It is here to entertain through great set pieces, great characters, and some fun over-the-top kills. The Dark Universe may not have worked out but it is great to see Universal stick with releasing these types of movies and putting care into them. Abigail is a hit for sure and will be rewatched again and again.
