4/5 stars
“I’m sorry about what’s going to happen to you,” says Abigail (Alisha Weir), the 12-year-old ballerina-loving, butter-wouldn’t-melt moppet at the heart of this twisty, knockabout horror-thriller. Talk about a chilling moment.
Kidnapped by a team of pros – all going by fake names – Abigail is brought to an isolated house, where the mastermind of the scheme, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), is waiting. A hefty US$50 million ransom is the prize. All this gang needs to do is wait out 24 hours and guard Abigail.
A mother-of-one, Joey (Melissa Barrera) is given the task of communicating with the girl, who is blindfolded and tied to the bed. The rest of them only need to keep the house on lockdown.
But it swiftly becomes evident Abigail is no ordinary offspring. Her father is a big-time criminal kingpin, a man so powerful he is practically an urban legend. And she? It turns out that Abigail is a bloodthirsty vampire. Suddenly, it’s a matter of survival at all costs for these would-be extorters.
They clearly know how to ramp up the tension in confined spaces, and it works like a charm here, as the gang begin to turn on each other. Among them are Dan Stevens’ ex-police officer Frank, Kevin Durand’s muscle Peter, Kathryn Newton’s hacker Sammy, William Catlett’s ex-military Rickles and Angus Cloud’s wheelman Dean.
With a neat little nod to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – which sees eight guests arrive on an isolated island before the shenanigans start – as well as music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Abigail really picks up as the titular vampire bares her fangs.
The undead mythology, and the proliferation of vampire films, is also amusingly riffed on. Sammy comments whether it is a case of True Blood, Twilight or Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire as they deliberate over whether to use stakes, garlic or crucifixes to take down Abigail.
Credit is due to Irish actress Alisha Weir, who previously starred in Matilda: The Musical and here gives a remarkably physical turn as the preteen who is seemingly just toying with her captors.
