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A twin try to breathe life into the vampire and haunted-house genres, “Abigail” might have been referred to as “Don’t Inform Mother the Child I’m Babysitting’s Lifeless.” The straightforward premise, nevertheless, turns into an efficient little horror movie, a bit strained towards the tip, however till then a intelligent and ingenious tackle six folks actually simply attempting to make it by means of the evening.
In fact, the kid vampire has a well-established historical past, together with the creepy Swedish movie “Let the Proper One In” and an American remake, “Let Me In.” Common has additionally sought to proceed wringing contemporary blood out of its monster properties, giving rise to a blended bag that features “Renfield” and “The Last Voyage of the Demeter.”
“Abigail” owes maybe a extra pertinent debt to the “Scream” franchise, which occurs to be beneath the inventive stewardship of the directing workforce behind this film, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, right here working from a screenplay by Stephen Shields and Man Busick. As well as, they’re reunited with “Scream” star Melissa Barrera, whose political feedback prompted her split from that franchise, heading a forged that features Angus Cloud, the late actor greatest recognized for “Euphoria.”
Barrera and Cloud are joined by Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand and William Catlett because the workforce of anonymous crooks thrown collectively to kidnap a 12-year-old lady, a ballerina given the code identify Tiny Dancer, a.okay.a. Abigail (Alisha Weir, who performed one other uncommon child – if a much less bloodthirsty one – in Netflix’s “Matilda the Musical”).
The promised payoff from their handler (Giancarlo Esposito) is a $50-million ransom, to be extracted from the kid’s rich father. All of the sextet should do, they’re instructed, is maintain the child firm for twenty-four hours in a secluded mansion with out cellphones to keep away from the temptation of constructing contact with the surface world.
Easy sufficient, till dangerous issues begin taking place, making the group marvel first who the lady’s father is likely to be, and subsequently how any individual appears to be selecting them off within the goriest style potential.
Though there’s an apparent system to this type of fare, the filmmakers do their greatest to play with that, weaving in some fairly humorous (and infrequently ominous) dialogue associated to the absurdity of the entire state of affairs. Whereas that ultimately results in at the least one wrinkle too many, by then “Abigail” has delivered sufficient of what audiences anticipate, plus a number of surprises.
To the extent that’s completed and not using a complete lot of pointless exposition, or extreme rule-breaking when it comes to understood parameters of vampire lore, the film overcomes an concept that frankly seemed hard-pressed to be stretched a lot past the two-minute coming sights.
Chalk it up maybe to modest expectations, however by that measure “Abigail” largely makes the fitting steps, and by the point it’s over, that tiny dancer, and her captors, have had a busy day certainly.
“Abigail” premieres April 19 in US theaters. It’s rated R.