Abigail: A Rollercoaster of Emotions
“Abigail” is a film directed by Radio Silence, the duo formed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and it’s a real rollercoaster of emotions. The film begins as a thriller in the style of “Reservoir Dogs” or “The Usual Suspects”, featuring six criminals looking to get rich quick.
Following information from a mysterious organiser called Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), the gang kidnaps a 12-year-old girl (Alisha Weir plays the title character). The plan is to extort the girl’s wealthy father, demanding a whopping $50 million in ransom. All they have to do is watch the girl in a crumbling old mansion for 24 hours. There’s just one problem… the kidnapped girl is actually an almost indestructible vampire with a passion for slitting necks and the ballet “Swan Lake”.
Upon discovering this terrible secret, the film takes a complete change of pace, suddenly transforming into a bloody horror full of twists and turns.
Although Abigail’s true identity was revealed in the first trailer, this project that mixes film genres still has a number of unexpected twists in store, keeping the suspense until the very end.
Abigail’s Ending Explained
As we discover, there was never any ransom demand. The kidnappers were simply lured to the mansion because they all angered Abigail’s powerful father, Kristof Lazar. He is a feared figure in the underworld, with a reputation a la Keyser Söze among those unfortunates who know his name.
One by one, the criminals are eliminated by Abigail. With only Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Frank (Dan Stevens) left, they try to take refuge in the mansion’s library, seeking protection in the rays of sunlight coming through the windows.
But night is fast approaching and there isn’t much time to come up with an escape plan. They seem absolutely lost until a secret door hidden behind a bookcase opens, leading the pair to a control room. There, they meet Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), who has been monitoring them all along, just like in “The Cabin in the Woods”.
It turns out that Abigail turned Lambert into a vampire two years ago, forcing him to lure his father’s enemies to be wiped out. Despite having gained immortality and supernatural abilities, Lambert is tired of catering to the whims of a little girl and her father. He incapacitates Joey and offers Frank a diabolical pact: become a vampire and help take control of Lazar’s empire, or die.
Frank accepts the deal, but as soon as he gets his vampire fangs, he betrays Lambert, driving a stake through his heart and killing him. Soon afterwards, Abigail appears, declaring that their game of cat and mouse is over. She attacks Frank, who bites her on the neck, apparently killing her too.
On regaining consciousness, Joey tries to flee back to the library, but finds the door locked. Realising that she will probably die soon, she leaves an emotional message on her estranged son Caleb’s voicemail.
Frank catches up with her and, now driven mad by power, vows to turn her into an undead to obey his orders. His first objective? To get her to kill her own son in front of him. He throws her from side to side, culminating in an impalement on the shoulder.
Abigail returns, informing him that the only way to permanently kill a vampire is to completely drain its blood. Frank still manages to subdue the girl before turning his attention to Joey. He bites her on the neck and puts a stake in her hand, ordering the ex-Army doctor to finish Abigail off.
Joey, apparently in a vampiric trance, walks slowly towards the girl, but then turns round in the hope of defeating Frank, whose reflexes are too fast. Fortunately, Abigail joins the fight and, together with Joey, immobilises Frank.
The 12-year-old teases the new vampire, explaining that you can’t just control your victims on their first day of immortality, it takes a long time “to learn how to do all the cool stuff.” They drive the stake through Frank’s heart, which explodes, freeing Joey from the undead curse.
A grateful Abigail allows Joey to leave, expressing her hope that her mother will be able to reunite with Caleb. Speaking from centuries of neglect, Abigail asserts that all a parent really needs to do is be present in their child’s life. Before Joey can leave the library, however, his father arrives.
The character is played by Watchmen actor Matthew Goode, and although he goes by “Lazar” these days, he has apparently used various nicknames over the centuries, basically suggesting that he is Dracula.
The father wants to feed on Joey, but Abigail defends her, confronting her emotionally distant father for the first time in a long time. “She was here when you weren’t,” says the girl. Lazar reluctantly gives in and allows Joey to leave, hinting that she’d better get out of there because “it’s getting pretty close to dinner time”. Without having to listen twice, a shaken Joey gets into the van parked outside the house and drives off, enjoying a lollipop from her stash of sweets.
Will there be a sequel to Abigail?
In a recent interview with SYFY WIRE during the film’s official press event, “Abigail” co-director Tyler Gillett commented on the film’s open ending:
“It’s a fun question that we don’t really think about. I think that’s because we try to approach every film we make as a closed story. For us, as audience members, you can sense when something amazing has been left out to be used later. We’re not fans of that. If something excites us and feels like it should be in the film, we do everything we can to make sure it is. And at the end of the day, we love the idea of a story that lives on off-screen, stimulating the audience’s imagination as they leave the cinema. For us, sometimes that’s more valuable than telling that specific story. But we love for you to see an opening. That means we create enough interesting characters to make you want to know what happens next.”
One of my biggest regrets with this film is that Joey doesn’t become a vampire,” Barrera told SYFY WIRE in a separate interview. “So if we do a sequel, I would just ask Joey to turn. You know, she’s been bitten, so there’s that chance. And I’d love to work with Alisha again. It would be amazing.”
Abigail is currently showing in cinemas around the world.
