On paper, 'Abigail' is a lively and bloody horror-comedy, but in reality it's a rather dull and unexpressive film whose heroine could easily become a meme on social media.

A sextet of kidnappers: former medic Joey (Melissa Barrera), ex-cop Frank (Dan Stevens), retired military man Rickles (William Catlett), dimwitted brute Peter (Kevin Durand), millennial hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), and chatty driver Dean (Angus Cloud) agree to kidnap the daughter of a local oligarch. The client promises a hefty reward: several tens of millions of dollars for each.

The kidnapping itself goes smoothly, and the girl Abigail (Alisha Weir) is taken to a quiet estate outside the city. Later, the kidnappers realize it's a trap. The entrances and exits to the estate are blocked, and Abigail is not as simple as she seems. Those who were once hunters become her prey. Now the unlucky robbers must band together to fight back and try to survive until morning. But clearly, not everyone will make it.

'Abigail' is a simple and straightforward story from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Something between 'The Exorcist' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn', though spiritually closer to their earlier hit 'Ready or Not'.

The film's exposition gives absolutely nothing away. The main mystery of who Abigail is was already revealed in the trailer and viral reels on social media. It's also immediately clear what awaits the doomed sextet of kidnappers in the end. What matters more is how the lynching unfolds and how it ultimately ends. But here, too, the filmmakers stubbornly stick to clichés and flatly refuse to make even one unconventional move. They even drag out the final carnage for an extra 15-20 minutes, adding completely alien sentimentality to this bloody attraction.

However, you don't really want to sympathize with Lady Vengeance, even though the intention is obvious from afar. Everything is too bland and forced, and you can't even rejoice at an original ending or a fresh idea that could offer a new perspective on the genre and thereby save the film, for one simple reason: neither exists in the movie.

The entertainment aspect is also not smooth. The authors clearly wasted the advance they were given in the form of a truly intriguing premise: a vampire girl performing a deadly fouetté to Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake'.

In the trailer, it looked at least fresh, but 'Abigail' ultimately fails to deliver on either comedy or horror, resembling a mediocre horror quest that cosplays all vampire movies at once. The only thing Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett excel at is the computer and practical effects. At times, it's quite nauseating, but necessary to maintain the required intensity in the film. The form, clearly borrowed here and there (mostly from established masters), dominates the content in 'Abigail', and the directors can easily be accused of passive copying. But perhaps that's exactly the effect they were aiming for—so that no one takes the film too seriously. The problem is that it doesn't register at all.

The filmmakers do have one fairly accurate hit. That's 14-year-old actress Alisha Weir. She is both the kidnapping victim and the kidnappers' nightmare, professionally combining childlike naivety with a truly cybernetic relentlessness in pursuing and punishing the next unfortunate soul. Such a fierce mix, coupled with dances in the spirit of 'Wednesday' and , has every prerequisite to become an internet meme, which could potentially grow into a sequel or even a crossover. Thanks to such a far-sighted move, this theme can be exploited endlessly, churning out one film after another.

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Nevertheless, 'Abigail' still deserves at least a single viewing. For example, because of the successful casting for the role and the semi-obvious idea that children sometimes need more attention and shouldn't be showered with gifts while parental attention is stolen. Otherwise, the consequences will be such that you'll be tired of cleaning up.

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