Matilda’s Alisha Weir is an absolute force in Abigail – a force of darkness, on this occasion, though you’d never know it from her pirouetting on stage to Swan Lake as the film begins. The prim ballerina of the title, who’s the pampered darling of a daddy we don’t meet, she gets chauffeured home, only to be violently kidnapped by a sextet of hard-bitten criminals out for millions in ransom money.
Big mistake. The “safe” house her abductors get is a fortified castle like something out of Universal Horror, only with a pool table and fully stocked bar. Long before realising it’s a trap, they’re on edge; with none previously acquainted, they use the names of the Rat Pack to avoid spilling their identities.
“Joey” (tough nut Melissa Barrera) sizes them all up in seconds, deducing that “Frank” (a bespectacled Dan Stevens) is a vicious ex-cop who’s gone rogue, while “Sammy” (Blockers’ great-value Kathryn Newton) is a rich girl only in it for the kicks.
Those kicks, in this horror-thriller mash-up, prove bloodier than anyone bargained for. It figures that the directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, made the last two Scream films, with the resilient Barrera following them along. We’re invited to play the game of guessing who’s first for the chop, with the added twist of that person’s head coming loose, thanks to something’s fangs.
