Looking at the poster art for ‘Abigail’, you might be thinking that you are in for a film perhaps similar to 2020’s Becky, which is a great film if you haven’t seen it. Becky tells the story of a young girl who battles house invaders and turns the tables on them to save her life (and if possible the lives of others) The poster art of Becky is similar in tone to the poster art of ‘Abigail’, but the films are very different (which isn’t a bad thing- its just a thing) Abigail was in my opinion far more of a pressure cooker character drama than an all out chaos film like Becky, but there’s definitely room to love both films, and both films I do love. But enough about Becky, this is Abigail’s time, and the time I spent with ‘Abigail’ was fantastic!

‘Abigail’, directed by Melissa Vitello ( Regression, The Sound of Settling) and written by Gunnar Garrett (the upcoming Kale V)  takes us back to Huntsville, Alabama, 1976 where Abigail ( played by Ava Cantrell) and her mother Eve (played by Succession’s Hermione Lynch ) have recently moved to in order to escape one of their ‘pasts’. Throughout the film we do learn more about this ‘past’ but for now the story is focusing on 1976 and the characters present day’s. It was quite difficult finding any still images from the film that didn’t give away what I feel are plot points that you shouldn’t know about going in before hand but I did find the image below.

The image you see above, is of Abigail and Lucas (played by Tren Reed-Brown, in his feature debut). Abigail and Lucas are neighbours and are introduced to each other early in the film by Lucas’s mother (played by Karimah Westbrook ) and strike up a friendship pretty much right from the start of the story. There is so much to like about ‘Abigail’ It has the wonderful ‘pressure cooker’ feel to it, which I love in a movie. We know that somethings going to happen, yet we don’t know what it is and when and actually if it will happen but we get that feeling of impending chaos whilst we sit back in our safe viewing rooms, watching the story play out. And play out it does in a perfectly paced, and wonderfully told story. The highlights of this film for me were the two leads, the chemistry on screen between Abigail and Lucas is something that is so relatable, that awkward feeling when you make a new friend and are getting to know them. There’s also the power dynamic in a new friendship and this plays out brilliantly on screen by Ava and Trent. We the audience like Abigail, even though we know that things are going to boil over at some point (because we have seen the axe holding girl on the cover art)  We can see that shes a little damaged, yet we want her to be healed, and the same goes for Lucas. He too is a little damaged yet we want the film to be a super happy film where Abigail and Lucas spend the days smiling and laughing and enjoying life (or at least I did). However that isn’t the film we are watching. 

‘Abigail’ is a great pot boiler character drama/thriller which certainly does a wonderful job of showcasing the talent of its cast. I had seen Ava previously in Lights Out and also some season 2 episodes of Young Sheldon, but if you want to see how talented Ava is when it comes to near shouldering a full film on her own shoulders (which she does wonderfully) then do check out ‘Abigail’ Two Thumbs Up! 

ON DIGITAL AND DVD