Jakarta. The 2024 movie “Abigail” -- directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett -- tries to stand out in the horror scene by mixing vampire ballerina and some comedy, but somehow the film falls flat as seen in the recent special screening.

Meet Abigail (Alisha Weir): a seemingly harmless yet affluent girl whom a group of six try to kidnap for ransom. We have former Army medic and recovering drug addict Joey (Melissa Barrera) in the group, who serves as the movie’s protagonist. Joining Joey in the kidnapping are former NYPD detective Frank (Dan Stevens), rich hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), sociopathic driver Dean (Angus Cloud), and ex-Marine Rickles (Will Catlett). The gang also has mob enforcer Peter (Kevin Durand). While all they have to do is to babysit Abigail in an old manor for 24 hours until Papa pays the ransom money, it is only later when they find out that the girl is the daughter of Kristof Lazar (Matthew Goode), the feared crime lord and possibly Dracula himself. 

And this is when the vampire ballerina Abigail fights back the criminals in a style reminiscent of the classic “Home Alone”, although the movie “Abigail” lacks the wittiness and fun that “Home Alone” has. 

In the first half of the movie, you do not see much of the titular character Abigail. The beginning mainly focuses on the story-building around the six kidnappers before Abigail tries to kill them one by one. But it takes quite a while before we see some action. When these “long-awaited” fight scenes do appear, they turn out to be mediocre at best. Post-vampire-Abigail-revelation, the story feels like a hot mess that drags on. “Abigail” does not have many jump scares, and mostly relies on blood and gore for some horror element. 

Being a horror comedy, humor should have been among the movie’s strongest suits. But again, the jokes are often a hit-or-miss. The movie tries to make Peter the comic relief. But again, sometimes his lines feel forced. The same goes for most of the one-liners by the rest of the characters. 

“Abigail” is not entirely bad. I do find the scene of Sammy -- who has turned into a vampire -- having a “dance-off” with Abigail entertaining, although not enough to save the movie from criticism. The young ballerina at the time is controlling Sammy from afar. Instead of the Swan Lake song, the movie plays more upbeat music -- which somewhat fits Sammy's carefree personality. The dance moves are also more modern, different from the usual ballerina Abigail. 

The theatrical release poster actually makes the movie appear to hold promise. The idea of having a vampire ballerina as the big bad is quite refreshing. But “Abigail”, which is now playing in Indonesian theaters, fails to meet those expectations as it turns out to be a generic horror comedy. 

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