ABIGAIL (2023)

 

Directed By: Melissa Vitello 

Written By: Gunnar Garrett

Cinematography: Bryan Ricke

Editor: Michael S. Ojeda 

Cast: Ava Cantrell, Tren Reed-Brown, Gene Farber, Hermione Lynch, Karina Westbrook, Yanni Walker, Trace Talbot, Patrick Hilgart, Meredith Vivian 

In 1976 a troubled teen befriends her bullied neighbor, seeking revenge on his tormentors, but her obsession turns deadly.

The Film starts off as a coming-of-age film that seems like it will be about revenge before it takes several turns and becomes something totally different not outrageous but a little bit harder to label. At first, it seems like it could be more of a backwoods BECKY type of film. Only with less action and more horror.

This is an odd little film. It starts off as a revenge tale of Justice, and then there are several twists and turns by the end you were wondering, if the title character is truly an antihero or truly just a sociopath and psychopath, even though the film tries to hint at her maybe just being misjudged. 

As throughout the victims in the film, I’m not going to say they’re the greatest people, but it does feel a little excessive for what is doubt to them by logic. Maybe that’s justified though there is truly only one innocent victim. It seems and the film seems to have no sympathy for them. 

luckily, the movie gets to the point very fast and maybe it’s just my nature but there just seems to be some kind of element missing as the story is a bit more original than you would expect and there’s nothing wrong with the follow-through but there’s like little things that mess with the mixture like there’s really no reason why this film is set in the 1970s except maybe they wanted an absence of technology, but considering it takes place in a small southern town, it could’ve been modern and the characters didn’t have certain amenities

And in its own way you could call this a slasher film that takes its time where we get to know the slasher not necessarily their origins, but we see their kind of upbringing or a little bit after their start.

The film isn’t necessarily gory, nor does it involve any nudity or sex, so you can’t exactly call it exploitative even though when it’s DNA, it has the makings of one. There are several times where it does feel a bit campy sometimes on purpose other times not necessarily and the acting isn’t always the best but it’s good enough to keep your interest while it plays. 

Grace: C