The Reel Rejects - ABIGAIL (2024) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!
Episode Date: September 19, 2024THIS ONE WENT HARD!! Abigail Full Movie Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelreje...cts?lang=en Now that Roxy & Tara have conquered the Friday the 13th Series, mixing it up this Horror Thursday as John Humphrey & Roxy Striar (aka RonJoxy) reunite to give their FIRST TIME Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Breakdown, & Full Movie Spoiler Review for the Vampire Horror / Thriller from V/H/S & Scream Directors, Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpi& Tyler Gillett) starring Melissa Barrera (Scream VI, In the Heights), Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong, Beauty and the Beast, The Guest, Eurovision), William Catlett (Black Lightning), Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Alisha Weir (Matilda: The Musical), & Kevin Durand (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), & the late Angus Cloud (Euphoria) as a group of criminals who kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, only to discover she's much more than she seems... Alisha Weir (Matilda: The Musical) stars as the titular Abigail along with Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian), and MORE! John & Roxy REACT to all the Best Scenes & Scariest Moments including Melissa Barrera's Epic Vampire Fight Scene, Giancarlo Esposito: Vampire Scene, Kathryn Newton's Hilarious Vampire Dance Scene, Matthew Goode Is Dracula Scene, This Ballerina Vampire Has Me SCREAMING! Scene, Creepy Little Girl's Headless Dance Scene, & Beyond! Follow Roxy Striar YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhirlGirls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxystriar/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/roxystriar Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad: Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM: FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Roxanne
Yeah, buddy
You got anything else to tell the people
Before we roll this thing
Abigail, let's go
Abigail, let's go
Roll the bump
We abigailed
Yeah, we did
How you feeling?
I mean, the movie's awesome
They did such a great job with it
And the cast rocks too
It was pretty sick.
It was pretty sick.
Yeah, I have like so many thoughts right now.
I mean, I'm a huge Angus Cloud fan.
So that was so sad.
It turned me into an Angus Cloud fan.
He's amazing.
He was such an unbelievable talent.
And it just was so, so sad.
So even just at the end, in memory of, it's surreal to see when people are that young
and have that much talent and potential.
This is the last time we're going to see him in something new.
Yeah.
That's just crazy.
And he's got such a natural like that.
late back presence at least i don't know how he is in euphoria but like here i was like man like
the he just seems so plucked out of the moment like in a yeah great way yeah rest of peace i mean
he's he's my favorite performance in the movie i just think and they were in a movie with
a ton of great performances yeah he did such a great job but i think this is really cool it's like
i almost i we're gonna unpack it but it's almost something that i don't know how much i want to unpack
because when you start to think about the vamp rules
or like why Dan Stevens' character
really does turn on her
but he also kills Jean Carlo Esposito's character
and it's like so the vamp hasn't fully taken over
or like how long it took Catherine Newton to turn
versus how long it took him to turn
and then like Mosa Barrera
like if she's not really a vamp now
or what the deal is because he died
but then when we saw Jean Carlo Esposito died
he didn't die or he didn't not become vamp
Dan Stevens
was he already a vamp though
I feel like
good.
But then why was it
because she said
he turned
because he had
had blood maybe
just there's so many
Charlo was turned like
two years ago
right they said
at least that was
that was yeah
and then
I feel like
Dan Stevens
probably killed
Jean Carlo
because
blood less power
struggle
well he says
you know like
you screwed me
over
but then his like
he spurs tells
most of her to run
but the whole point
that I'm saying is that like the movie was sick and part and I think because it's so sick
it excuses parts of it that are like hmm you know yeah I mean this is one of those yeah like the
plan goes to shit movies where part of the point is like yeah we're watching everybody be whittled
down and then there were none or at least there was one and uh yeah I get you it's like there's
certain little rules or little motivational details it would be I would like to go back for.
But yeah, as like a ride and as like an isolated vampire story.
Really the only thing I wish about this was that because I did see like when the movie was
coming out, you know, they advertised this a lot and like I think even the posters make it
pretty clear that Abigail is going to be a vampire of some kind.
I had no idea until Greg's text today.
I should have stayed that way, I guess.
Because that's the one thing is this does feel like it wants to operate.
Oh, Larry Fessenden got a thanks.
That's cool.
Who's that?
He's a kind of cult film writer-director.
He also has a small cameo in Killers of the Flower Moon.
He pops up in small roles in like, you know, more notable director stuff.
And then he makes his own stuff.
So this seems like the kind of thing he'd be thanked on.
But, yeah, this was niff.
and punchy in much a similar way that without as much of like a supernatural twist as
this reminded me.
I believe that is also a movie by these, this crew, these directors, radio silence or whatever
you want to call them.
And so this kind of had some of those earmarks on it for me along with, yeah, all the vampire
goodness.
And yeah, I guess that's the thing is the movie does seem to operate in a way where for the
first, you know, third at least, it seems like they want you to buy that Abigail's a normal
little girl. Right. But even despite that, even knowing that there's a shoe about to drop.
It's like, it's like hearing from dusk till dawn's a vampire movie before you watch it the first time.
And then you're like, oh, what? You know. The little actress that played Abigail is beyond
wildly impressive. She had a lot of heavy lifting to do. She was unbelievably believable.
And that is just such a hard role. I know the character's 12.
but I don't know how all the actresses,
but she really nailed it.
And if she hadn't,
it wouldn't have been as good as it was,
like not even close.
She reminded me of the girl and the orphan.
Yeah, a little bit.
It just really dialed in and creepy.
Yeah.
But even at the end,
when Melissa Barrera goes to help her,
kind of to help herself,
but to help her, I bought it.
I was like, yeah, she,
Melissa has a kid,
so she, like, views her differently.
Yeah, and it's just enough
to where it's not.
completely hammy like
why would you have any level of simple
like you get what debate
she's probably having in her mind
of like yeah this is like
a hundreds of years old creature but also
this still is a little girl who still has
like parent
drama issues and stuff like that
and so yeah there's just enough there
for I feel like their
little line of identification
to work or to be
sold by everything else that's been going on
the set was sick the art design
was sick uh it was a lot of personality yeah the house looked great you don't want to get bored
of a place when you're going to be there for an entire film and we didn't like every room uh just had
such attention to detail they did a great job with that i really like the lighting in this movie
um i feel like they usually movies like this they go way darker because they don't have the
budget to show what she looks like yeah but they didn't they let us really see it but it's still
eerie. I really, really thought that they visually, this knocked it out of the park. And those two
songs that we begin with and end with, I thought were dope too. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean,
like the subtle ways they use like, I do think it's interesting that like ballet is such a
integral part of the character of Abigail's just whole motion and physical language. You know,
like all of her performance is very kind of imbued with that. And yeah, it's like,
Those are the sort of magical things that it's like there are certain logistical things about the Lord that you want to ask questions about to clear them up.
And then there are other things where I'm just like, oh, you know, if you have a particularly vested interest before you're turned, you know, does that become sort of a part of your overall personality in this new form?
Yeah, you just become more extreme.
I do like that they did take the time to show us which vampire things don't work.
Like the garlic.
That was a cool sequence of they bring a bunch of stuff.
And like she ends up staking them and the garlic doesn't work and the crucifix doesn't work.
But then we see the sunlight, we're wondering, is that going to work?
But it's like, then it does.
And you're like, okay, those are vampires and there's different rules and different things.
So I did like that they set their boundaries there.
That was really cool.
Yeah, it was a conscientious way to go.
And I like that you have, you know, any vampire, any new bit of vampire storytelling or lore, you know, is going to.
to have people going like what are the rules and i like that yeah you have i thought the way they
handled ruling out certain options was conscientious and then also to take at least one vampire
trope and go like full hog wild with it like not only is sunlight a detriment they just explode on
sight i thought made for just like a fun you know added element of schlock and gore because it it almost
takes on like I don't know you haven't you haven't started the evil deads yet haven't no well I can't
tell there's an there's a certain quality to like evil dead movies in particular where they're
like constantly just like bombarding their actors with goo and sludge and blood and it's just like
it seems like if you're going to be in one of those movies you're just going to get covered
in viscera and this kind of brought some of that spirit out and I mean vampires and in you know
movies and such are often, you know, vindictive and and are gleefully mean and maniacal, you know,
and certainly I thought everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun playing those notes.
But yeah, I also just kind of had had fun with the fact that at a certain point it does
become like so carnage heavy.
And you have little things like they find that, uh, that big pool of bodies in the basement.
That was crazy.
That was visually so disgusting.
Yeah.
And it's only like one scene, one, one brief moment.
but it does like just add yeah and i like too that like with the house the house feels like a character
and you're not always stopping to like oogle the house or be like here's a bunch of just atmospheric
shots of corridors or stuff but i thought they still managed to make it feel like a living place
that we pretty thoroughly explored and destroyed by the time this was done is your understanding
when the guy with a lot of freckles loses half of his face and dies that she had broken out of her
room and done that
and then is your understanding
when she was in the cage
that she could have gotten out at any time
but she was choosing not to
because she was still toying with them
I don't know
about the cage
I guess why was she able to get out
finally
yeah I would have to go back
and he like pretends he's like
what do you think I'm really going to like
oh she yeah she just
pushes it forward right throws the door I guess
yeah she
I guess we're going to chalk that up
to her playing the part
or whatever because yeah with the cuffs at least they established that so all i can assume is that
yeah she must have broken out unless were to assume that jean carlo just stayed on hand and was quietly
murking people but yeah i assume that was abigail could have an explanation they just don't
tell us all the explanation so it leaves you your mind to wander which is kind of cool i think they
leave a lot of it up to the idea that she likes to play with her food and they all seem to like to play with
their food. But then the fact that at the end, she doesn't kill Melissa.
Yeah. Well, I think it's that. I do think it is that like, again, as much as she is like vindictive
and maniacal, I think it's that last scrap of humanity and the fact that like I'm sure she would
rather have a dad who cares. And so if there's a chance for this mom to get back to her kid and
maybe break this cycle of anguish, you know, maybe there is some like ounce of, you know, maybe there is some like
ounce of humanity there for them to kind of you know at least come to like a mutual respect over or
something why do you think that they cast matthew good i well yeah i wonder that too i mean certainly
i feel like he brings a certain amount of baggage where you see him now he's played enough
roles it's funny i was seeing there because i i usually think of uh ozimandias when i first
or ozumandias however you say it uh when i said that way you said it the first time um what's that
movie though where he's like
I can see the poster
it's a romantic comedy and he's like on a scooter
and it's like the president's daughter
and he's like
a guy who's like
tasked with driving her around but then they fall in love
maybe is that the one that he's in
I don't know the only thing
I recently saw him in the offer
I guess that wasn't that recent but it was very good
I've seen him in a bigillion things though
he's just a very very
he's a big actor and so
I guess that's why they wanted him in the last
But I wanted more
I was like oh are they doing this because they're shutting up a sequel
They could be
I mean I feel like this is the kind of thing where
It seemed like this did well
So I'm
While this doesn't necessarily say like
Definitely know what direction a sequel would head into
That isn't just like an episodic revamp of this concept
No but like what if Melissa Brer and her son come
Here
If they be if she raises him to be a vampire hunter
I don't know
And they come back to settle the score with Matthew Good.
Or if she comes back to try to save Abigail from the dad or something
or try to convince her to be good because she let her go.
And then her son followed her on accident.
Like she didn't know her son was following her.
And then Matthew Good keeps them all.
And they have to kill Matthew Good.
I don't know.
I'm just pitching sequels.
You check your shoes.
You might have just stepped and hit.
You should start writing that spec, all right?
Let's go.
Yeah, they did a really good job with this.
Really good job.
It's hard to make vampire stuff original.
And they did.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know what to make a Matthew good.
I wonder if he's part of their troupe.
But I really like the ensemble of this a lot.
I thought Melissa Barrera, especially since she's come a long way in these couple of movies since Scream 5.
I remember a big part of the conversation is like, oh, I don't know if this movie supported her that much.
And then Scream 6, she really kind of leveled up.
And in this, I thought she held down the sort of central, you know, the central, steadiest character role pretty well.
There was a couple, like, lines where she was the only one who there was a couple of lines that I felt like she was trying to be cheeky and it wasn't landing for me because it didn't feel like the character.
But I think it's probably really hard when you're playing against Angus Cloud and Catherine Newton and like everything they're doing is cheeky.
Well, and people are on different heights, I think, a little bit because like Kevin Durant I thought was like really in the mannerisms.
I loved him.
He was so great at this.
So great.
Like, I really enjoyed the whole cast.
But Kevin Duran was probably, him and Angus were probably my favorite.
It's him and Angus Cloud.
Yeah, me too, me too.
Because, like, yeah, it's like I, this was fun because I'm used to seeing Catherine Newton most in Supernatural.
So this is sort of almost like an elseworld's version of that with her for me.
And then Dan Stevens feels like, of all the Dan Stevens' roles I've seen, you know, certainly this one feels like they kind of let him off the leash to just chew the scenery.
This was very different.
it was very different for him yeah and he is definitely one of the more like larger than life more peacockish colorful characters and whatnot um i like the guy who played rickles a lot too uh and even to wait i gotta find what his name is because i know him from a bunch of stuff and i was like what is his name and even Giancarlo like as much as he's not like a huge character in here it was fun to at least get to see him play a vampire you know play at least somebody who isn't just another Gus fring or another
That's what I just saw him in.
His name is William Catlett.
Okay.
And I just watched him in this show.
The show actually was not very good, but he's good.
Constellation.
Have you heard anything about that on Apple TV Plus?
I know nothing about it.
You're the only Apple subscriber right now.
Wow, he was good in that.
But he also plays Lala in Black Lightning, who he's so good in that room.
He's so good as Lala.
Damn, was he in season one?
Yeah.
He was in, when?
did he get introduced it was either season one or season two no season one yeah all uh episode
one two seven eight 10 12 okay so i've definitely seen him before yeah he's like awesome as that
character he's just so so good hell's yeah been in a bunch of stuff that i know but i was like i
definitely recognize him oh he's an episode of insecure too yeah i love insecure
our friend be booking but that is i was like i know him what do i know him from this girl
Alicia where is the name of Abigail
Let's go let's get some facts
Oh she played fucking Matilda bro
In the musical I haven't seen it yet
All I've seen of the Matilda musical
Is people keep taking one specific stretch of it
And then replacing the music with Dragula
And apparently the timing still works
Wait have we covered that on the channel
Because you and I should request that
Because I want to see
Yeah come on
I've seen every musical that exists same
I've seen, yeah, the OG Matilda, the Danny DeVito, but not the new one, not the musical.
Wait, this is this little girl, the star of Matilda, come on.
Oh, my God, it is.
She is such a stud.
Wow, look at this little Chica go.
I'm obsessed with that for her.
Well, she must be a dancer.
Like, I thought her physicality was good.
Like, for a young actor such as this, like, I got to imagine this was an absolute blast for her getting to swear up
storm and, you know, do blood gags and gymnastics and stunts and wirework and all sorts of stuff.
Do you want some trivia?
Let's get some trivia, Roxanne.
We'll start with Ingus Cloud stuff.
So one of Ingus Cloud's final roles before his passing in July 2023, although production
wasn't completed until months after his death due to the sag after strike, Cloud had filmed
all of his scenes before production was shut down.
He had signed an autograph, the Cloud drawing, scene above the dedication, for a crew
member during his time on set and Melissa Brera had it printed on t-shirts for the cast and crew when
filming wrapped. That is lovely. That's a really nice memorial. The directors were so impressed by Alicia
Ware's dancing that they added more dance sequences to the film. Sweet. Kevin Durham was able to change
his character's origins and use his native Quebec, Quebecus accent. Quebecua. Quebecua. Thank you. Is that
Quebec? Quebecua accent. It's that French-Canadian accent. Thank you.
It's his real accent.
I said Quebec's accent,
quibiquot accent,
something he's never done
on film before.
When he pitched this to directors,
it was a no-brainer
and all the cast were able
to help design the look
of all the characters
develop and alter their backstories.
Co-director Tyler Gillett
even said, of course,
like why would you say no to that flavor?
It makes it so interesting
and so specific.
Yeah.
It really was.
That's an actor's dream right.
I wonder if the fake
back or when they're doing the whole like hundred bucks thing i wonder if all the
the wrong backstories were the original things they wrote and then the real backstories was
everything the cast came up with something like that's interesting but that's a while because i've
never heard Kevin durant no me neither with an accent like that at all you were like what's that
and if that's his real accent that's so beautiful to me that is so great in an interview with total
film the directors felt they needed to apologize to the cast for the volume of blood they used
on set they said all our movies are bloody but i would say that
this is definitely the most bloody we spent a lot of time apologizing to our actors on this movie i mean
blood is in the DNA of a vampire movie and the amount of blood is in the the amount of blood in this one
it's pretty extreme but it's still fun absolutely i mean again i'm glad that they care about
the well-being of their cast but part of the fun of a movie like this is again just slathering
everyone in blood yeah more blood explosions the better i say absolutely i'm with you
directors refer to the film as Ready or Not on steroids.
It really, of all the stuff of theirs that I've seen,
and I haven't seen all of it,
but this definitely felt the most akin to that,
certainly because you're mostly spending time
in one luxurious house,
but I don't know,
I almost feel like these could share a slightly adjacent universe
because Ready or Not has a supernatural element,
and so does this.
So, like, I could easily see these being some kind of, like,
backdoor shared universe with each other.
A couple interesting things here.
I guess that they
considered, when they
were making this movie, it was filmed on the working
title Dracula's daughter, and then they considered
a loose remake of Dracula's daughter,
which is 1936
film. What? Abigail is
a Hebrew name for my father's joy.
That's kind of interesting, because
she is certainly not her father's joy. Did you feel the Hebrew
vibes during the movie?
No. This isn't the most Jewish horror
movie you've ever seen? No, it certainly wasn't.
It certainly wasn't.
Okay.
That is some of the good stuff that we got.
That's that good stuff.
Not bad at all.
This is one of those movies.
It's like lean and mean.
It's kind of straightforward.
And that's sort of all you need sometimes.
You know, it's got a couple nifty ideas.
It's got some punchy effects.
Fun cast, fun premise, you know.
I'm with you.
I thought it was really, really excellently done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a lot of fun.
What did you guys think?
leave us your thoughts on abigail is your favorite horror film of 2024 is your favorite
2024 film leave us your thoughts down below leave a comment like subscribe all that good stuff
hit up reject nation shop dot com for teas like this and your sheject reject reject crewneck yeah we'll
catch you on the next one recommend us some more vamps some more romance some more spookums do you
want to see us do Matilda the musical? Should we do
Matta? I love a musical. Don't even
tempt me right now. Well, anyway,
leave us all that stuff and we'll catch you on the next one.
Much love, party, people.
Whoa.
Annie. Annie. Annie.
Annie, Gail. You know what? I would love
to see happen. Lay it on me.
I would love for
Annie to sink
her teeth
into
Aaron Alexander's neck
Yes, yes, I like it
Make him bleed out
And then watch him turn into a vampire
You'd be the maker
He'd be his sire
And then he'd be the bitch
You'd be queen of the dam
The official term
And Aaron is the bitch
Maker and the bitch
Queen of the bitch
And then Aaron you could just ask
Aaron to do whatever you want
Yeah, he's you're familiar
But also vampire like
You know, he's your dependent
How cool would that be, Annie, if you had that ability?
I feel like Annie would just be such a beautiful vampire.
You know, that's part of the thing about being a female vampire.
You also got to be hot.
Yes.
And I don't know what Annie looks like, but I get hot vibes from her name Annie.
Oh, yeah.
Annie's probably the hottest patron.
I think about Annie.
Here, Annie, you think...
It's like a timeless hotness.
You think supermodel.
Absolutely.
Just like a primordial ineffable.
hotness. Yeah, oh man, no, it's a given. Like, if a guy's named Ashton, you know he's hot.
Oh, he's the hottest guy. Same thing with annies. The jaw lines are hot. Annies are hot. And, uh,
in a hard-knock life for any of you. So, you're a hot vampire. I'd let you clench your...
Why does Aaron get all the fun? You should just bite all of us, right? We will all
be privileged for you to be our... We will be your bitches. You are this pageon's vampire moving
forward. That's right. Happy birthday.
Thank you.
Thank you.