All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#20 – ABIGAIL (2024)
Released on April 19, 2024, and is streaming on Peacock from Universal Pictures!
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett.
Written by Stephen Shields, Guy Busick.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/3PsP8MFH8p0
A group of criminals are called together by a mysterious man named Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to kidnap Abigail (Alisha Weir), the young daughter of a wealthy socialite after ballet practice. Once Abigail is in the crooks’ possession, they must keep her in a secure location until the morning, when Lambert will pay them and send them on their way. That was the plan. Only the crooks don’t know that Abigail is a vampire and now they are trapped inside with her until the sun comes up.

Oh, don’t get pissed. The fact that Abigail is a vampire is no spoiler. It’s right there in the trailer and in all the adverts for ABIGAIL front and center. Though I do wonder if they had edited the trailer more cleverly, suggesting there was a monster in the house but not letting the vampire ballerina out of the bag, would the film have been much more of an impressive shockeroo for me. While the filmmakers do attempt some twists and turns toward the end, the biggest complaint I have about ABIGAIL is that given that I know the premise and met the cast of crooks, if you’ve seen a horror movie or two, you can probably guess who lives and who gets their blood drained. And most likely, you’d be as right as I was. While predictability is often something that I am not a fan of, this being a modestly big budget release, it is something that is somewhat of a requirement these days. So, I can’t knock the Radio Silence guys (I’m calling them that because listing their names is a bit of a chore), for doing what’s profitable in a mainstream movie. Good for them, they’ve hit the big times, but with it, sadly, goes the unpredictability that I love about more modestly budgeted horror shows.

That said, there are some late in the game twists that I found to be pretty impressive. The over-the-top violence is off the hook and the Radio Silence guys seem to understand that the human body can take quite a beating before keeling over lifeless. With a cast limited to just a few actors, the group are used as punching bags, pin cushions, and juice boxes over and over again by this limber little vampire. It is great to see these guys and gals get the living shit kicked out of them and makes when they do eventually bite it, all the more meaningful.

The cast is made up of a lot of fun actors and each of them plays their part well. At the beginning, SCREAM V and VI’s Melissa Barrera quote unquote reads each of the crew members and proves to be pretty spot on with what she has gleaned from them. It’s a fun way of learning about the characters without having them boringly drop exposition about themselves. Having Barrera’s Joey not only highlight who the rest of the crew are but also their faults, also shows that these characters have been thought about a bit and developed—something I always appreciate. Barrera is great and despite the fact that she needs to shut the fuck up on social media, I’m sure she will have a career ahead of her because her presence here is much stronger that she was in the SCREAM films she’s been in. Joining Barrera is the fantastic Dan Stevens, and I don’t know why this guy hasn’t caught on yet as a big star. From DOWNTON ABBEY to LEGION to THE GUEST to not ABIGAIL, she has shown to have an amazing range. Here, he’s king scumbag among the scumbags and it is obvious the actor had a bast with this role. It’s always great to see Kevin Durand, who always manages to add a big heart to every gruff role he takes. And Kathryn Newton, who was just seen in LISA FRANKENSTEIN, has wonderful comic timing and doesn’t seem to mind getting down and abso-grossly dirty in her role here. Though his role is small, Giancarlo Esposito is as poised and menacing as he always is.

Young actors are tough to watch in horror. If the movie is too serious and the child actor is made to do grotesque and risqué things, I often fear that the child will leave this movie fucked up and in need of therapy. Then again, child actors who are too young often have difficulty conveying the proper emotion required for a scene and you can just tell it’s a kid actor being fed lines from off screen. While little Alisha Weir is doused in blood from her tiara to her ballet shoes, it appears that she is having the time of her life in this one. I know as I kid, I would have loved to see the horrifying effects at play in ABIGAIL. And on top of that, she is a hell of a little actress, given quite a few monologues and delivering them convincingly, as she is supposed to be playing an aged vampire trapped in a child’s body. Not many actresses of that age could pull that off, but Weir does exceptionally.

Theres a pool of blood, gop, and gore to wade through in ABIGAIL. I’m glad films like this and EVIL DEAD RISE are given the opportunity to relish in the grue and help satisfy those fans who love seeing their heroes and villains get grody. Paired with the over-the-top violence and the comedy, I imagine the copious amounts of blood was cleared because it is such a ridiculous amount and doubt that a more serious film would be able to get away with what they did here. As is, it’s a gorehounds gourmet.

And for a strong horror comedy, meaning that the comedy is just as prevalent as the horror, violence, and carnage are, I found myself laughing through even the moments spoiled in the trailers. ABIGAIL is a predictable big budget movie, but the Radio Silence guys really know how to deliver a rollercoaster ride drenched in blood. It is a fun vampire romp. Nothing serious. It doesn’t break new ground as we’ve seen child vampires and the rest of the vampire schtick before. But a grand and gory old time, nevertheless.

Plus – BLACKOUT (2024)
Released on April 12, 2024, and is available On Demand and digital download from Dark Sky Films and Glass Eye Pics!
Directed/Written by Larry Fessenden.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/ZxqeLCAWx7M
Alex Hurt plays Charlie, a down on his luck artist who is trying desperately to get out of town. Charlie was attacked by a strange creature a few months ago and since then, on the night before, during, and after the full moon, he blacks out and wakes up covered in blood. Reports from the night before indicating a savage murder has occurred close to where Charlie woke up and this leads Charlie to believe he has become a werewolf. So, Charlie wants to get out of town before he changes again and hurts anyone again, especially his ex-girlfriend Sharon (Addison Timlin) who happens to be the daughter of local businessman Hammond (TOTAL RECALL’s Kuato himself, Marshall Bell).

Larry Fessenden is a legend in the indie film industry. Not only is his list of roles and cameos in various horror films as long as Sasquatch’s arm, but he also has been quite a prolific director himself. Much of Fessenden’s work has dealt with themes of alcoholism and addiction. One of Fessenden’s earliest films, HABIT, used vampirism as an allegory for addiction and now, the writer/director/actor uses those themes again against the template of the legend of the werewolf. This time, though, the theme is less prevalent than seen in HABIT, but the effects of alcohol on one’s life are front and center.

Fessenden’s take on the werewolf is wonderfully classic. He’s named the town all of this occurs in Talbot, after Larry Talbot, the name of the man cursed with lycanthropy in Universal’s classic THE WOLF MAN. The rules of this particular version of wolfman adheres to the rules established in that old film as well. And Hurt, in his werewolf form, looks a hell of a lot like the original wolf man design with mostly facial and hand applications, leaving the actor to use his own body to act out the rest. As a huge Universal Monsters fan, I not only appreciated Fessenden’s dedication to represent his wolf man in that way but was pretty giddy with excitement while watching it. Now, if one doesn’t have my appreciation of old school horror and are used to seeing CGI werewolves pixelated on the screen, then I understand why one might snub their nose at Fessenden’s version of THE WOLF MAN. And that’s cool, I guess, but man, was BLACKOUT a breath of fresh air for me.

That doesn’t mean BLACKOUT is flawless. It squeezes a lot of exposition in the front half so that it can have a payoff in the latter. There is also a ton of people in the cast. Many of them, recognizable genre faces like Marshall Bell, Barbara Crampton, Joe Swanberg, Kevin Corrigan, James Le Gros, Jeremy Holm, Marc Senter, and many others. Most likely, with Fessenden agreeing to appear as a cameo in their films, they are returning the favor and all of them are given a line or two to have fun with. The problem is that very few of these scenes are together, so you get this recognizable face in one scene, and then we are introduced to another and another in small scenes. Put these all together and you have a movie, but still, the scenes felt disconnected, most likely because these actors couldn’t all appear at the same time. So, there are only a few actors guiding us through the story and we meet all of these randos along the way. It’s somewhat disconcerting, but again, given the budget, it is impressive that Fessenden could pull it all off.

Actor Alex Hurt is undeniably the son of William Hurt. He looks so much like his father and delivers the same kind of under the radar, subdued, coolness to his performance in BLACKOUT. Hurt has no qualms with tearing his shirt off and baring his chest. Those who read the old WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Marvel comic book series, the fact that Jack Russell loses his shirt frequently is on ongoing joke, one that I feel works here as Hurt has no qualms disrobing and baring his chest. Though I do feel all of that bare-chestedness is a bit excessive. Addison Timlin does a great job of Charlie’s lost love whose beauty seems to be the only thing that tames this beast. Timlin gives her all here and makes the role work.

While the effects are rudimentary, Fessenden makes the transition work by adding some very cool animation to fill in the blanks that most likely would have cost too much for this film to support. I’ve had my fill of pumping face-squibs or reverse-filmed hair growth sequences seen in every other werewolf transformation. These animated scenes actually liven up what has become a tired werewolf movie trope.

As an ode to old school werewolf movies, BLACKOUT works big time. Fessenden obviously is a fan of those old creature features. I’m sure those who poo-poo lower budget films will not be impressed, but Larry Fessenden has been a hands-on creative in front of and behind the camera worth supporting. BLACKOUT has all the right kinds of indie passion.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)

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