FILM
CINEMA REMINDS US YET AGAIN TO NEVER TRUST SMALL CHILDREN
★★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 18 / 109 MINS
DIRECTORS Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
CAST Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, Giancarlo Esposito
PLOT A crew are hired to kidnap a little girl (Weir) and keep her in a secure location. A slight wrinkle: the little girl is a vampire.
IN 1907, TWIST-in-the-tale specialist O. Henry published The Ransom Of Red Chief, a short story about kidnappers whose victim is so obnoxious they wind up paying the brat’s family to take him back. It’s been repeatedly adapted, officially and unofficially, including versions by Yasujirō Ozu and Howard Hawks. Abigail offers a new spin. This 12-year-old ballerina —Alisha Weir, in a ferocious how-not-to-be-typecast-forever-as-Matilda-from-Matilda-The-Musical turn —is actually an ancient, bloodthirsty, rage-fuelled vampire with extreme daddy issues.
It’s slightly an issue that trailers and pre-publicity not only reveal the end-of-the-first-act twist but sell it as the high concept. The film, wittily scripted by Stephen Shields (The Hole In The Ground) and Guy Busick, teases effectively for half an hour. It’s a heavy hint that the theme music, accompanied by a solo ballet turn, is that snatch of Swan Lake heard at the beginning of Dracula in 1931, but the first act then plays like a shadowy riff on Reservoir Dogs. Mastermind Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) teams up flawed experts to pull off a kidnapping, insisting they not know anything about each other and giving them Rat Pack code names.
Smarty-pants medic Joey (Melissa Barrera) does a Sherlock Holmes bit, deducing that team leader Frank (Dan Stevens) is an ex-cop, hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton) is a rich-kid rebel, muscle Peter (Kevin Durand) is Quebecois and a secret softie, sniper Rickles (William Catlett) is ex-military, and wheel man Dean (Angus Cloud) is a sociopath. Enough is going on with the fra
