Abigail (2019)

Abigail is the kind of fantasy that wins you over with sheer world-building nerve: a quarantined city that feels like a storybook prison, all wrought-iron rooftops, foggy streets, and costumes that look lovingly stitched out of another era. It moves with the pulse of a mystery—why the borders really closed, who benefits, and what’s being hidden—while letting its magic arrive not as glitter, but as a dangerous awakening that turns every alleyway into possibility. Director Aleksandr Boguslavskiy leans hard into atmosphere and visual imagination, so even when the plot plays in familiar chosen-one territory, the sets, locations, and effects keep it feeling richly transportive. If you want airtight logic or grim realism, this may not be your spell, but if you’re on the fence and craving an adventurous, stylish escape with a secret-history vibe, Abigail is easy to recommend.

Abigail is clearly aiming for a whimsical, YA-style fantasy mystery about a girl uncovering a conspiracy and discovering her own powers, and the setup has real promise. The problem is the execution: the dialogue can feel clunky, performances are uneven, and the effects often look too lightweight to sell the “city full of magic” idea—so the film can end up feeling oddly low on actual wonder. If you need your fantasy to be visually transporting and emotionally sharp, this may test your patience. But if you’re tolerant of rough edges and mainly want a simple, fairy-tale-flavored chase with a likable central mystery, there’s enough momentum to keep you going.