Aahana Swrup
Mining from the treasure chest of classic monsters, the vampire-horror film ‘Abigail,’ brings a bloodied gorefest that charts the story of a group’s survival as they find themselves faced against an unforeseen adversary. Several criminals— from industry professionals Joey and Frank to newbies Sammy and Dean— are hired for a kidnapping job, targeting the daughter of a wealthy and fearsome underworld leader. However, once the kidnappers lock themselves inside an isolated mansion with the kid, Abigail, they begin to understand the girl’s connections to the underworld persist in more ways than the one.
Now, trapped with a blood-sucking pre-teen vampire, Joey and her colleagues must work together to escape their doomed fates. While Abigail’s manic hunting remains the story’s central focus, subtle mystery brews in the background regarding the girl’s infamous father, Kristof Lazar. Thus, once the elusive man finally appears toward the film’s end, it inevitably sparks the audience’s curiosity about the character. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Kristof Lazar’s Climactic Cameo and Its Implications
Even though Kristof Lazar might only appear on-screen as the story comes to an end, his character retains a narrative significance from the start. Initially, before Joey and the gang discover Abigail’s supernatural secret, they believe they’re carrying out a simple kidnapping job with a rich man’s daughter as their target. However, even then, the simple mention of Kristof Lazar makes them regret their course of action. Thus, Lazar establishes himself as a dreadful criminal with an unnerving reputation that inherently invites a shudder in even the most hardened delinquents.
Consequently, Lazar’s potential for danger only increases once Joey and the others realize that his daughter, Abigail, is a vampire whom he has been using as a weapon for decades. Under the name Valdez, the girl has been operating as her father’s hitman— recognized for her animalistic MO—for years, helping him maintain his reign of terror within the underworld. Worse yet, it was her own father who turned Abigail into a monstrous being centuries ago to aid him in his villainous undertakings. The revelation adds another layer of menacing to Lazar’s yet unseen character and introduces the idea that the man is also a vampire like his daughter.
From there, several other clues begin to click in— such as the various murals and statues littering the mansion that depict a young girl with an older man, presumably her father, by her side. Considering Abigail’s connection to the mansion, these iconographies seem to revolve around her, leaving Lazar to fill her father’s role. Likewise, the pool of dead bodies that Abigail hordes in her home’s basement also implies Lazar has had hundreds of enemies over the years, suggesting the longevity of his immoral business. Thus, the latter’s centuries-long existence is enforced even further.
The same explains Lazar’s ability to build an expansive criminal empire for himself, crafting the terror-filled folklore around himself that almost compels some younger individuals— like Dean— to believe him to be an urban legend. The same hints that even in a single lifetime as Lazar, Abigail’s father has been around for long enough to garner a mythical reputation among the younger generation. For the same reasons, Lazar’s eventual on-screen appearances confirm all assumptions about the wretched man. In contrast to his long-serving, brutish reputation, Kristof Lazar appears as a strikingly young man with a cool air of terror around him. His ghastly complexion, fangs, and smart coat remain reminiscent of a modern interpretation of the ancient Dracula. Yet, most of all, it’s his insinuation that he’s been known by many names over the centuries that truly invites speculation about his connection to the original Dracula.
Although the film never confirms Lazar to be Dracula, it sets up the pieces in place for an eventual reveal. Furthermore, outside of the film, the fact that ‘Abigail’ initially found its inception as a project under filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett with the name ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ affirms the idea that Lazar is, in fact, Dracula. As a result, the same link also proposes fascinating possibilities for a potential future sequel. Should Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett attempt to reference the dynamic in the original 1936 film ‘Dracula’s Daughter,’ through Lazar’s Dracula and his daughter, Abigail, a sequel could delve into the duo’s contentious relationship.
On the other hand, Lazar’s and Abigail’s continued partnership as a blood-sucking, nightmarish father-daughter duo could also bring new misadventures for a continued cinematic universe. Ultimately, since Lazar retains only surface-level characteristics within the film, his character can only benefit from connections to Dracula in the near future. Either way, Lazar’s last-minute cameo and his complicated relationship with Abigail are bound to bear fruitful results if the story goes on to grow into a sequel. Additionally, textual confirmation about Lazar’s identity as Dracula can only be confirmed through a follow-up story. Nevertheless, ‘Abigail’ instills enough proof to fuel the idea.
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