Abigail ending spoilers follow.

While the ballerina vampire twist was revealed in the trailer, Abigail still delivers plenty of surprises all the way up to its blood-soaked finale.

The new horror movie from Scream trio Radio Silence sees a group of criminals kidnap 12-year-old Abigail, aiming to get a $50 million ransom from her mysterious father. Before they even get to the money, though, they realise they've actually kidnapped a centuries-old vampire – and they are the real captives.

What to Read Next

They also discover that there's a very specific reason why they were all recruited for this deadly job. It's linked to the real identity of Abigail's father, who makes an appearance near the very end, played by Downton Abbey star Matthew Goode.

But if you got lost among the blood and exploding bodies, let's dig into Abigail's ending to explain who Abigail's father is and why the criminals were chosen.

Major spoilers ahead.

angus cloud, kathryn newton, alisha weir, kevin durand, dan stevens, melissa barrera, will catlett, abigail
Universal

Abigail ending explained

Early on in Abigail, Frank (Dan Stevens) learns from Abigail (Alisha Weir) that her father is powerful crime boss Kristof Lazar. When he reveals this information to the rest of the crew shortly afterwards, Frank calls Lazar the "Antichrist", meaning that they're all screwed.

Lazar supposedly has a hitman called Valdes who is known to rip Lazar's enemies apart, and the crew fear Valdes is in the isolated mansion with them when Dean (Angus Cloud) is found decapitated.

Of course, Valdes is none other than Abigail herself, dealing out bloody justice on those who have wronged her father over the decades. What's more, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) – who brought the crew together – is actually working for Abigail, and there is no ransom money to be had.

Each of the criminals has wronged Lazar in some way, such as ex-cop Frank, who infiltrated Lazar's organisation to try to bring him to justice. As she has done before, Abigail means to kill them all to make her father pay attention to her again.

alisha weir, abigail
Universal

The group is whittled down to just Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Frank, who discover Lambert hiding away in a secret control room. He was turned into a vampire by Abigail two years ago, and he warns them that Abigail's father is on the way to the mansion.

Lambert suggests a team-up to kill Abigail in exchange for their freedom – he just needs to turn one of them. To Joey's horror, Frank accepts, only for Frank to immediately kill Lambert and then attempt to kill Abigail.

He's not successful, though, leading to a brutal showdown between Joey and Abigail against Frank. They eventually manage to overpower him and stake him through the heart, exploding him.

But Joey's troubles aren't over yet, as Abigail's father (Matthew Goode) arrives at the mansion shortly afterwards...

melissa barrera as joey covered in blood in abigail movie
Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures

Who is Matthew Goode playing in Abigail?

Things don't seem too good initially for Joey, as she did, you know, help to kidnap Lazar's daughter, even if it was all set up by Abigail. Joey also unwittingly killed one of Lazar's closest allies when she was an underground doctor and high on drugs.

However, Abigail sticks up for Joey as she kept her promise to not let any harm come to her (well, apart from Frank trying to drink all of her blood). Lazar reluctantly lets Joey go free because she helped his daughter.

We don't really get any other information about Lazar, but you'd be forgiven for thinking he was Dracula. When Joey asks him if he's Lazar, he replies that it's one of the names he's gone by, a hint to his more famous moniker.

Back when we didn't know anything about Abigail, it was rumoured to be a spin on the 1936 movie Dracula's Daughter.

alisha weir, kathryn newton, abigail
Universal

Nothing about Abigail suggests a connection between the two, however, as in that original movie Dracula is dead at the beginning and the plot is totally different. Talking to ScreenRant, co-director Tyler Gillett confirmed an early link between the two movies.

"I will say that just in terms of its connection to Dracula's Daughter, I know that there was an inkling of that in the early Stephen Shields draft," he explained.

"I think, for us, we wanted to take that idea and to find a way to sort of untether it from the rules of maybe an existing character or an existing franchise, to create something that didn't have quite the same sort of small sandbox size that I think you can run into with franchises or characters like that.

"And kudos to Universal. They let us just swing wild, like they kept telling us like, 'The weird stuff was working, so you might as well just make it weirder. Keep going'. And we did."

So even though Abigail is not really a reimagining of Dracula's Daughter, Lazar is absolutely a spin on the most iconic of vampires – even if the movie itself doesn't confirm it either way.

Abigail is out now in cinemas.

Best PS5 console deals
Best PS5 console deals
Credit: PlayStation
Where to buy Alison Hammond's outfits
Where to buy Alison Hammond's outfits
Credit: Mark Bourdillon
Digital Spy Holidays - trips with TV experts
Digital Spy Holidays - trips with TV experts
Headshot of Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.