Panic Fest 2025 Coverage
Abduct review
Abduct take a different angle on a familiar story.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Abduct
Directed by Chris Riggi
Written by Chris Riggi and Ken Kirby
Starring Nicole Sun, Ken Kirby, Chris Riggi, Tim Stanton, Chris Eckert, Chris Dougherty, John Pope and Miles Szanto
Abduct Review
There are some funny moments in Abduct. I wanted to get that out of the way before launching into what the movie is…because it’s going to sound like the opposite is true. The sci-fi setup of Abduct is an interesting one…and there is a more than game cast of characters ready to roll with the strange twist that occurs early in the story. So, why did I feel the need to bring up that the movie contains some funny moments? Because it has the pacing and, often times, feel that it should be a zany madcap comedy. It isn’t. But that unused tone, intentional or otherwise, is what drives the energy of Abduct.
Emma (Nicole Sun) and Chris (Ken Kirby) head to a mountain getaway with a couple of friends. When strange green lights appear in the night sky…Chris heads out to investigate. When he reappears later…he’s a completely different person. Chris (Chris Riggi) shows up naked and confused about what’s happened to him. The group ties him up and tries to get to the bottom of the situation.
That’s a strong sci-fi story. There are some obvious opportunities to play it for comedy…but Abduct largely lets them alone. It mines some laughs from the couple’s friends, a botched drug deal, and two cops whose helpfulness is questionable from beginning to end. At its core, however, Abduct plays up the mystery more than anything. Emma is put into an impossible situation. A strange man arrives claiming to be her missing partner…and he’s awfully convincing. But that’s ridiculous, right?
The question becomes how hard into sci-fi Abduct is going to go. The ancillary characters, and the difficulty taking any of them seriously, seem to cry out for a different direction than Abduct focuses on. It has a strong idea to play with, for sure…but it may have benefited from choosing one way to play with it. There are some wonderfully realistic and witty reactions to some messed up situations…but the tenor of the piece seems reluctant to embrace the potential for more.
It’s understandable…it a way. The mystery of who has returned claiming Chris’s identity is an intriguing one. Emma’s plight should be grounded in a realistic tone. What happens in the margins of the story; however, push Abduct into a different space. The most intriguing plot becomes its least entertaining aspect. Still entertaining in its way…but lacking the wilder impulses of other aspects of the story.
The problem isn’t with the main story itself…but in how Abduct chooses to support it. What’s going on outside of the Chris mystery feels more like a sitcom than a science fiction story. Side characters are quirky and, often, fun to be around. They provide entertaining moments…but not the kind that help the Chris story from connecting at its full power. It often feels like the characters in Abduct are in different films…if not genres…altogether.
Chris and Emma are in a sci-fi story. Emma might be in a horror movie for that matter. Their friends are in a Coen Brothers comedy. Fine pieces that don’t quite fit together. Which is a shame…because Chris returning to Emma as a different person has the makings of a great Coen Brothers comedy. Instead, it makes for an intriguing sci-fi story that sometimes loses focus and becomes something else.
There is an answer to the Chris drama, of course. It’s a good one too. A resolution that, despite its interesting reveal…somehow becomes yet another kind of movie. This is where Abduct makes its biggest attempt at connecting all of its characters and plots. The ones that fundamentally don’t quite fit together…seemingly by design. None of this may bother you. The Emma/Chris plot is interesting enough to draw your attention. The side characters can be relegated to humorous B-plots. You might not have an issue with the mismatched feel of their stories at all. There’s certainly a game enough cast to make their parts work individually…if not in totality.
Scare Value
A likable and game cast elevates the initial basic concept in Abduct until the story takes a much-needed turn. Quirky characters having realistic exchanges in a heightened situation is a tough thing to pull off…but Abduct does it with ease. There’s an interesting idea presented early…but only so far to go with it. Thankfully, the story doesn’t make you wait long for a change in direction that allows its characters to shine. How well it pulls everything together…that’s best lest up to you.
