Abigail is a 2024 American vampire horror film, that is based on and a reimagining of the 1936 Universal Classic Monsters film Dracula’s Daughter,
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- Abigail is a 2024 American vampire horror film.
- It was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
- The screenplay was written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick.
- The movie is based on and a reimagining of the 1936 film Dracula’s Daughter.
- The film stars Alisha Weir as the eponymous daughter of Count Dracula.
- A reboot of Dracula’s Daughter was announced to be in development in April 2023.
- Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were attached as directors.
- Shields and Busick hired to write the screenplay.
- It was also announced that the film would be a co-production between Bettinelli-Olpin, Gillett, and Chad Villella’s Radio Silence Productions, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, and William Sherak’s Project X Entertainment, and Tripp Vinson’s Vinson Films.
- Barrera was cast that same month, with Weir, Stevens, Newton, Durand, Cloud, and Catlett hired the next month, and Esposito rounding out the main cast in June.
- Principal photography began that month in Dublin, Ireland.
- Filming was suspended at the beginning of July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
- Filming resumed at the end of that month and wrapped in December.
- This was the last film that Cloud worked on during his lifetime, as he died on July 31, 2023, shortly after wrapping filming of his scenes.
- Brian Tyler, a frequent collaborator of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, was hired to compose and conduct the film’s score.
- Abigail had its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival on April 7, 2024.
- It is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures on April 19, 2024.
- Angus Cloud’s final role before his passing in July 2023.
- Although production wasn’t completed until months after his death due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Cloud still managed to film all of his scenes before production was shut down.
- In an interview with Total Film, the directors felt they needed to apologize to the cast for the volume of blood they used on set.
- Kathryn Newton confirmed that the film indeed gets quite messy, revealing: “I would say Abigail is the scariest movie I’ve done, the most gory movie I’ve done. I have played a couple of monsters, huh? I’m getting my monster belt. I need to get a letterman jacket with my little monster characters.”
- This is Melissa Barrera’s first collaboration with Radio Silence outside of the Scream movies.
- The music in the trailer is the main theme from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, which was used in the opening titles of Dracula.
- Tyler Gillett spoke to Empire about Abigail’s design and, specifically, her teeth. “We talked about the teeth a lot,” he says. “We wanted them to look more primal and animal than usual vampire fangs. Abigail’s are a kind of teeth on top of teeth like a shark’s mouth. Those apex predators, when they open their mouth, you see they’re designed to inflict as much damage as possible.”
- Abigail is a Hebrew name for, “my father’s joy”.
