Not too surprisingly after that blood-splattered first trailer, the latest horror movie from Radio Silence - aka directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and producer Chad Villella - had been officially rated R for “Strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language and brief drug use.”
The teaser for Abigail introduced Matilda the Musical star Alisha Weir as a seemingly innocent ballerina who is kidnapped by a gang who get a lot more than they bargained for when the kid turns out to be a bloodthirsty vampire.
"It just felt like, ‘This is the iconic feel of the movie’,” co-director Tyler Gillett tells Empire. “The imagery is this young girl, in a tutu, covered in blood because she’s been on a killing spree. Our goal is always to find and design a character that feels like, ‘Ooh, [frick], that’s gonna be a cool Halloween costume’.”
“In the opening scene she was at a ballet class,” adds Bettinelli-Olpin, “and it was kind of a part of the character. But once we met Alisha, she was like, ‘I’m really good at dancing’, and it became ‘Ooh, let’s steer into that. Let’s make that part of the identity of the movie.’”
Check out a new still below.
After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.
From Radio Silence—the directing team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett behind the terrifying modern horror hits Ready or Not, 2022’s Scream and last year’s Scream VI—comes a brash, blood-thirsty new vision of the vampire flick, written by Stephen Shields (The Hole in the Ground, Zombie Bashers) and Guy Busick (Scream franchise, Ready or Not).
Abigail also stars Melissa Barrera (Scream franchise, In the Heights), Dan Stevens (Gaslit, Legion), Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Freaky), William Catlett (Black Lightning, True Story), Kevin Durand (Resident Evil: Retribution, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Angus Cloud (Euphoria, North Hollywood) as the kidnappers.
The film is produced by William Sherak (Scream franchise, Ready or Not), Paul Neinstein (Scream franchise; executive producer, The Night Agent) and James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Scream franchise) for Project X Entertainment, by Tripp Vinson (Ready or Not, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) and by Radio Silence’s Chad Vilella (executive producer Ready or Not and Scream franchise). The executive producers are Ron Lynch and Macdara Kelleher.
Abigail is set to be released in theaters on April 19. Do you plan on seeing this one on the big screen?