STACK #238 August 2024

MOVIE FEATURE

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Alisha Weir as Abigail

”I mean, I think we would love it if people don’t know anything and see it without seeing the trailer,” admits Matt, when asked if they were at all tempted to dupe the audience with a false premise. ”But that said, we were very aware when we were making the movie that it was going to be

In Abigail , six criminals kidnap the daughter of a billionaire businessman, only to discover that she’s a ferocious vampire with a blood lust that’d put Vlad the Impaler to shame. Words Glenn Cochrane

given away, so then we took it upon ourselves to make sure that

Abigail was originally intended to be part of Universal Pictures’ scrapped Dark Universe series, following The Mummy (2017) and The Invisible Man (2020). DYK?

everything leading up to that point was still engaging.” The film is hysterically funny as

well as violently scary, with the humour being woven into the story with pinpoint precision. Comedy is

S uch is the simple premise of Abigail , the latest horror treat from the directors of Scream V, Scream VI, and Ready or Not , which cleverly leans into all of the obvious genre tropes, as well as exploring new lore while dishing up an absolute bloodbath. Chatting with STACK , directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett come across like two kids who’ve been let out to play, with mischief on their minds. ”That is an incredibly high compliment,” says Tyler, after our suggestion that they’d gone full Peter Jackson on their cast, throwing a Braindead amount of blood at them. Actors Kevin Durand and William Catlett weigh into the conversation, having been subject to gallons of the slimy red stuff while filming the movie. ”It’s fun, because this is what the audience wants and you’re having fun in the moment,” says William, before recalling the endurance of his castmates. ”I remember Kathryn [Newton] having a moment, coming out of a pool of it, and

no easy feat, as Tyler explains. ”It’s definitely difficult. I think that even for us on this one, we were surprised at how well it was working during the previews and then seeing it with an audience. And I think some of it is that you’re trapped in an editing room for so long and kind of forget how tuned the movie is until you see it with people who are watching it for the first time. Turning our attention to Kevin, we felt obligated to confess our fandom by referencing one of his best and earliest performances of his, opposite Russell Crowe in Mystery, Alaska (1999). While watching his performance in Abigail , we couldn’t help but recall his character of ’Tree’ Lane in that fantastic ice hockey movie from all those years ago. It came as a relief when our remark was met with a Cheshire Cat-like grin, having obviously struck a chord with him. ”Yeaaah!” he exclaims, upon hearing the name ’Tree’ Lane. ”That is so wild that you said

William Catlett and Kevin Durand

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

I’m like, ’She’s not having fun’, and yet she is having fun,” he says, as Kevin laughs at the thought. The premise of the movie hinges on the revelation that Abigail, initially perceived as an ordinary little girl, is actually a monster, and yet it would seem to us that having to reveal this major pivot in the plot in order to market the film would be a missed opportunity to catch the audience off guard.

that, because that was the last time I had got to play a character with my natural accent, because I’m French Canadian. So that’s so cool. It felt kind of full circle coming back around to that accent, which kind of liberated me to

• Abigail is out Aug 7

Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens and Kevin Durand

just kind of find lightness.

12 AUGUST 2024

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