For months, nobody knew what Radio Silence’s Untitled Universal Monster Movie would be. In fact, for the uninitiated, the very concept sounds like gibberish. Let’s break it down: Radio Silence is the horror collective best known for 2022’s Scream, last year’s Scream 6, and instant favourite Ready Or Not – aka directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and producer Chad Villella. And rather than stepping into Scream 7, the trio signed up to make a monster movie at Universal, the exact nature of which was unknown – until the trailer for Abigail dropped, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. As we now know, it’s a vampire movie – in which its central bloodsucker is a vicious child ballerina.
“It just felt like, ‘This is the iconic feel of the movie’,” co-director Tyler Gillett tells Empire of the ‘vampire ballerina’ idea. “The imagery is this young girl, in a tutu, covered in blood because she’s been on a killing spree.” Expect to see Abigail-esque costumes at Spirit Halloween later this year. “Our goal is always to find and design a character that feels like, ‘Ooh, fuck, that’s gonna be a cool Halloween costume’.” Case in point: Samara Weaving's blood-soaked bride in Ready Or Not, or Jenna Ortega's fluffy pink jumper in Scream. Playing the terrifying youngster is Alisha Weir – best known for Matilda The Musical. And her prowess at all-singing-all-dancing fare meant that the ballerina aspect became a bigger deal in the final film. “In the opening scene she was at a ballet class,” explains 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.’”
What still remains unclear is whether or not Abigail will connect to the wider lore of the Universal Monsters – the legendary pantheon of classic horror characters, from Dracula and Frankenstein, to the Wolfman and the Creature From The Black Lagoon. Whether any of that features or not, the most important thing for the filmmakers was to come up with a thrilling cinematic ride. “The script was something that had existed at Universal in one iteration and we got our hands on it,” teases Gillett. “As worried as people are about it being IP, the feature is this: it’s just a wildly bizarre and fun and original take on a vampire story.” Get ready to sink your fangs in.
Read Empire’s full Abigail story in the Star Wars prequels 25th anniversary issue – on sale Thursday 15 February. Pre-order the issue online – find the light side cover here, and the dark side cover here. Abigail comes to UK cinemas from 19 April.