Last summer, we learned that Scream VI directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, aka Radio Silence, were working on a mysterious "monster movie" for Universal Pictures, and the project has now been unveiled via a gruesome, and surprisingly funny, Red Band trailer.
Titled Abigail, the movie stars up-and-coming Irish actress Alisha Weir (who looked a lot different when we last saw her in Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical) as a seemingly innocent child who is kidnapped by a group of mercenaries hoping to land a massive payday.
Abigail bonds with one of her captors (played by Scream VI star Melissa Barrera), but it soon becomes abundantly clear that there's a lot more to this ballerina than meets the eye.
Though we're not sure if this exact premise has carried over, the movie is believed to be at least loosely based on an older script for "Dracula's Daughter," which may explain why little Abby sets about eating her kidnappers!
Check out the trailer and poster below, but be warned that it gives far too much away.
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?