“It’s Like The Horror Breakfast Club”

Last summer I had the opportunity to travel to Dublin with Universal Pictures to explore the set of Abigail, my first trip to Ireland, but not a first for Screen Rant. I sent members of our team to The Emerald Isle to visit the productions Dracula Untold and 47 Ronin in years past. Both features are also from Universal, the former another monster horror from the studio.

We made sure to visit a few Dublin must-sees like the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson Distillery and even took a short sightseeing cruise on the River Liffey. But it was during a tour of Marsh’s Library that the stage was really set for what we were about to see.

Founded in 1707, Marsh’s Library was the first public library in the country, and it’s where Bram Stoker conducted research for Dracula! We saw where he signed in to the library in 1866-67 and the book that he read on Transylvania decades before publishing his epistolary novel. This was the perfect introduction to what was referred to at the time as “Untitled Monster Film from Radio Silence & Project X Entertainment“.

Related: Melissa Barrera Is Under Attack By A Seemingly Indestructible Little Girl Vampire in This Trailer for Universal’s Abigail

It’s late June 2023, a few weeks before another major Hollywood strike is about to begin and there’s uncertainty abound. Producer William Sherak (The Night Agent, Ready or Not) tells me at dinner the evening before visiting the Abigail set that they really don’t know what to expect and that it’s difficult to plan production accordingly since there’s no telling if the SAG-AFTRA would go on strike and if so, how long it could take for the labor dispute to be resolved. The strike did happen but Abigail was still able to meet its April 2024 launch window.

“The actor strike was really hard. It definitely shifted the momentum,” co-director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin told us when we caught up with him and Radio Silence partner Tyler Gillett. The directing pair made Abigail after filming a pair of Scream movies following their hit Ready or Not and told us on set that if you like that movie, specifically the combination of humor and gore, Abigail is “Ready or Not on steroids.”

How Abigail Was Affected By The SAG-AFTRA Strike

“But the good news and we feel very lucky for this is that we were able to just jump right into post, and we basically shot the movie movie in order,” Matt continues. “So we were able to basically edit the first two acts of the movie, and then know what we had, and then go back ready to finish that now knowing what we have to hit.”

Universal loved what they’d seen so far from the first two acts of Abigail in post-production during the strike, and when principal photography resumed, the cast and crew were able to not only have a better and more clear plan of how to complete the picture, but they now could add to it as well. They brought in stunt choreographer Wade Allen (Barry, Kong: Skull Island) to level up the action. “He’s kind of a second unit director on this. And he’s incredible,” Matt explains.

Abigail Was Shot In A Party House Once Owned by the Guinness Family

And the more action the better, since Abigail might just be in the running for one of the bloodiest movies ever. I can confirm this to be true because I walked through some of it, dodging entrails hanging from the ceiling while exploring one notable room in particular from the old mansion featured in the Abigail trailers. This was not your ordinary set visit and this was not your normal set.

The story of Abigail begins with a heist. A group of criminals, for lack of a better term, who don’t know each other, but each have a specific skillset, were contracted for a kidnapping. Capture a person from a mansion and take them to another location (another mansion) and secure them for 24 hours to receive a life-changing payday. It’s here at the iconic Glenmaroon House in Dublin, Ireland, that we spent two days on set during night shoots. It was summer solstice in Ireland at the time, so the crew would shoot interiors until the sun went down around midnight and go out for four short hours before returning inside for more shoots. Producer Ron Lynch told us that after our visit, they only had one more day at the Glenmaroon mansion, then the production was off to the other mansion of the film where the kidnapping takes place.

The Glenmaroon House, an iconic and historic location in Dublin, has changed hands a few times over its many decades and is both beautiful but old and decrepit. When coupled with the production designer’s horrifying augmentations (think lots of taxidermy) and vampire-fueled gore, it becomes something else. The Glenmaroon House was at one point a literal party pad for Arthur Ernest Guinness, son of Edward Guinness. Yes, that Edward Guinness, head of the Guinness brewing business. Arthur built a second house on the property 120 years ago for family life, keeping the main house a party pad of course, indoor pool included.

That pool looked a little different while we were there since it was full of bodies that Kathryn Newton’s character, Sammy, had to… navigate. “Oh my gosh, the most like traumatic experiences I’ve ever had, in the best coolest way,” Newton told us in describing that particular sequence as we – a group of media – shuffled into the church addition to the house that was added after the Guinness family lost this estate. “I had to do something where I jumped into a pool of bodies,” Newton continues:

“So that was the best scene I’ve ever shot. 100% most iconic scene I’ve ever done in my career, probably. I hope, you know, that’s the goal. Like when you do something scary like that, you just want it to be so frightening that it stays with the audience.”

Abigail’s Cast Helped Develop Their Own Characters

Abigail’s Rat Pack actors sings praise for young star Alisha Wier

While production takes place in Dublin, the city doubles for Boston in the story of Abigail. The buildings and river look like Boston so it works, and some of the cast put on an American accent for their characters, while others get to keep their native tongue. Dan Stevens in particular plays a New York ex-cop and star Alisha Weir drops her Irish accent to play American as well, though that fooled many during the early days of production. “I was incredibly impressed with her in Matilda. I assumed she was British,” Stevens tells of his young co-costar who plays the not-so-young titular vampire. Stevens explains:

I hadn’t met her before we sat down to do the read-through. She just walked in with her mom and sat down. And we started reading through the script. And then I thought, “Oh, she’s American.” And she did this flawless American accent and the read through. Really brilliant. Really kind of scary and assured. I was like, “Oh, she must be American. That’s incredible that she did this British accent in Matilda.” And then I chatted to her afterward, it turns out she’s from Dublin! And I said, “well ,that’s extraordinary. Do you have a dialect coach?” And she said, “No, I just watched the telly.” And she is the sweetest, loveliest character, one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with”

For Kevin Durand however, he was able to change his character’s origin and use his native Québécois accent, something he’s never done on film before. When Durand pitched this to the directors, it was a no-brainer, and all the cast were able to help design the look of the characters, develop and alter their backstories. “Of course, like, why would you say no to that flavor? Right? It makes it so interesting and so specific,” director Tyler Gillett tells us of the collaboration and creative freedom.

For Stevens’ character, Frank, he chose to come in with slicked back hair and glasses, the former because he and the directors were constantly geeking out about their love of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson and in particular, the “slicked back hair” sketch. On paper, Frank was intended to be an Italian-American in his 70s. For star Melissa Barrera who plays Joey, she developed the real name of Ana Lucia Cruz for the character. “I wanted it to be a reference to Dracula, to Lucy,” Barrera tells us. “I named her Ana Lucia and Cruz as in cross, something that would kill a vampire, that protects you from the vampire. So that ended up being her name.”

“Angus Cloud is a another perfect example of this. He is was such a unique human being and so specifically himself,” Matt Bettinelli-Olpin tells us of how Cloud, who tragically passed away just weeks after we met him on set, helped inspire them and the cast to embrace the personalities they could bring to each character. For Kathryn Newton, she came in having added tattoos and, with the directors, decided to add even more around her hacker outfit as Joey, a character who she describes as “nicest person in the movie.”

Exploring Abigail’s Hunting Ground

The scenes we were able to witness being setup and shot over our two days on the Abigail set involved the crew meeting Giancarlo Esposito’s character after successfully kidnapping their target. Esposito plays the mysterious Lambert who contracted the crew for the task and gave them their “Rat Pack” code names, instructing them to keep their real identities secret, even taking their phones.

As the Abigail trailers reveal, the heist element of the story quickly flips into a setup for Abigail to reveal her true self, layers of teeth and all. As we explored the Glenmaroon House, beginning with the impressive grand entrance, we couldn’t help but notice the sheer volume of stag antlers everywhere. The production added a stag statue outside too. Even the chandeliers were made of antlers, while the walls, railings, and shelves were heavy on the skull and taxidermy decor.

To the right of the main entrance is a large room with a bar and billiards table, where the characters in the film will socialize and meet each other in their first hours while “babysitting” Abigail. On the other side of the main staircase, we took a long walk through corridors, noting many other staircases scattered throughout the house. We crossed a little bridge that was very rundown and came across what appeared to be a breakfast room connected to an orangery. The production designers made this greenhouse area far more dark for use in the film where a key sequence plays out.

Abigail Brings the Gore to Another Level Alongside The Fun

After that, we visited a secondary kitchen (pictured above before it was transformed by the Abigail production) where we were told that servants would work, and it was filled with blood and guts, everywhere. It serves another purpose in the film as you will learn but let me tell you about how the entire floor was basically a puddle of dark red with human organs peppered around. The same for the walls and ceiling. It was very sticky.

Later we went upstairs to tour some more, including seeing Abigail’s bedroom and another room where she performed a dance, the type only a vampire could do. On the monitors in another room, we sat with producer Ron Lynch and watched Radio Silence do what they do best as they shot a sequence where Melissa Barrera’s Joey ascended some stairs by herself, syringe in hand, hoping to find and sedate Abigail. You’ll have to wait to see how that plays out…

During our two days on the Abigail set we met all of the cast except for Alisha Weir but since we had limited time with most, and since the directors were busy shooting with the full ensemble, we’ve participated in a series of longer conversations with everyone in recent weeks to talk about the trip and the movie since it’s been completed.

Exploring the set it became obvious what the directors meant when teasing that Abigail goes way further than 2019’s Ready or Not did on the gore front. “It definitely wasn’t accidental,” Tyler Gillett told us when we caught up a few weeks ago to talk about the set visit and film. He continues:

I think that we always want to challenge ourselves and find new ways to shock and entertain ourselves. I’m going to sort of pare it back to like, just who our monster is. Because you have this 13 year-old vampire at the heart of this movie, it felt to us that it just meant we could go harder and more extreme and have more fun with the gore and the violence because you have her as a young girl, as the other guard rail. And the further away those things get for us, the more fun and absurd the tone of the movie gets. And the more fun and absurd it gets, the more your characters have to sort of interact with and respond to. Knowing that there are certain sequences that feel a little bit inspired by some of our other work that maybe we didn’t have this sort of time or budget to do, right, we definitely are kind of revisiting some fun things in this movie in bigger and more extraordinary ways. But it gets pretty wild. I mean, there were days on set where you couldn’t like walk anywhere, because it was just a bloodbath. And that for us is super fun. You build these incredibly elaborate sets. And then by the end of the shoot, it’s like wow, what a what a crazy transformation.

The above quote from Tyler Gillett hits all the keywords that best describe what Universal Pictures is looking for from Project X Entertainment and Radio Silence with Abigail: Absurd, entertaining, extreme, fun, wild. Imagine the last two Scream movies and Ready or Not, but with more freedom for the directors, an all-star cast in an amazing location, and the resources to do more of what they want while letting the cast do the same? That’s Abigail.

Abigail is only in theaters April 19th. Tickets on sale now.

Glenmaroon House photos provided with permission by BCD URBEX. Additional photography by Rob Keyes. Trip was organized by Universal Pictures.