The latest from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Abigail, transforms a heist movie into a full-blown vampire horror movie blood bath. What sounds like absolute bad news for the would-be criminals tasked with what seems like an easy job should make for an entertaining thrill ride for audiences.
As for those would-be criminals, Bloody Disgusting learned more about the key players in Abigail when invited to set last summer in Ireland.
The first scene observed on set introduced the group, handpicked to kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure. They’ve just arrived at their eerie destination after a successful grab. From the grand staircase in the sprawling estate’s foyer, a commanding Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) lays out the ground rules of the kidnapping as he takes their cellphones. The group is given fake names corresponding with members of the Rat Pack to preserve their anonymity, with the added horror bonus of telling audiences not to get too attached.
But who are these characters?
Of his intimidating character Lambert and the script, Esposito tells us, “The first couple of pages are really captivating; they were for me when I read them. I went, ‘Wow, what a great set piece in the beginning.’ Then I come into the film, and I’m taking charge and telling people what this job is, which ostensibly is a kidnapping. I have to do that convincingly for the film afterward to work.”
Expect Lambert to be very untrustworthy, as Esposito warns that “there’s a little tinge of him being resentful about” Lambert’s position.
In the scene, Dan Stevens’ Frank appears to be working directly for Lambert as his second in command during this operation. The horror stalwart describes his role within the group, “Because of the nature of this motley group, it initially follows quite classic heist movie tropes where you’ve got the wheels, the getaway driver, and you’ve got the tech girl who’s going to hack the computers, and then you’ve got the medic who’s going to administer the sleeping drugs. Then you’ve got Kevin Durand playing the muscle or whatever. Everyone seemed to have a very, very clear role in this band of criminals. And then there’s Frank, who just seemed to be an asshole. That seemed to be his special skill, really. We could never quite figure out what he was doing there. For all intents and purposes, he was the boss of the group. So maybe that’s it. Maybe bosses are just assholes, I don’t know. But that really seemed to be his special skill. That and cursing frequently. That’s definitely one of his special skills.”
Stevens certainly looks the part of an ex-cop turned mob henchman, and it turns out that he had a lot of input on his character’s design.
He explained, “That was a collaborative effort really with costume designer and directors and myself and just sort of an interesting shopping trip in Dublin one day just to see what we could pull together for him. I think the role originally had been written for a 60-something Italian American, and because of the demands of the role, I guess, or other reasons, they didn’t find somebody of that casting, so they came to me. We had to amend what sort of a cop this guy had been and what his background was. We took particular inspiration from ‘I Think You Should Leave,’ the slicked-back hair. That seemed to make us laugh. So that definitely stayed in from that.”
Melissa Barrera as Joey in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
Immediately distrustful of Frank, a sentiment he reciprocates, is Joey, played by Scream veteran Melissa Barrera. She recounts Joey’s role within the group, “Her specialty and the reason that she’s here actually is because she’s a medic. That’s what her profession is, and she’s here basically to knock the victim, whoever they’re kidnapping, she’s supposed to inject them with a sedative and then make sure that they survive and take care of them. She has an extra sedative in case they need it. That’s her job; she’s the caretaker and the nurse, basically, of the group. But of course, being in the army, she has some skills with weapons and she has some combat training, so we get to see a little bit of that. Not a lot, but I did learn how to properly hold a gun and where the finger’s supposed to be.”
Barrera also gave her character a real name, beyond the moniker Joey, worthy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The actor tells us, “I actually gave her her real name because these characters, the names that you see in the trailer are their ‘names’ that they’re given there because they share their real names, because it’s for safety reasons in case anyone gets caught, they’re given the rat pack names. So, funny story: originally my character’s rat pack name was Sammy, and because of Sam in Scream, they changed it to Joey. I ended up being Joey and Kathryn ended up being Sammy, but I worked with Matt and Tyler to give her a real name, which is Ana Lucia Cruz, and I wanted it to be a reference to Dracula. So Lucy, 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.”
(from left) Abigail (Alisha Weir) and Peter (Kevin Durand) in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
Kevin Durand may look imposing in stature, but it quickly becomes clear that his character has a softer side.
“I play a guy named Peter who is basically a hired muscle for the group,” the Canadian actor shares. “We’ve been hired to kidnap a target, and you realize that the target’s a 12-year-old, and we’re like, okay, this is too easy. We realize that it’s not as easy as we thought. Peter’s always a couple of steps behind, partially because it’s a bit of a language barrier. I’m playing him like he’s from French Canada, who’s a little bit of a skew and trying to catch up. He is not really okay with his line of work, so he drinks heavily.”
The group dynamics will play a vital role in Abigail, with the strangers reluctant to trust each other. That’s less so with Peter, who Durand reveals will quickly develop a bond with another team member.
“Well, to a certain degree, some of us look out for each other; some of us don’t give a shit,” Durand explains. “Peter really takes a liking to Sammy, played by the amazing Kathryn Newton. So, they have a pretty cool connection, kind of like a brotherly, sibling-type thing. I mean, they don’t know each other.”
The trailer highlights that some characters quickly embrace the vampiric nature of their captive. That’s less so with Peter.
Durand comments, “How does Peter react when things get weird? He doesn’t want to believe it. He’s very Catholic and the idea that vampires actually exist, he’s like, ‘There’s no such thing.’ He doesn’t believe it and then he’s being attacked by the one.”
It’s easy to see why Peter takes a liking to Sammy. Newton brings a vivacious energy to her heavily tattooed hacker character.
(from left) Abigail (Alisha Weir) and Sammy (Kathryn Newton) in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
Newton says of Sammy, “She’s really kind of privileged and naïve to the stakes that she’s put herself in because I think she comes from a background of nothing really bad happens to her. It might even be created in her head if something’s bad. This is a real shock. But I would argue that she’s the nicest person in the movie. I think that she’s got the best intentions; she is not here to really make any money or care about kidnapping anybody. She’s kind of here just to have a good time.”
Angus Cloud’s Dean serves as the group’s wheelman. The “Euphoria” actor brought an unflappable cool factor to the scene observed as he, along with his new colleagues, handed over their phones. Abigail marks one of his final screen appearances.
The crew’s shooter, Rickles, is played by William Catlett. Catlett walks us through his no-nonsense character, “He’s the one that kind of keeps everything grounded in the film. It’s like a heist film. Then it turns into a horror film. We were just doing EPK where we were up in my bungalow because, just like a slapper, you want to be above so you can see everything until everything goes to shit. But that’s pretty much Rickles.”
Catlett also reinforces that this assembled criminal team is working together for the first time on this kidnapping heist.
“We all just met up, but we were all summoned here by Abigail,” Catlett says. “We’d done something that brought us here. Whatever we did, it’s like payback. We were all supposed to be in this place. We think we’re coming together for one thing, but we were handpicked to be here.”
As for the eponymous vampire child and the vampiric horror? Stay tuned for more on Abigail very soon.
The post ‘Abigail’ – Meet the Criminals Behind the Heist-Turned-Vampire Horror Movie [Set Visit] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.