Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! Today is dedicated to one of the best horror films of 2024, Abigail! Abigail gave us an epic heist movie and exceeded our expectations with lots of blood, lots of slaughter, and lots of heart. So, choose your allies wisely, stay in the sun, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com, instagram.com, and IMDb.com)

(BLOOD WARNING!!!)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• The film features one of Angus Cloud’s (Dean) final performances. He was able to film all of his scenes before the SAG-AFTRA strike, which didn’t end until months after his death. The cloud drawing that’s above his dedication at the end of the film was his actual autograph. He signed it for a crew member while he was on set. When filming wrapped, his co-star, Melissa Barrera (Joey) had the drawing printed on t-shirts for the whole cast and crew.
• There were more dance sequences than intended added to the film because the directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were so impressed by Alisha Weir’s (Abigail) dancing.
• The film was shot in the famous Guinness Manor in Dublin, Ireland.
• Alisha Weir was actually from Ireland, and she learned her flat accent just from watching television. Dan Stevens (Frank) was shocked that she didn’t need a dialect coach.

• Kevin Durand (Peter) never used his native Québécois accent in any film before this one. He pitched the accent and his character’s origins to the directors, who loved it and let him do it.
• Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) gave the kidnappers all pseudonyms so they didn’t use their real names. The names given were taken from The Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Don Rickles. Rickles wasn’t considered an official member, but he said, “I never received an official membership card, but Frank made me feel part of the fun.”
• During pre-production, Angus Cloud drew a series of dicks and sent them to the filmmakers so they could choose the style that was perfect for Kevin Durand’s face.
• The crest on the manor’s gate and on the library floor highly resembles the Dracula crest shown in some of the old Universal films.

• Inside the manor, there is a portrait of Tony Le Domas (Henry Czerny) from Ready Or Not hung up. Tyler Gillett said in this film, the individual depicted in the frame is actually a distant ancestor. He’s a great, great, great, great grandfather.
• The beginning scene was written as a series of crosscuts between Abigail’s dance number and the introduction of the other characters. For a while, the filmmakers wanted it to just be Abigail’s dance uninterrupted in order to acknowledge the work put into the performance. They later realized the film was better with the crosscuts.
• Melissa Barrera confirmed that this was the bloodiest film she ever worked on. She stated, “I’ve seen some movies that have like a bathtub full of blood or someone comes out of blood and like in the water, but like, but talking about the amount of blood that you see throughout a movie, this is probably up there with the most. It’s a lot. We have blood cannons. That says a lot.”
• The photos by Abigail’s bedside are actually photos of the filmmakers and their pets.

• Dan Stevens came up with the idea that his character should wear glasses. Even though the decision created glare and reflection complications, the directors still felt it was the right call for the character.
• According to the directors, they didn’t film any of the vampire scenes until at least 2 weeks into production. They wanted to get the heist stuff and character introductions covered before they moved on to the more complex and messier vampire scenes.
• When discussing why the film was so gory, Tyler Gillett stated, “Our thing with blood is it always has to feel viscous, the minute it feels thin, it’s not interesting. We want it to stick to you.”
• Because of Ireland’s short summer nights, much of the film had to be shot during the day and many of the scenes had to be tinted.

• The character Lambert was named after Lambert Hillyer, the director of Dracula’s Daughter, the movie this film was loosely based on.
• Frank’s quote, “Alright. Let’s go kill us a f***ing vampire” is a nod to George Clooney’s quote in From Dusk Till Dawn, “Alright. Let’s go kill us some f***ing vampires!”
• The word “F**k” and its derivatives were said 224 times in this film.
• The name Abigail is Hebrew for “my father’s joy.”

• Larry Fessenden cameos as a radio DJ and apparently it’s the same character he played in Radio Silence’s segment in Southbound.
• The opening ballet performance was filmed at the Borg Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Alisha Weir lives in Dublin, as did Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula.
• When talking about Abigail’s design, Tyler Gillett stated, “We talked about the teeth a lot. We wanted them to look more primal and animal than usual vampire fangs. Abigail’s are a kind of teeth on top of teeth like a shark’s mouth. Those are apex predators, when they open their mouth, you see they’re designed to inflict as much damage as possible.”
• In order to approach her character as two separate people, Alisha Weir referred to the kidnapped, frightened child version as Abby, and the alpha predator as Abigail. When she plays Abigail, she altered her voice to sound more like a confident adult.

• Kathryn Newton (Sammy) is also a professional dancer who trained in dance and ballet since she was a kid. For Sammy’s bloody dance scene, Newton and the film’s choreographer, Belinda Murphy created a full dance routine. Newton performed the dance in front of the directors, hoping that they would put at least a small piece of it into the film. They loved it so much, they put the entire routine in the film to show the power of Abigail and her appreciation of using her dancing as a weapon.
• While discussing why he chose to make Abigail a ballerina, the film’s writer, Stephen Shields admitted that it’s because he’s scared of ballerinas. He stated, “I am terrified of ballerinas. I always have been. I just think anyone that can stand on their tiptoes and do stuff like that is, you know, they’re a little bit of a different kind of type of creature. But I always envisioned this movie to have a vampire who was a ballerina covered in blood. I think it’s gonna make a really awesome Halloween costume this year, as well.”
• For the scene where Sammy fell into the pool of decaying bodies, the filmmakers filled a real pool with about 40 corpse dummies, and in the “soup” was all manner of material to make the water look putrid.
• Melissa Barrera was the one who came up with her character’s real name, Ana Lucia Cruz. She explained, “I wanted it to be a reference to Dracula, to Lucy. I named her Ana Lucia and Cruz as in cross, something that would kill a vampire, that protects you from a vampire. So that ended up being her name.”

• Kathryn Newton revealed that the scene with the pool of bodies was the hardest day she’s ever had on set. She stated, “It was really difficult. It was the hardest day I’ve ever had on set. And I consider myself athletic. I consider myself a professional athlete. But I knew that I wanted to make everyone really proud. I hope people like it because I was thinking about the audience. And I was like, ‘Do not under-deliver. Don’t. Go there.’ And so every time I was like, ‘Go!’ And I hope people like it.”
• The film opens with Abigail dancing in toe shoes. Ballerinas don’t dance en pointe until they’re at least eleven years old, because their still growing feet can be severely damaged. This little detail in the film shows Abigail is no ordinary little girl.
• Frank’s real name is Adam Barrett. He was named after Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, director and writer of The Guest and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Dan Stevens starred in both of those films.
• Lambert named the kidnappers after The Rat Pack, and he said they’re a little pack of rats. This is foreshadowing to the fact that the job was a trap and they were later trapped in the manor like rats.