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“.
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.”
“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.
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:
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:
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.”
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.
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.