Abigail (Alisha Weir) in a scene from "Abigail."
Note: Spoilers from the film are revealed below.
Abigail — a vampire movie inspired by the Universal Monsters spinoff Dracula’s Daughter — is new in theaters. Does it have an end credits scene to indicate more screams are on the way?
Abigail comes from Universal Pictures, which keeps opening its vault to mine new stories based on their classic monsters franchise that made household names out of the title characters in Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolfman and The Creature from the Black Lagoon from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Those core movies, of course, inspired spinoff movies if not direct sequels like The Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, as well as Son of Dracula and House of Dracula. Also produced was the 1936 spinoff Dracula’s Daughter, starring Gloria Holden in the lead role as Countess Marya Zaleska, aka Dracula’s daughter.
The new version of the tale focuses on 12-year-old Abigail (Alisha Weir), the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure. Abigail is also the target of a group of criminals who need to kidnap the girl and hold her in a broken-down mansion for 24 hours to collect a $50 million ransom. The group, however, gets much more than they bargained for with the seemingly harmless pre-teen when she reveals herself to be a bloodthirsty vampire.
Surprisingly, there is no end credits scene for Abigail. There is a dedication to start the credits, though, which says, “In loving memory of Angus Cloud,” an Abigail and Euphoria cast member who died of an accidental overdose in July of 2023.
As for future installments of Abigail, two principal cast members survive the mayhem. Another character mentioned in name only throughout the film turns up at the end, leaving the door open for a sequel.
Will ‘Abigail’ Get A Sequel?
Since Abigail is technically a Universal Monsters tale — and given there are dozens of such tales in Universal Studios’ library — a sequel is certainly a possibility given the way the film concludes.
Of course, Abigail must first perform well at the box office to even merit consideration, so if it meets its projected $12 million to $15 million take at this weekend’s box office (per Variety), it will already be halfway to recouping its $28 million production budget.
Even after the dead-on-arrival performance of the Nicholas Hoult-Nicolas Cage Dracula-inspired horror comedy Renfield in 2023 — it earned an anemic $26.4 million at the worldwide box office against a $65 million budget (via IMDb) — Universal seems intent on bringing back its monsters to the movie masses.
Universal, of course, tried to revive its monster properties in 2017 with the Tom Cruise version of The Mummy, the first and last film in the studio’s ambitious Dark Universe saga that fell flat at the box office.
Renfield aside, director Leigh Whannell made a huge hit out of the 2020 remake of The Invisible Man, which pulled in a whopping $139 million at the global box office against a $7 million production (via The Numbers). True, Abigail is budgeted much higher than The Invisible Man, but even a $28 million budget spend is a bargain these days for a studio film.
No matter how Abigail fares at the box office, a remake of The Wolfman is on the way with Whannell once again at the helm. The remake — which stars Poor Things actor Christopher Abbott and Ozark Emmy winner Julia Garner — is set for a 2025 release.
Variety reported that The Wolfman was originally targeted for a Halloween 2024 release, but Universal announced in March that it was pushing the film’s release date back to January 17, 2025.
Produced by Chad Villella and directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett —who collectively are known as Radio Silence — and also starring Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Hahn, Dan Stevens and Giancarlo Esposito, Abigail is new in theaters.
