Alisha Weir and Kathryn Newton in "Abigail."
Abigail — a bloody vampire movie from the directors of the last two Scream movies — has already sharpened its fangs for digital streaming.
Released in theaters April 19, Abigail is based on the 1936 classic Universal Studios Monsters movie Dracula’s Daughter and surprisingly it is taking a quick flight to premium video on demand.
Alisha Wier stars as Abigail (Alisha Weir), the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld crime boss. After a shady figure named Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) devises a plot, Abigail is kidnapped by a group of criminals who are instructed to hold the girl in a broken-down mansion for 24 hours to collect $50 million in ransom money from her father.
Unbeknownst to the group — which includes Joey (Melissa Barrera), a single mother struggling with addiction — Abigail is also a bloodthirsty, 1,000-year-old vampire who has no problem brutally taking apart her kidnappers one by one until she is free.
Abigail was released on PVOD Tuesday and is available on such platforms as Prime Video, VUDU and AppleTV+. PVOD users can either rent the film for $19.99 or purchase it for $24.99.
Viewers who rent Abigail digitally, though, must remember that they will have only 48 hours to watch a film once they begin it.
William Catlett, Melissa Barrera, Kevin Durand and Kathryn Newton in "Abigail."
Who Else Stars In ‘Abigail’?
In addition to Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera and Giancarlo Esposito, Abigail also stars Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand and late Euphoria star Angus Cloud as Joey’s fellow crew members.
The filmmakers behind Abigail came into the project with a horror film pedigree. Collectively known as Radio Silence, Abigail is produced by Chad Villella and co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Known for bringing lots of humor to their bloody horror films, Radio Silence is also the creative team behind the 2019 Samara Weaving horror comedy Ready or Not, as well as 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI, starring Barrera and Jenna Ortega.
Radio Silence is not returning to direct Scream VII, which will be helmed instead by 1996’s Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
According to The Numbers, Abigail came in at No. 9 at the domestic box office over the weekend with $2.3 million in ticket sales, bringing its stateside tally to $22.8 million. Overseas the film has made $11.9 million, bringing its worldwide box office to $34.7 million.
However, Variety reported that Abigail’s production budget was $28 million, not including money spent on prints and advertising— a factor that may explain the film’s quick debut on PVOD.
Abigail's $28 million production spend is considerably more than Tarot, the latest horror movie to enter the movie marketplace.
Tarot was made for $8 million and opened over the weekend with $6.5 million in ticket sales for a No. 4 finish at the domestic box office. Combined with $2.7 million in international ticket sales, Tarot earned $10.2 million worldwide in its opening weekend.
Abigail received a warm welcome from critics on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, earning an 84% “fresh” rating on the Tomatometer based on 189 reviews.
Audiences like Abigail even more, as the Rotten Tomatoes audience score comes in at 85% positive based on 500+ verified ratings.
NOTE: This story has been updated to confirm the PVOD rental price of $19.99.
