Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin say their vampire movie wasn’t designed to spawn a franchise.
Abigail directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin would sink their teeth into a sequel in a heartbeat, but this may be one monster that’s one-and-done. The duo behind Ready or Not and Scream VI — also known as Radio Silence — take a turn at a different kind of bloody horror with their Universal monster movie, about a group of would-be criminals who kidnap a 12-year-old ballerina (Alisha Weir) to collect a $50 million ransom. But when the group — Joey (Melissa Barrera), Frank (Dan Stevens), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Peter (Kevin Durand), Rickles (William Catlett), and Dean (Angus Cloud) — starts to dwindle, they find out that the little girl is a vampire.
Unlike the classic Universal Monster movies of old that spawned decades of sequels — like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man — the directing team says Abigail wasn’t designed with a franchise in mind.
“I think that we would return to anything Abigail-related in a heartbeat. There’s no design to do that,” Gillett told ComicBook. “We didn’t go into this movie with any design to do that, because our favorite movies and the movies we love to make are ones that do feel like they have a really definitive and satisfying character end. Even if there are certain things that are left unfinished, we also love stories that exist outside of the frame.”
“Look, we’ll show up to do anything with this incredible actor,” Gillett continued. “And to work with Universal again would be such an honor.”
Described as “a brash, blood-thirsty new vision of the vampire flick,” Abigail has received favorable reviews from early reactions. One critic wrote that Abigail is “essentially a spiritual sequel to their breakout hit” Ready or Not, and the film is currently fresh at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. It seems that the blood-sucking ballerina stuck the landing.
While there might not be an Abigail 2, the directing duo are planning to return for an “absolute f-cking banger” of a sequel to Ready or Not, their 2019 horror-comedy that starred Samara Weaving.
“It’s getting figured out,” Gillett said in a recent interview. “That’s what we’ll say: Ready or Not 2 is getting figured out. What we can say is that there is a script that is an absolute f-cking banger of a sequel. And however it gets made, and in whatever capacity we are helping get it made, we are so excited that it’s happening. That movie is truly the love of our creative lives in a lot of ways.”
Abigail is in theaters April 19.
