Kathryn Newton Says ‘Abigail’ Is the Goriest Movie She’s Ever Been In

The Big Picture

• Kathryn Newton teases that
  Abigail
  is the scariest and goriest movie she has made yet.
• Newton stars opposite Giancarlo Esposito, Melissa Barrera, and Dan Stevens.
• Abigail
  is set to premiere on April 19, 2024.

If the trailer for Abigail is any indication, the upcoming horror movie will be a bloody and muddy experience for everyone involved. But no one can describe it better than the movie’s star Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania). The actress joined Perri Nemiroff for a Collider Ladies Night interview in celebration of Lisa Frankenstein and took a moment to tease the upcoming movie and geek out about horror in general. During the interview, Newton confirmed that Abigail indeed gets quite messy. The concept of the movie is curious enough on its own: A group of criminals kidnaps a young ballerina in order to demand a multi-million dollar ransom. What they find out later is that the young girl is also a vampire, and she will make their life a living hell for a night. So what more can we expect from it?

“I would say Abigail is the scariest movie I’ve done, the most gory movie I’ve done. I have played a couple of monsters, huh? I’m getting my monster belt. I need to get a letterman jacket with my little monster characters.”

Newton’s statement is quite loaded since she’s been in several horror-filled stories. One of her early roles was in Paranormal Activity 4 and, since then, she’s starred in Freaky and the upcoming Lisa Frankenstein, in addition to several episodes of CW’s long-running series Supernatural. Newton had a lot of praise for the Radio Silence team, who were also behind the highly successful Scream 2022 and Scream 6, saying, “[I] will say that those guys, those Radio Silence besties—who I would like to work with for the rest of my life—if you’re out there, and you’re watching this…Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillet], I love them.”

From ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Supernatural’ to Universal Monsters

Abigail is based on a 1936 horror movie called Dracula’s Daughter. In the original, the heir of the most famous vampire of all time is trying to free herself from her father’s influence. In turn, both stories are derivative versions of the short story Dracula’s Guest, which was a deleted chapter from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The origins of the character and the story are foggy enough for Radio Silence to do their own thing without worrying too much about the source material. Considering how they managed to make the Scream franchise feel fresh, it’ll be interesting to see what they can do with a mostly original script.

In addition to Newton, the cast also features Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Melissa Barrera (Scream 6), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), William Catlett (The Devil You Know), Kevin Durand (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Alisha Weir (Matilda The Musical) and the late Angus Cloud (Euphoria).

Abigail is slated to premiere in theaters on April 19. You can watch the trailer below: