Abigail Directors & Star Tease The Mystery Of Abigail’s Father

Summary The mystery of Abigail's father in Abigail is teased by the movie's directors and star.

Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were given the freedom to explore weird and unexpected storylines, creating a fresh take.

Actress Alisha Weir hints at Abigail's mysterious past and deceitful nature, promising unexpected twists and revelations.

Abigail is a new horror movie that leans into “weird stuff” by pitting a vampiric ballerina child against a motley crew of kidnappers-turned-prey, and the movie’s directors and stars have teased even more in the mystery surrounding Abigail’s father. The movie was written by Guy Busick (Scream VI) and Stephen Shields (Tim’s Tactical Tips ) and directed by Scream VI filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. It stars Alisha Weir (Matilda: The Musical) as the titular vampire, Melissa Barrera (Scream), Kevin Durand (The Strain), Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein), Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), and Giancarlo Esposito (The Mandalorian).

Although Abigail draws inspiration from the 1936 movie Dracula’s Daughter, Weir, Bettinelli-Olpin, and Gillett were quick to tell Screen Rant's Rob Keyes how much freedom they had in crafting the story. From Dan Stevens taking inspiration from Tim Robinson with his slicked back hair to the mysterious nature of Abigail’s father, the movie seems destined to surprise audiences by taking the idea of Dracula’s Daughter to a new place.

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"I will say that just in terms of its connection to Dracula's Daughter, I know that there was an inkling of that in the early Stephen Shields draft," explains Tyler Gillett who emphasizes that they had a lot of freedom to do something different with Abigail.

I think that was definitely part of what was cool in the hook of the movie. I think for us, we wanted to take that idea and to find a way to sort of untether it from the rules of maybe an existing character or an existing franchise, to create something that didn't have quite the same sort of small sandbox size that I think you can run into with franchises or characters like that. And kudos to Universal. They let us just swing wild, like they kept telling us like "the weird stuff was working, so you might as well just make it weirder. Keep going." (Laughs). And we did.

Don't expect Abigail's marketing to delve into Abigail's lineage, as the role is not about what we see on screen. "He's a big part of the story. His kind of presence is like the shadow that kind of just like, goes over everything that's happening," Matt Bettinelli-Olpin tells us, revealing that they compare Abigail's father to Keyser Söze.

Like, he's almost at this point more of an idea than a person. And, again, sort of like what Tyler was saying, the great thing about working on this movie and working with Universal on it is that they wanted to make sure that we didn't feel restricted by anything that had come previously, that this could be a wholly original idea. And so we got to really run with that. And I think just kind of using that character throughout the movie as a way to kind of apply pressure to our characters. And their own interpretation of that character, is really where the fun lies in the movie. And then the way that that kind of creates a pressure point for everybody, including Abigail. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give anything away, but it is, but we had a lot of fun with it.

Abigail's Father is A Big Part of The Story

Alisha Weir also weighed in on the subject while explaining more about Abigail herself when Rob Keyes caught up with her last week:

"At the start of the movie, obviously, she's acting like this innocent sweet girl. And that's why she looks so young. But she's definitely not the age she looks. She's been around for a long time. And she's been living for a long time. And she's been doing this for a very, very long time and tricking people. And so she's become an expert and a pro at it now. But her relationship with her father, he is mysterious. And there are so many twists and turns in this movie, and I don't want to give anything away about who her father is. But she definitely has a history with her father and a past with her father, and that you will find out during the movie, but he is an underworld crime boss, and he is mysterious."

Is Abigail Putting A New Spin On Dracula?

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The Abigail trailer focuses on Abigail herself, but the ideas teased here beg the question whether that famous vampire will make an appearance. With Weir revealing that Abigail has “been around for a long time”, it’s possible that her father could be Dracula. Even if it is however, it's be a new take on the villain unrelated to previous Universal projects.

The idea of an “underworld crime boss” take on Dracula is unlike anything we've seen before and it wouldn’t be the first time Universal has greenlit an interesting take on the villain—2023’s Renfield let Nicolas Cage have fun with the character in a way that made him terrifying but often hilarious. With Gillett revealing that Universal wanted the directors to lean into the weirdness of their story, it’s definitely possible that this world’s version of Dracula is a mobster.

Dracula or not, Weir’s reveal that Abigail has been around for a long time makes it a near-certainty that her father is a vampire. Gillett’s statement that the filmmakers wanted to free her father from the rules of an existing character could mean that they deliberately avoided having someone as known as Dracula as a hook for the story. Audiences will have to wait for the full reveal of Abigail’s father until the movie is out in theaters--that is, if he can even be seen under Abigail’s massive amount of fake blood.