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Is Dracula in Abigail? That Surprise Matthew Goode Cameo Explained
Does Radio Silence's new horror film have closer ties to pop culture's greatest bloodsucker than we originally thought?
**SPOILER WARNING! This story contains major spoilers for Abigail!**
With Abigail now playing in theaters everywhere (click here for tickets), audiences have begun to wonder if the gonzo vampire flick hailing from Radio Silence filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet is actually a Dracula story in disguise.
Written by Stephen Shields (The Hole in the Ground) and Guy Busick (Scream VI), the movie follows a gaggle of kidnappers who get their just desserts when the titular 12-year-old girl they intend to hold for a $50 million ransom turns out to be a bloodthirsty member of the undead. As the story chugs along, we learn that the girl's estranged father, Kristof Lazar, is a very powerful and ruthless underworld figure, whose name alone strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies. Think Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects, and you've got the gist.
In addition, we know he's also a vampire because Abigail (played by Matilda the Musical's Alisha Weir) briefly mentions how dear old dad turned her into an immortal monster centuries before in the library of the manor house where the bulk of the action takes place. All of the malevolent mystique surrounding Lazar reaches its logical conclusion in the movie's final moments once the man himself shows up to pick his daughter up from ballet practice... sorry, we mean from ripping the heads off the shoulders of professional felons.
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So, is Dracula in Abigail?
Abigail's pop is played by Matthew Goode, an actor known for his roles in Watchmen, Downton Abbey, and The Offer.
"We cast great f***ing actors to be in our silly movies," Gillett explained during an interview with GamesRadar. "I think that they ground everything in a way that you need, you need to have amazing dramatic performers to make this tone work right. You have to treat the absurdity of this premise with as much seriousness as you would treat like the most earnest drama, and I think the hack with our tone is casting amazingly talented people that just believably take you along for this ride. Dan [Stevens] and Matthew are just two examples from this cast who we think just absolutely brought the most and the best of themselves to it. The two of them are wildly entertaining and talented actors and they make the movie work with those performances."
While contemplating whether he should feast on final girl Joey (Scream vet Melissa Barrera), Lazar states that he's gone by "many names" over the years, heavily implying that he is the one and only Count Dracula. This is never confirmed, of course, but the idea of pop culture's most famous bloodsucker using his endless lifespan to amass an unimaginable criminal enterprise across several centuries sounds like the basis for a neat origin story.
Chatting with Variety, the directors revealed that they went back and forth on the big Lazar reveal. “There was a point that almost everybody was the main bad guy in some version of the script,” Bettinelli-Olpin explained. “It kept changing. And the Matthew Goode aspect was also a very movable piece of the puzzle. Do we want that? Do we not want that?"
Once they decided to officially throw Goode into the mix, it was Barrera who "primed" him on the finer details. “He had asked her, having read the script, ‘What is this f***ing movie? What is the tone of this thing? What have I gotten myself into?’" Gillett recalled. "And Melissa was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just do the weirdest, craziest thing that you can think of and they’ll love it and it’ll be great.’ And he did.”
How to Watch Abigail
Rocking a fresh 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, Abigail is now playing in theaters everywhere. Click here to sink your fangs into some tickets! Please be warned that the film is officially rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, pervasive language and brief drug use.
Looking for more bloodsucking action? Head on over to Peacock for vampiric titles like Dark Shadows, The Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Let the Right One in, Vampire in Vegas, and more!
