Movies
Infected Woman Trapped in ‘Isolation’ Room
Are you ready for a new spin on the “zombie” genre? After 28 Days Later everyone has tried, most have failed, but can the director of “The Shield” and Boogeyman find a way to make it work? I’d bet against him after seeing Boogeyman but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt (this once). Matty Beckerman’s finance and production shingle Natural Selection (The Experiment) has set helmer Stephen T. Kay to direct horror pic Isolation, reports Variety. The pic, which began lensing Jan. 25, stars Eva Amurri (Californication) and David Harbour (Revolutionary Road). Amurri plays a medical student who awakens in a hospital isolation room having been exposed to an unknown disease, desperately ill and with no recollection of how she got there. Chris Billett has penned the screenplay. Kay also directed Cell 213 and is on to direct the 3D thriller The Ushers.
Pictured: Eva Amurri
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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