Sartaj Singh
‘Abigail’ is a horror film that revolves around a band of would-be kidnappers who hold a young ballerina for ransom and find themselves locked in a house with a little monster. A group of criminals are called over to an antiquated house to hold a 12-year-old girl hostage while a hefty ransom is extracted from her wealthy father. All they have to do is wait and spend twenty-four hours watching her. As night falls, all the doors and windows of the house are automatically shut, and the group realizes that they have fallen into a trap. The reason for their confinement becomes apparent when the ballerina bares her fangs and starts to drain the blood from her captors one by one.
Co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the horror film injects plenty of comedy into its thrilling sequences and indulges in gallons of gore. Taking place in Boston, the narrative takes us through a vast mansion, managing to create a claustrophobic environment for its characters as they try to survive. The movie creates horrifying scenes by employing shocking set pieces and locations, thus evoking questions about where it was filmed.
Abigail Filming Locations
Shooting for ‘Abigail’ was carried out in Dublin, Ireland. Principal photography began on June 30, 2023, under the tentative title ‘Abducting Abigail,’ but was interrupted due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike in July. On the plus side, the film crew had been shooting the movie in order and were able to go into post-production for the first two acts during the strike. Watching a completed first half gave the team a better idea of what they needed to improve and add to the film’s second half. To turn the action up a few notches, they brought in stunt choreographer Wade Allen. Filming resumed after the strike and was wrapped up by December 15, 2023.
Dublin, Ireland
Sporting a cityscape similar to Boston’s, with a river flowing through it, the capital of Ireland became the filming destination for ‘Abigail.’ While some shooting for the movie was carried out on the city streets and in constructed sets, most of it was filmed around a single property. When it came to selecting the mansion that would house most of the movie’s action, the Glenmaroon House at Castleknock was chosen. Situated on the edge of Dublin’s Phoenix Park, the aged property was constructed in 1905 by Arthur Ernest Guinness, son of brewing titan Edward Guinness.
The house was built and used as a party pad by Ernest Guinness, who built another home adjacent to it and connected both with a footbridge above the street. As an aging property that has switched hands since its construction, Glenmaroon House became the perfect canvas for the production team to build a house of horrors. From a distance, the house’s cobblestone perimeter, black fence, metal gate, and moss-covered structure emanate an old-school horror ambiance. Internally, the Edwardian mansion is built in a Tudor style and sports wooden interiors, chandeliers, stained glass, and multiple sets of stairs and corridors, befitting an ancient vampire’s residence.
Adding to the horror themes, a small church area was built in the house when it briefly became a convent school. When Sammy falls into a pit full of floating bodies and goo, the site is actually the internal pool of the Glenmaroon House, which was transformed into a horrifying dumping ground by the production team. “Oh my gosh, the most like traumatic experiences I’ve ever had, in the best coolest way,” said actress Kathryn Newton about the scene. “I had to do something where I jumped into a pool of bodies. So that was the best scene I’ve ever shot. 100% most iconic scene I’ve ever done in my career.
Another room of the house that became covered in gore was the secondary kitchen. Under production designer Susie Cullen, the run-down kitchen was transformed into a blood-drenched feeding zone, with entrails and organs hanging off the ceiling and walls.
The rest of the interiors of the property were given a creepy atmosphere with a ton of taxidermy, deer heads mounted on walls, chandeliers made of antlers, and a large stag sculpture in front of the house. These decorations serve to create an unnerving backdrop for the film before any of the horror sequences have even begun. This feeling is further compounded by the labyrinthine hallways, staircases, and dozens of rooms. The production team made full use of their filming property, employing every nook and cranny of the mansion as a set.
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