Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who are a major part of the Radio Silence creative collective, have become two maestros of horror. With titles like V/H/S 94, Ready or Not, Phobias, Scream (2022), and Scream VI under their belts, the duo continues to expand the genre with innovative (and deliciously bloody) takes on classic subgenres. Their latest foray, Abigail, is a wild blend of a heist movie and a horror comedy. It starts with the former as a group of kidnappers abduct a crime lord’s ballet-loving daughter for ransom. Quickly it transitions into the latter when they discover that she’s actually a vampire. Abigail is as wild, funny, and chaotic as you’d imagine, so we had to catch up with the Radio Silence co-founders to get all the behind-the-scenes details.
Nerdist: Abigail is one of my favorite films that I’ve seen this year so far.
Tyler Gillett: So glad you liked it. Thank you. That means so much.
You’re welcome! What was it about Abigail that made you two want to come on board and direct this film?
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: I think it was a kind of a mixture of things, but we loved the simplicity and fun of being able to do a thriller that gets hijacked by a monster movie. That, to us, was just such an exciting movie to get into. And the characters all were really great on the page, and there was a lot of room to grow them with the actors. The possibility of [the film] was really exciting when we got the script, and then the chance to actually get to work with all those actors and get them to bring a lot to their characters.
I’m glad that you mentioned that there are so many different characters and a genre mashup. There’s a lot going on in Abigail with that as well as tonal shifts. How do you all navigate it and keep things streamlined from a director’s standpoint?
Gillett: I think a lot of it is just getting really clear with the tone between the two of us, and making sure that what the actors are reading is really representative of that tone, even if things are going to change on the day and there’s going to be improv, and we maybe don’t fully have the scene 100% figured out in the script. At the very least, the tone is crystal clear.
And for us, at the end of the day, that’s really just placing characters, who feel really real and really nuanced and like they exist in the real world, in a situation that is just totally f*cking absurd and insane. For us, that means that then you get to have these incredibly tense, scary moments, but because it all exists under the umbrella of this crazy absurd concept, it also can be funny at the same time.
The same goes for Ready or Not and the two Scream movies that we made. That, for us, is really the hack in making that tone something that works. It never feels like you’re in a movie that’s too funny to be scary or too scary to be funny. You’re walking through the experience with the characters, and they’re as wacky and crazy as their point of view may be, but they’re also relatable to a certain extent. And you believe that their reaction is real and grounded in a reality that you and I, as an audience member, would understand.
Absolutely. You definitely had an excellent cast to be able to pull that off! You two got to work with Melissa Barrera again, and Scream fans are excited to see you all come together once more. How has your working relationship with her evolved over the years?
Bettinelli-Olpin: We’ve grown together a lot. I think Scream V was a really big step up for Tyler and I, and it was also a big step up for Melissa. The Scream V experience left all three of us in a place where we were really happy with what we had done, but we also had a lot of things we still wanted to do. So, we went into that next one together like, “All right, cool, we did that. Now, let’s go to another level with this.” So, we really were invigorated going into Scream VI.
But then for Abigail, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing the same stuff we had already done together. She really brought a lot to her character to make sure that Joey is not Sam Carpenter. And there’s still something quintessentially Melissa about it. I think her essence comes through in all three [films]. And I think a lot of that is her vulnerability and her just strength and her will. But going into this, we wanted to keep working together and we wanted to do it in a way that we could all grow. I think at the end of the day, that’s what we hope we’re doing with Abigail.
It’s a different type of playground. You went from an established and very popular franchise to this wholly unique film. You definitely got to play more.
Gillett: Totally.
Bettinelli-Olpin: Exactly.
Abigail is such an awesome vampire story with a twist. And a lot of what makes it work is the main location. I love the house! What was the scouting process like and what were the requirements that you had for the perfect location?
Gillett: We saw a bunch of different places… traveled out the November before we started shooting with the express task of finding a place that could hold all of the scene work that exists in the story. I think we probably saw half a dozen places. What we were really looking for is to not just find a place where you go, “Yeah, this could work. We could put this scene in this room. We could see this scene in that room.”
[What we wanted was] to walk into a place that actually feels like it’s going to inspire new ideas. That it’s not just, oh, this is the box that we need to fit the script in. We need to find these specific things. But finding a place where you go, “Oh shit, it is much cooler to put this scene here!”
When we walked into the Glenmaroon House, it was just that. It was not only large enough to contain what was originally scripted, but there were so many interesting anachronistic, bizarre little corridors and rooms that made the house really feel like it existed through time and that it was maybe Abigail’s house for hundreds of years. It had this sense of a bizarre history to it. The layout of the house and the physical limitations and restrictions of it actually allowed us to look at the story and go, “Oh, what if we just choreographed this differently? And instead of building sets, [we can] use what we have available and retrofit the story and the action to fit.” That, for us, is always so exciting. There’s such an exciting opportunity to build something that feels really alive and really tactile because it exists in a real physical space.
That house had so many fun opportunities that existed within it. We’re so grateful. Then, of course, you have a great production designer and an amazing art department to come in and fill it with all of those textures, and it just comes alive.
I really love the way that the space was utilized, specifically in that final fight scene between Joey, Abigail, and Frank. I’m curious about the details behind shooting that scene because there were so many different moving parts. Joey’s getting thrown from one floor to the other and there’s just blood and stuff everywhere!
Bettinelli-Olpin: That scene took two and a half weeks? Does that sound right, Tyler?
Gillett: Yeah. It was very technical.
Bettinelli-Olpin: And it was a giant scene on the page, too. There were no scene breaks… So with the ADs and everyone, we had to break it down. But it was a lot to shoot just technically. There were a ton of stunts, there was a ton of blood, and all of the effects work. Then we were also trying to keep the tone and the characters alive within that chaos. One of the things that was the weird silver lining of the [actor’s] strike for us was that we shot mostly everything up to that prior. Everything except the cellar where [Abigail is] locked up and the library, that end scene, we shot before the strike.
So, we got to watch the movie. We put together the movie and got to watch it. The studio got to watch it before we went back to shoot that scene. One of the things that Universal Pictures said was, “Hey, we really love this. Let’s really blow out the third act and make it awesome.” So we got Wade Allen, who’s incredible, to come in as a second unit director to help us with all of the stunts and the choreography. It really elevated that scene to something that throws you into this whirlwind where all of a sudden two characters who were trying to kill each other are now teaming up against Frank, who you’ve always known is an asshole.
Oh god, yes. He’s the worst.
Bettinelli-Olpin: The whole combination of the movie takes place in that room. So we really had to make sure that we did it right.
Gillett: Yeah, and that we were using all of [the space]… I mean, for obvious reasons there are production challenges. When you want to do any stunt work with any form of verticality, you’re talking about stunt rigging and wire work and all of that. That stuff is so time-consuming and there’s obviously a safety component to it that you have to be really aware of. But as Matt said, to Universal’s credit, they were like, “Look, let’s just take the time and deliver on this big, fun blowout of a vampire fight.” There’s only one way to do that, right? And it is taking time and shooting a little bit every day. Eventually you realize, “Holy shit, we’re at 380 something setups and we finished this crazy scene!”
Well, you pulled it off and it’s brilliant, just like the two of you.
Bettinelli-Olpin: Thank you. That’s so kind!
ABIGAIL is now available to watch at home exclusively on digital platforms from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
