Abigal co-writer Stephen Shields has described Alisha Weir as "beyond amazing" in her role as a teenage ballerina vampire in the new horror comedy.
The film sees the 14-year-old actress, who rose to fame in the lead role of Matilda the Musical, play the titular young girl who is kidnapped by a bungling gang and taken to a spooky mansion until her crime boss dad coughs up the $50 million ransom.
However, they get far more than they bargained for when the novice ballerina bares her teeth and some killer dance moves.
Speaking at a special screening of the movie in Dublin, Shields told RTÉ Entertainment, "Alisha is beyond amazing. I don't think we could have asked for anyone better. This is obviously very different from Matilda but she was the best person for the role.
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"The movie came from a really, really dark part of my imagination," he added. "I wanted to see a really good vampire movie mixed with a heist movie and I thought `you know what would really scare people? A little girl in a ballerina dress covered in blood’ and hopefully I think it will."
Clondalkin man Shields began his writing career after winning RTÉ’s Storyland in 2010 with his web series Zombie Bashers and he went on to write for comedy shows The Republic Of Telly and Callan’s Kicks.
A vampire was a natural choice, as Shields always had a particular affinity for the fanged fiends in movies including Salem’s Lot, The Lost Boys and Fright Night.
Abigail features buckets of blood and gore. "When you sign up for a movie like this, you know there’s going to be a lot of blood and a lot of blood there is!" he said.
The movie was shot in the historic Glenmaroon House, the former residence of brewing scion Arthur Guinness, in Castleknock on the outskirts of Dublin, and it also stars a motley crew of actors as the kidnap gang, including Dan Stevens of The Guest and Downton Abbey fame and Giancarlo Esposito, who played drug kingpin Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
But this is also a heist movie. "Heist movies are just really good," Shields said. "There’s a lot of tension and thrill rides and a lot of paranoia, especially in this movie.
"I grew up watching movies from the seventies like The Parallax View and Three Days of The Condor and I love those movies where you’re not too sure if the characters are on the level or if the whole situation is on the level full stop."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Abigail is in cinemas now
