Movies
Last Chance: Los Angeles Readers Nab Tix for ‘Re-Animator The Musical!’
For those of you in Los Angeles who thought you missed out, the widely popular “Re-Animator The Musical!” will be extending its stay at The Steve Allen Theater. Click the link for tix for any show from April 22nd, Midnight shows on Friday nights and 3:30pm Matinee performances on Sunday afternoons.
“In 1985 Stuart Gordon directed his first feature film and created a sensation. It was “Re-Animator,” a smashing success based on a horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. The film delivered as many laughs as it did screams, making it a cult classic among horror fans, and won a Critic’s Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Now Gordon is back with his co-writers Dennis Paoli and William J. Norris and composer/lyricist Mark Nutter to turn “Re-Animator” into a musical for the stage.
Special effects are being done by the same guys who did them for the 1985 movie: Tony Doublin, John Naulin, and John Beuchler. And the blood will flow so freely that the first row will literally be designated as a “splash zone.” Needless to say, the show is not for small children.”
The cast stars Harry S. Murphy, Chris L. McKenna (King of the Ants), and Jesse Merlin (Star of The Beastly Bombing). Also starring are Rachel Avery, Mark Beltzman, Cynthia Carle, Marlon Grace, Brian Gillespie, and Liesel Hanson, and introducing Graham Skipper as Herbert West.
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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