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News Bites: ‘Gone’ Release, More Details & Casting for ‘American Horror’, ‘Dont Be Afraid of’ These Posters

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Summit Entertainment has picked February 24, 2012 as the release date of Heitor Dhalia’s thriller Gone, which stars Amanda Seyfried as “a young woman named Jill who returns home from her night shift to find her sister’s bed empty. She’s convinced the serial killer who kidnapped her two years before has come back to finish the job. But the police do not believe Jill, who knows time is running out. With no one to turn to, she sets off to find her sister and face her abductor once and for all.

On the TV front, Evan Peters and Taissa Farmiga (both pictured here) are joining Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott in Ryan Murphy’s FX pilot “American Horror Story,” says THR. “The thriller centers on husband and wife Ben (“The Practice” ‘s McDermott) and Vivien Harmon (“Friday Night Lights” ‘ Britton) who move their family from Boston to a haunted San Francisco home in an attempt to rebuild their family after a miscarriage and affair.

With even more details leaking, Farmiga will play Violet Harmon, the couple’s smart gothic daughter who befriends Tate Langdon (Peters), a handsome and charismatic teen described as a cult leader with movie star looks who isn’t what he seems. Living next door to the Harmons are Constance (Jessica Lange) and her daughter with down syndrome, who knows more about the house than everyone realizes. Denis O’Hare (“True Blood”) also co-stars as Larry the Burn Guy, a former resident of the creepy house.

Lastly, two new pieces of sales art (one from Bloody Disgusting, the other from Fangoria) have leaked for Troy Nixey’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which arrives in theaters August 26 from FilmDistrict (Insidious). The pic follows “Sally (Bailee Madison), a young girl who moves to Rhode Island to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes) in the 19th-century mansion they are restoring. Having stumbled upon the mansion’s hidden basement, Sally starts hearing voices calling out from the bolted ash pit, imploring her to open it. Sally obliges and unwittingly unleashes something so terrible, so unthinkable, that everyone’s life – hers most of all – is placed in immediate and grave danger.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts

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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.”

Abigail Melissa Barrera movie

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