Movies
‘Splitfoot’ Enters the First Documented Haunted House
Antonio Campos (Afterschool, Simon Killer, Christine) has signed on to re-write and direct the upcoming horror film, Splitfoot (f.k.a Voices Through The Trumpet), based on a 1936 article in The New Yorker about the first documented haunted house written by journalist and bestselling author Carl Carmer, Deadline reports.
It follows the true story of a deeply damaged New Yorker reporter who, in the 1930s, travels upstate to the remote town of Lilydale, NY, the Mecca of American Spirituality, a place where a person can’t even buy property without proof that they talk to the dead. Cynical about the prospects of the spirit world, the temptation of contacting his dead son leaves the reporter vulnerable to something much more dangerous than the dead.
The Burrowers‘ JT Petty wrote the original draft.
Fox Searchlight developed the film and will distribute. Dawn Ostroff and Jeremy Steckler of Condé Nast Entertainment are producing the project along with Denise DiNovi, while David Greenbaum and DanTram Nguyen will oversee production for Searchlight.
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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