Movies
[WTF] Was Brittany Murphy Poisoned?!
TheWrap breaks some shocking allegations Monday evening stating that a new laboratory report lends credence to what actress Brittany Murphy’s father has long suspected: that she and her husband died not of natural causes, but of poisoning by someone out to kill them.
“It’s a bona fide report,” the lab’s general manager, Denny Seilheimer, told TheWrap. “It was our client’s prerogative to release the report. That’s all I can tell you.”
Murphy’s father, Angelo Bertolotti, didn’t accept the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office conclusion that the Sin City and Clueless star and husband Simon Monjack died of natural causes — pneumonia and anemia — five months apart. He sued to gain access to her hair samples, and hired Seilheimer’s private lab, the Carlson Company, to look for signs of poisoning.
The lab found evidence she was poisoned — probably by “a third party perpetrator with likely criminal intent,” according to the report, which was authorized by Seilheimer. The report (click here) found that Murphy’s body had dramatically elevated levels of aluminum, manganese, barium and other metals. More at the aforementioned link.
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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