Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin’s 2019 horror-comedy Ready or Not put them on the map, as it helped establish their talents of blending humor with horror in an entirely unique way, paving the way for them to direct two Scream movies and the vampire-themed Abigail. In addition to these movies all having tonal similarities, the filmmakers recently confirmed that there’s an Easter egg in Abigail that directly references Ready or Not, which will spark speculation among fans about whether this was merely a clever nod to their cinematic past or if this confirms that the two films take place in the same universe.
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While both films feature characters exploding in buckets of blood, the connections extend beyond a supernatural method of death. The filmmakers confirmed that, at one point in Abigail, a room contains a number of portraits, with the eagle-eyed viewer possibly noticing one portrait’s resemblance to Ready or Not‘s Henry Czerny.
“There is a portrait in the background of one of the scenes [in Abigail] of Henry Czerny’s [character from Ready or Not],” Bettinelli-Olpin confirmed to Collider of the connection. “There is a little bit of a tied universe toย Ready or Notย within the movie.”
Gillett added, “It would be a grandfather. A great, great, great, great grandfather [of Czerny’s character].”
In Ready or Not, “The sanctity of marriage goes straight to hell when a young bride (Samara Weaving) competes in a time-honored tradition with her new husband (Mark O’Brien) and his insanely rich and eccentric Le Domas family (Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell). The bride’s wedding night takes a turn for the worst when she realizes she is at the center of a lethal game of ‘Hide and Seek’ andย must fight her not-so-loveable in-laws for her own survival.”
In Abigail, “After a group ofย would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerinaย 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.”
Outside of this Easter egg, there aren’t any direct narrative connections between the two films, but they do both feature affluent characters using supernatural secrets to target unwitting victims. With Abigail coming from Universal Pictures and Ready or Not coming from Fox Searchlight Pictures, a crossover would seem unlikely, but this tease of a shared universe will delight fans of the filmmakers.
Abigail is in theaters now.
Did you catch the Easter egg? Contact Patrick Cavanaughย directly on Twitterย orย on Instagramย to talk all thingsย Star Warsย andย horror!ย ย
