Abigail’s Dracula Easter Egg, Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Abigail.Abigail has finally hit theaters and has been a delight for audiences and critics. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, previously best known for directing Ready or Not and Scream VI, the duo was confirmed to be working on an untitled Universal Monster whose synopsis described it as “a unique take on legendary monster lore and will represent a fresh, new direction for how to celebrate classic characters.”

When the trailer for Abigail was released, it was clear that it was a new spin on Dracula’s Daughter, a sequel to one of Universal’s most famous movie monsters. While Dracula has been front and center in many Universal films, including two reimaginings in 2023 with Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Dracula’s Daughter has been one Universal has almost done nothing with.

That is until Abigail. Dracula himself is never actually mentioned by name in the film, and the audience is meant to infer it. The film is filled with references to Dracula, most notably the inclusion of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Song” from Swan Lake, which was used as the main theme for 1931’s Dracula and is the song Abigail dances to when she kills. One of the biggest Easter eggs to the Dracula mythos actually comes in the name of Melissa Barrera’s character, which audiences don’t find out until well into the movie.

Abigail and the Criminal Code Names

Abigail (2024)

3.5/5

Release Date

April 19, 2024

Main Genre

Horror

Writers

Guy Busick , Stephen Shields

Read Our Review

Abigail focuses on a group of criminals that kidnap the daughter of a high-up crime boss, hoping to hold her for ransom, and are meant to spend 24 hours in an old abandoned mansion. Like Reservoir Dogs, the characters are all given code names and are not meant to disclose their real names.

There is Joey (Melissa Barrera), Frank (Dan Stevens), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Peter (Kevin Durnard), Dean (Angus Cloud), and Rickles (Will Catlett). Their names and the group’s code name is a reference to the Rat Pack, a popular informal group of musicians and performers in the 1950s and 1960s that included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, with comedian Don Rickles as an unofficial member who was often seen as adjacent to them.

However, it turns out the girl they’ve kidnapped, Abigail (Alisha Weir), reveals herself to be not only a vampire but the one who orchestrated the kidnapping. She planned to hunt down and kill the people who screwed over her father’s criminal empire to gain his attention. Eventually, Abigail begins revealing everyone’s real name and backstory. She finally gets to Joey and reveals her name is actually Ana Lucía Cruz. While this might not seem like much on the surface, this name has multiple layers to the Dracula mythology, and it was an idea from star Melissa Barrera and the film’s director.

Hidden Meaning Behind the Name in Abigail

Ana Lucia Cruz has three connections to the Dracula franchise, two that are intentional by the filmmakers and one that seems to be a happy accident. The first name, “Ana Lucia,” was chosen as a reference to Lucy Westenra, who in Bram Stoker’s novel falls prey to Dracula, becomes a vampire herself, and has been portrayed that way in many films. This would indicate that Ana Lucia Cruz will fall victim, but the film then subverts this trope by making her the sole survivor.

The nature of Lucy indicating a victim is offset by the surname “Cruz.” In Spanish and Portuguese, Cruz translates to cross or crucifix, one of the signature weapons for repelling a vampire. It was actually Bram Stoker who introduced in Dracula that a cross could repel a vampire. While Abigail seems to indicate crosses don’t actually work, it is a clever reference to help indicate that she will be the one to survive. Mixing the name of one of Dracula’s most famous victims with a weapon often known to repel him is a clever Easter egg.

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Those were intentional by Barrera and the directing duo of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett. Yet the name Ana also has ties to the Dracula franchise, specifically Universal’s version in a modern context. In the 2004 film Van Helsing, Kate Beckinsale plays Anna Valerious, the last descendant of an ancient Romanian family whose family cannot enter heaven until they vanquish Dracula. That film’s main plot revolves around Dracula trying to bring life to his undead children in what was, at the time, Universal’s most overt reference to the Daughter of Dracula film. Van Helsing was Universal Pictures’ first attempt to relaunch their classic monsters, and now, 20 years later, Abigail is looking to do it once more.

Abigail’s Connections to Dracula’s Daughter

When Abigail was officially confirmed to be about a young vampire, it was reported the movie was a reimagining of Dracula’s Daughter, and the film was even shot under the code name. This is a funny connection since Abigail features characters concealing their true identity using code names, and Abigail, the film itself, used the code name of a popular film. Yet aside from the fact that both movies revolve around a young vampire who is the “daughter” of Dracula, the two movies have nothing in common. That might be why Abigail does not have a “based on” credit present in it, as it is essentially an original idea that just happens to be based on the daughter of Dracula.

Abigail herself isn’t even a reference to the original Dracula’s Daughter. Released in 1936, Dracula’s Daughter‘s title character was named Countess Marya Zaleska and was an adult woman. Both Mayra and Abigail are turned by Dracula and are considered his children, but that is where the similarities to the movies end. So Abigail is a reimagining of the concept of Dracula’s Daughter and would be considered a very loose remake since they share the basic concept of the vampire daughter of Dracula but have nothing more in common.

Abigial is just a recent example of Universal Pictures allowing filmmakers to put new creative spins on their classic monsters following February’s Lisa Frankenstein, which will soon include December’s Nosferatu and January 2024’s The Wolfman. Abigail does what 2017’s The Mummy failed to do: put a fresh spin on an old Universal monster IP. Abigail is playing in theaters now.