Muldoon Chats ABATTOIR With Darren Lynn Bousman!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here with a pretty cool dip into the mind of Director Darren Lynn Bousman. If you're a fan of horror, chances are pretty good you've seen a few of his films. While he's likely better known for his work in the SAW franchise, the guy's the madman behind films like REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA and THE DEVIL'S CARNIVAL. While it's easy to label the guy as "just a horror" director, his filmography is sprinkled with films that are just so off the wall... it's next to impossible to guess what else he's got up his sleeve. When the opportunity to pick his brain popped up for his latest film, ABATTOIR, I jumped at the chance to do a small Q&A style session with the man. The film hits theaters and VOD today, December 9th, so check it out if you enjoy his previous work and want to see what he's been up to!

 

In the opening credits, even within 30 seconds, you get a strong vibe of what you’re in for. Who created the concept of those titles, in regards to the symbols and textures utilized, the different transfer modes applied, even down to font selection? I’m just curious about how involved you were with those details, understanding the scenes you’re depicting underneath those text names looked incredible as well. 

The opening credits were figured out after the movie was shot, finished and edited. We watched the film and realized we needed a strong opening to really let the audience know the movie they were going to be watching. So we contacted someone by the name of Jose Ortiz, who worked for a company called Dark Matter, and he’s a credit designer, and we set out with him, we showed him the movie, and we talked about what I wanted. And he came in with a set of storyboards that kind of depicted the film and what it was I was going for and he used footage that I shot for the opening death sequence.

The original idea of the movie opened with four or five deaths occurring simultaneously. And so he inter-cut those deaths in the newspaper articles and … set that kind of opening montage. And you know I think that it really tied the film together. I know it’s weird to say that about the credit sequence but I think that opening title sequence really sets the mood and the somber tone of the movie. It immediately hooks the audience into the world which we are taking them into.

You’ve been creating films for quite a while now, seemingly able to produce fun scare-filled films almost twice a year it seems. There is an aerial shot early in the film to help establish the town and it had me wondering if it was from a drone or helicopter and ultimately as an audience member… it doesn’t matter what you used as it’s there on screen. With technologies like drones and what personal computers can do now, how different is filmmaking now than when you started? What’s changed? What’s stayed the same for you personally?

Filmmaking has changed a lot and none for me. I’ve been in an extreme fortunate position that I’ve always had strong team behind me that have taken my vision and allowed me an avenue to create it. I’ve yet to be in the position where I have to go out myself with my own camera and use my own laptop to edit my own stuff together. That said, its there if I ever need it to, and I think that’s what’s amazing about filmmaking now is that you can do it, with your personal computer and your camera on your iPhone. You could go out and put a narrative story together. For me, however, it's been the same since Saw 2. Since Saw 2, I had a great cinematographer, great production designer, great producers, great cast, and I’ve been able to keep having these amazing people with me each time I go out and make a movie so, they worry about that, I don’t really have to worry about it, so to me, its been the same for me through each film.

Stylistically this movie lives outside of a defined time, the way some characters look and feel are almost straight out of the 40’s, while others are no doubt contemporary. Assuming this was your idea from the beginning (unless I’m way off), why not make them all look and talk like contemporary folks? (I like that they’re not – to me, it makes the film stand out from most horror films out there, even in that subtle way.) How did you define what that line of “just retro enough” was vs. going full on campy/overboard?

It was my intention very early on to make a movie that harken back to things like Brick or Titus, the Julie Taymor Titus, which is this hyper real very stylized approach to when things are set. I loved the idea of taking these two characters and putting them in the modern world even though they harken back as you said, some are from the 1940s. I’m going to use me as an example right now because I am like this, I live in 2016, yet I use a typewriter everyday, I talk on an old phone, you have to pull the receiver off the wall and put a chair mount, all my light bulbs in my house are Edison bulbs, my furniture in my house is from the 30s, its something that I respond to because it is manual. Like when I type an email out, I have to push the button down to elicit a reaction; it’s not easy. It forces me to think more. I can’t just write an email and hit send and 5 seconds later its there, it takes me hour and a half to write a letter and I think that I respond to that archaic, arcane technology because it forces you to be present and so I wanted to construct a story where our two main characters, Julie Talben and Grady, were the same type. They are the archetypes of the 1940s film; they are Bogart and Bacall, living in a modern world. I think there’s something unique and cool about that. I also wanted to make this movie feel like an adult fairy tale, and so, for me, giving them this kind of hyper-stylized speech and dress immediately took it out of the real world and put it in more of a hyper realistic place.

Working with children? How do you switch gears (if you do) to get good performances out of niños versus from adults?

You know, it is hard working with children, because of the time constraints you have, you can only work with them for like an hour at a time and they have to go into school, and you know we worked a lot of late nights but in this you can’t work late nights. And so, it was hard, they always say, when you’re making movies, don’t work with kids or dogs. I don’t know if I could ever do that but it is a difficult thing working with them.

Other than simply trusting your gut, what are some things you look for when casting? You’ve had inspired choices left and right… but what checkboxes do you need to check off when you’re leaning towards one actor vs. another to potentially be cast – and ultimately tell your story?

I think for me, it comes down to personality. I have to be able to get along with my actor. I have to be able to connect with them and have a connection with them. Acting is obviously very important, but in the very end it comes down to… "do they get me? Do they like me? Are they able to understand my story?" And if they can understand my story, and we get along, then I’ll get the performance I need out of them.

So that’s really what it comes down to, it comes down to a personality. "Do our personalities mesh? Are we going to be compatible on set when we’re spending 12 hours a day, five days a week, for a month?" It’s a very critical thing for me, it’s just personality.

Specifically, what day/scene would you consider was your busiest on this shoot? Busiest in terms of numbers of setups/number of extras/anything really. I’m just curious what you look back on and think, “That day was the most challenging.” In that same train of thought, which singular scene in this film filled that directorial hole - that itch that keeps you coming back behind the lens, a singular scene you can look back to and think “I’m proud of that more than anything else?” (Like picking your favorite child, I know.)

I think anytime we’re in the Abattoir was the harshest. This movie was shot on limited budget and limited amount of days. It was one of those types of movies that was on a shoestring budget to some extent. And it was guerilla style filmmaking. When you’re shooting the Abattoir, when you’re dealing with stunts and special effects, and pyrotechnics, and blood gags, and you know you have to be at a location in one day, and you’re doing you know, 50 set ups a day, one take each. So anything that dealt with the Abattoir for sure.

In general, what’s more exciting for you to shoot – like when you wake up and know “I’m shooting ____ today, hell yes!” Gore? Action? Dialog?

You know obviously, shooting gore is great because it's fun on set and I think that when the set is having a good time, and the crew is having a good time, and there’s an energy on set.

For Abattoir, anytime Dayton Callie (“Jebediah Crone”) was on screen was awesome, because he’s a perfectionist, and he’s a badass. And I think that every time he walked on set it just raised the bar of the movie that we were making.  So every time that Crone was on set, I think was probably my favorite.

What’s your process like in directing your leads? What do you do to hone in on communicating what you need to get the performances you’re needing? Rehearsals, casting people you vibe with, pushing people via a crazy amount of takes to break them from memorized lines into actual dialog? What kind of director are you? Silent, calm, cool, directing through your 1^st AD while at video village or the type to lean on your DP while you’re standing on set with your actors?

When I’m directing my leads, what I always like to do is reference other films. I think it’s very easy to form a bond or relationship over cinema. And so, I remember, with things like this I would give the movies to watch: Out of the Past, Touch of Evil, Asphalt Jungle, Maltese Falcon. I gave them that, kind of like hyper stagnant, that hard nose, very quick dialogue, that you saw on the 40s and 50s type movies, that film noirs. So when I would talk to Joe Anderson, when I would talk to Jessica Lowndes, it was very much in that [sense].

But what kind of director am I? I’m excitable, but I get very excited very easy and I direct off my excitement. So I might go in to a scene with a very specific plan, an idea, here’s what I want for this scene, and here’s the ideas that I want for the camera, and the minute that I get in there and I start seeing it, I completely am led by my energy and excitement, “Oh no let's do this”, “No, no let's do this”, and I run around giddy and I like to be in the middle of it. I like to be there in the center of everything happening and going on. I don’t consider myself a yeller, I think that I become friends with all the actors, and it just becomes fun I mean, we get paid to make believe and so, how can you take that too seriously, when you get paid to do this amazing thing with people that you want to hang out with.

What films did you look to for inspiration (if any) for ABATTOIR? (Either visually or structurally or… any way you choose to answer!)

When I was making Abattoir, there was a series of films that I did reference a lot and watch a lot, and it was Seven for the first act, Wicker Man for the second act, and Hell Raiser for the third act. And what I mean by that, is not necessarily the ideas behind Hell Raiser, but I wanted the first act to definitely be a murder mystery, a “who done it” police investigation. Second act I wanted to it to be a fish out of water, and a town harboring a dark secret. So Wicker Man for the third act I wanted it to be bat shit crazy, and so I looked at something like Hell Raiser.

You seem to lean towards horror and theatrical musicals, to simplify your kickass career. Do you feel any urge to make a straight up comedy or a film for kiddos? I’d love to see a DLB family film if only to see how you’d interpret those confines.

You know what, if you would have asked me that five years ago I would have laughed in your face; now I’m telling you absolutely I want to make a family film. I have a son now. My son is 2 years old, and every morning we watch something on TV, and I watch his face and I watch his eyes, and how excited he gets and how responds to what’s on screen, and I want to be able to sit with him and show him something that I did. I would love to make a movie like Goonies. It would definitely be Darren Bousman version of that. It would still be a little darker, but I think nothing would make me happier than making a kids film, but again, if you would have asked me that five years ago, I would have said "absolutely not." But now, with having my own son, the answer is "absolutely," I want to make a family film. You hear that Disney, give me money.

What freaks you out? You play upon the fears of thousands almost daily given your incredible output of horror, but what freaks you out? Silly, but of your films – which one would you least want to find yourself in… like a Freddy Krueger style situation where all of a sudden you wake up in one of your own films.

Okay, so what freaks me out, I think uncertainty freaks me out. I think that, not being in control of situations freak me out. Monsters don’t really scare me, that type of things doesn’t scare me. I think, movies like The Barrens freak me out, and I’m going to tell you why The Barrens, because The Barrens, it’s a persons descent into madness, and not know if they are going crazy or what they are thinking is real. And so in the case of The Barrens, you have a guy he was bit by a dog that may have rabies or maybe really seeing a monster out there, and that idea of not knowing if he’s going crazy or there is really something out there, so I think that uncertainty of not knowing is what scares me. Paranoia…..Is the world against me? Is it all in my head? Things like that.

What movie would I least like to find myself in? Definitely Saw, who wants to be in a Saw trap, not me, so I’m going to say that.

At the end of the day, you’re the director. How do you go about choosing your department heads, looking at ABATTOIR for example?

This goes back to the same way I choose my actors; it’s a personality. Yes, again talent is part of it, but it comes down to "are these people going to be stuck in a small office with me for the next month to 8 weeks?? Can I get a drink with these people? Can we go have beers at a bar together?" That’s what it comes down to seriously, because if the answer is yes, then we can get along like that, then we can absolutely get along in our art. So it comes down to personality for me.

Yes or no – will you continue to cast David Hasselhoff in your films? (I simply hope yes, as a fan of the Bousman-Hoff relationship)

The Hoff is like a stick of dynamite, he could easily blow up in your face or he could save the day, in the case of Alleluia, he saved the day, however would I put The Hoff in Abattoir, absolutely not. He’s that stick of dynamite, so if the role required The Hoff, you better believe I’m calling him up.

What’s next? What’s something you truly hope to do one day, a story/genre/anything that you are dying to make and are certain you’d knock out of the park if given the opportunity? (Something that might not have any deals lined up at the moment, but still a vague need to bring to screens?)

I’m doing it now. I always wanted to be involved in immersive theater, and The Tension Experience, which I just finished, the first one, called Ascension. I’m starting my next one called Lust, The Lust Experience. To me that is the coolest thing that I’ve been a part of and done and I hope to be get to able to make that which is, there’s no way to describe it, unless you’ve done it, but the closest thing you can get to is David Fincher’s The Game, its like the game that you are a part of a story happening around you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As it relates to movies, I would love to make a Goonies like movie, something that is an adventure, or an action adventure kids film.

Lin Shay – favorite moment working with her?

Lin Shaye, she is the sweetest, nicest, coolest, most badass, horror franchise saver in the world. I’ve been friends with Lin for years, and this was the first chance we’ve had to ability to work together, and I hope this is the first of many more films.

She has such a calming presence on set and again like Dayton, when she steps on set, she forces you to up your game, because she’s such a professional, talented actress. You know I’ve grown up watching Lin Shaye movies and so it was kind of a surreal moment when she stepped on set for the first time; that I’m working with this iconic, amazing actress. But I had many great moments with her even just being in New Orleans hanging out with her.

Lin was the second person cast in Abattoir, and she was cast years before we made the movie, when I first had the idea, I had this idea for a character, and I called her up and said I want you do this this movie called Abattoir and she signed on immediately, and it took years to get the movie made. And it was this amazing moment the first day she showed up on set.  She kind of looked at me and I looked at her and we just hug each other, like this is years in the making so, it was great to kind of have that pay off after the long build up.

Advice for aspiring filmmakers in the audience. Advice for people asking filmmakers questions?

There are two types of people in the world: those who talk and those who do. And I think that talent plays into this definitely but, it’s people that do will always succeed over people who talk, and I think that, my success, my career has not come from being uber talented; its come from because I’m a doer. I don’t talk about doing things I just do them. If you’re reading this and you want to me a filmmaker, stop talking about being a filmmaker and just go be one; grab your cell phone grab your friends and go shoot something. You might be terrible when you start off but every time you do it, and you don’t talk, you do it, you get better and better and better.

Perseverance has been my key to success, I just keep getting back on the horse even though I’ve been kicked off it 15 times, get back on again and again and again, and that would be my advice for aspiring filmmakers.

 

 

Bam! There we have it, ladies and gentlemen - a little insight into the mind of horror maestro Darren Lynn Bousman. I really appreciate how blunt the man was in his answers, straight forward just the way I like them. I feel like we covered some decent ground, but am curious what you folks might've asked him that I missed or skipped over. Share your thoughts in the Talkbkacks, as well as your opinion of the film if you've had a chance to see it. (Again, it's out TODAY on VOD and in selext theaters!)

- Mike McCutchen

"Muldoon"

Mike@aintitcool.com