WGTC: Absolutely. I love Brick.
Darren Lynn Bousman: OK, so it’s Brick as a horror film, meaning they talk in modern noir. They’re talking in a hyper-stylized fashion that you have to listen to what they’re saying because it’s so stylized and specific. So even though the movie is modern, they’re talking like it’s the 1940s, which I love. It’s very reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the way the characters are interacting, and the way that they look. Yet it’s set in a very hyper-stylized world. Consider it Seven meets Dark City, and at the very end it turns into Hellraiser. That’s kind of what it is. Those are all movies I really fucking dig. I wanted to make a movie that’s a murder mystery for two thirds of it, and then at that two thirds mark, it turns and becomes an in-your-face, horrific film. The first two acts you think you’re following Seven, then it flips and becomes Hellraiser.
WGTC: When I first saw the sales trailer, it had me thinking of Thirteen Ghosts in the way that there are different rooms and evil lurking in each one.
Darren Lynn Bousman: The ghosts in this are pretty cool, and that’s what’s taken the most amount of time. That’s why people haven’t seen it yet. I’ve rejected every ghost that’s come at me. The VFX company keeps sending me concepts of ghosts, and they HAVE to be unique, something people have never seen before, so I’ve been looking for the perfect ghost. We finally hit that, and I’m really excited for people to see what they look like.
WGTC: So for my last question, I always like to ask filmmakers what movie they’d love to remake in their own signature style. You’ve already gone this route with your take on Mother’s Day, but I’m wondering if there are any movies you’d be dying to get the remake rights for?
Darren Lynn Bousman: I’m going give you two. Leprechaun, which I’ve been saying forever and no one seems to listen to me…
WGTC: YES. Can you please erase the memory of Leprechaun: Origins?!
Darren Lynn Bousman: I refuse to even watch Leprechaun: Origins. I’ve been telling Lionsgate, who’s had the rights forever, to please give me the Leprechaun series. I think we should start a petition right now to let me make a Leprechaun movie, because I really want to. That’s number one.
Number two is a weird one, but it’s Flowers In The Attic. Here’s what’s crazy about that movie. I’ve been trying to get Flowers In The Attic made for a decade. Every single person has turned me down. I’m like “You don’t understand. This is a huge movie. It’s a huge franchise. It’s the scariest movie in the world.” Everyone turned me down. Then two years ago, Lifetime made it as a TV movie with Ellen Burstyn, and it was – I think – the number one cable film that year. It made me SO angry. And that was the Lifetime version! If they gave me Flowers In The Attic, I could make the most sadistic, crazy, horrific, and hauntingly beautiful film.
WGTC: OK, if you do get Leprechaun, do you keep it as a jokey Warwick Davis version, or do you go with the rubber suit like Leprechaun: Origins did?
Darren Lynn Bousman: You make it jokey – it’s fucking Leprechaun! How do you make that scary? What made the first one so awesome to me is how over the top and ridiculous it is. You can have scares IN it, absolutely, and make it macabre, absolutely, but I think trying to terrify someone with a Leprechaun is kind of hard. For me, I want to make Leprechaun fun again. I want it to be one of those movies you high five your friends during. I’m not trying to terrify you with Hornswoggle. But I’m sure he was great. I didn’t see it, so…
WGTC: Oh, you don’t see him. He’s completely covered in a monster suit.
Darren Lynn Bousman: Then no. That’s ridiculous. No. I’m going to start a petition to direct the next Leprechaun movie right now.
That concludes the interview, but I’d like to thank Darren Lynn Bousman for his time. Be sure to catch Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival when its tour rolls through a city near you!