It seems surreal that I have completed another film!

Hopefully, if you are reading my blog – you are aware of the… um… unusual experiences that surrounded the filming of it..

If not – I urge you to carve out a a couple of minutes and read about some INSANE experiences the crew and I witnessed…

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

HAUNTED WINDOW SHADES

In the meantime… Take a look at the new trailer, and tell me what you think!

dlb

11-11-11 TRAILER from D Bousman on Vimeo.

(Hopefully before reading this blog you have checked out BLOG 1 )

I was brought up in the Midwest in a normal household, in a normal neighborhood, with normal ideals.

My parents raised me in a somewhat religious household – but never tried to force their beliefs down my throat. They let me, and dare I say, encouraged me to research and come to my own conclusions.

I was always drawn to the macabre.  I always found myself more drawn to FREDDY KRUEGER than let’s say PETE ROSE.

That being said – I was always able to separate – FACT from FICTION… Freddy Krueger was just ROBERT ENGLUND in makeup…

As I grew up, and started making movies – I saw what went in to creating fantasy and fiction.

It wasn’t long before I got jaded, and began to stop believing anything.

ANYTHING can be hoaxed, faked, or staged.

Ghostly encounters on YOUTUBE are nothing more than mirrors and Aftereffects.

UFO pictures floating around the web are just clever Photoshopping.

The point is, if one goes looking for an explanation for the unexplained – eventually you will find something that makes sense for you, and allow YOU to sleep more comfortably at night…

FREDDY KRUER is only scary until you realize it’s just Robert England.

Now, when presented with the unexplained — I search for the explanation.

VIDEO # 1 – THE WINDOW SHADES:

The first video I will show you guys is a daily from the film.

This is a take where our two leads are outside the house talking about being in Spain.

It was the editor who brought this take to my attention.  At first viewing – nothing caught my eye.  Then, the editor pointed out the back three windows.

If you notice as they are talking – the back three windows RAISE UP.

Ok… So what?

For starters – those are not just window shades you can open and close.

The shades in this house are WODDEN CURTAINS.  Not thin wooden curtains – but HEAVY, LARGE WOODEN BOARDS.

Also – the curtains are not on the inside of the window – but instead, on the OUTSIDE of the window.  However, each WINDOW SHADE has its own pulley system on the INSIDE of the window.

So, if you wanted to open the shade – you had to use a pulley system located next to the window…

Now, to complicate matters – THE SECOND FLOOR window shades were broken…

The pulley systems no longer worked – so if you wanted to pull the shade up – you had to physically STAND in front of the window and yank on a chain, then RETIE the chain back to the wall.  There was NO WAY to lock the window shade in place.  Meaning – if you pulled the drape up – it had to be tied back down OR the drape would slam closed.

To put this in perspective… If one person wanted to open all three drapes, he would have to untie the chain from the wall, pull the chain, then RETIE it back to the wall or the window shade would completely drop down.  Each shade would take maybe 20 to 30 seconds to operate.

There are three windows – three broken pulley systems – so it would take roughly 60 seconds to OPEN and TIE DOWN the windows.

In this video it takes exactly 7 seconds…   On top of that – the only way to open the windows are by standing in front of them…

For this to have happened – - It would have taken THREE CREW members, each one at their own window – and a coordinated plan… WHICH is entirely possible…

I am ready to say I was being punked.  And, maybe that is the case…  But, when I am ready to write this off, I notice RIGHT AFTER the three windows open, a ‘black mass’ quickly passes by the TOP THREE WINDOWS on the top story. Now that I can’t explain…

Freddy Krueger is just Robert Englund – so what is the explanation going on with these windows?

Below is the clip in question… make sure to watch it full screen! Looking forward to all of your thoughts!

Check back soon for the next blog… THE CULT.

dlb

BACKGROUND SHADES from D Bousman on Vimeo.

I think after returning from Spain – I needed some time to just step back and get my head on straight…

Some of you, I am sure, were following my adventures in what I proclaimed to be the MOST HAUNTED PLACE I had ever been…

Some of you however called Shenanigans, and thought it was all hype…

I have to admit – after rereading my own blogs I, TOO, would call shenanigans if I weren’t there in the middle of it… So I stopped writing – realizing no matter what I said – or posted – people who dismiss it as ‘hype.’

But time has now passed…

The movie has been edited… And to some extent, I have cleared my head, and accepted the fact – that I will never TRULY have all the answers I want…

Some things are just… unexplainable…

In the next few blogs – I will shed some light on the mysterious house we shot in…

I have decided to do a brief RECAP for those of you just joining me and use this blog to bring you up to speed.

And finally, I will provide you all with some video, and audio anomalies – that still – after much research and investigation JUST DON’T MAKE SENSE.

It’s up to you if you choose to believe a word I am saying – or, write it off as a big hoax to help publicity of the movie.  (Something to note – 11 11 11 has nothing to do with Ghosts – or creepy paranormal stories like the one below.)

To fully understand the VIDEOS I will post – it is important to first understand the house itself…

THE HOUSE

I went in great detail in previous blogs – about the energy the house itself put off… From the moment you walked in – there was a HEAVINESS that weighed you down…

Something… in the air… You felt… UNWELCOME.

In all my previous films – I shot almost entirely on a SET… 11 11 11 was the first film where 99.9 was shot on location.

This house was about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona, in a small village that sat mere inches from the Mediterranean Sea… The location itself was beautiful… Hell, the HOUSE itself was beautiful…

But the moment you drove up to its rusted gates… There was something…. ELSE…

For those keeping up with my blogs – you will remember that the house was used as SEX CLUB.

Think EYES WIDE SHUT… Now think DARKER.

Prior to our coming in and taking over the compound – it was rented out for ‘parties’ of the the ‘adult kind.’

When we arrived for the first time, the house was overrun with paraphernalia…

Masks…

Candles…

Occult symbolism…. and ALTARS… yes altars…

While I have made some bloody films… and I pride myself in my love for the macabre – - at heart, I am a poser…

Horror is a fun escape… Make believe… I shoot fake blood, then go home and watch SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE with my wife, cat and dog…

But with this movie… this location… I just stepped into something VERY REAL.

After our first location scout – I determined that while the house was beautiful – I had been unnerved enough to file it in the ‘LIFE IS TOO SHORT’ Category. We passed on the location – and searched elsewhere.

After two weeks of dead ends – I was asked by the Spanish producers to reconsider the house, and return one more time.

During my second visit to the house – a number of things happened…

1. SECRET ROOMS WERE FOUND
2. MORE OCCULT SYMBOLISM UNCOVERED

but most importantly

3. THE STORY OF HOUSE WAS TOLD TO ME.

(I encourage all of you just joining me to go back and read my previous blogs – which go into MUCH greater detail on my first encounters in the house…)

BLOG 1

BLOG 2

BLOG 3

BLOG 4

When we left the house after our second walk-through – I found the landlord standing on the beach smoking a cigarette…

He was an intense man… Didn’t smile a lot… In fact – he didn’t smile at all. I think this is what concerned me the most. Even the most straight faced, and serious of people smile… But not him. He seemed worried that we were here… His being worried – worried me.

That afternoon – the landlord directed us to a local restaurant. We all walked, and he joined us.

While at lunch, I asked if someone would ask the Landlord the history of the house… (I don’t speak Spanish – so all of this was being done through translators).

I will never forget his response…

With cold, almost hollow eyes he looked directly at me and said something in Spanish.

It was translated back to me.

“Are you sure you really want to know?”

How could I not?! I mean… come on…

I nodded…

For the next ten minutes – the man talked. Never once smiling… never once breaking eye contact with me.

Part of me felt it was a warning… Part of me thought it was all a prank – scare the American…

The following weeks would prove his story to be anything but a joke.

As his story was translated back to me – I felt myself becoming increasingly more and more uncomfortable.

The Landlord’s tale started back in the early 1900′s.

A Spanish Marquis purchased the house for himself, his young daughter, and his brother to move into.

In 1917 the neighbors had noticed that the Marquis’ daughter was never around. They inquired, and he would tell them that she was with her mother on vacation.

However as the year passed, the neighbors became increasingly more concerned as the daughter never returned.

Soon thereafter it was discovered that the daughter WAS NOT at the Mother’s – and the Mother had gone to the police, fearing something had happened after she had stopped hearing from her.

An investigation was launched in early 1918.

Later that year, the Marquis’ brother came forward and admitted to killing the girl ‘accidentally.’

The Marquis, fearing for his political career – and in order to protect his brother - helped cover up the death of the girl.

Both men were arrested…

By 1920 – the house was empty – and became a local legend within the community that the brother was into the Occult, and the daughter did not ‘accidentally’ die – but instead was sacrificed.

Now… How much of that above story is true?

Maybe none of it…

However one thing that was clear - the Landlord believed the story.

At this point in my journey – I decided to write it off as an exaggerated tale – an urban myth…

So – that is the backstory, as told to me…

It’s important you know the ‘tale’ to understand what I am going to be showing you over the next few blogs…

Check back on Monday – as I will start giving you a little insight – on some wicked things we uncovered while in production of this movie…

dlb

Here is one of our first walk throughs of the house with the crew… Enjoy -

Untitled from D Bousman on Vimeo.

I was going to wait to post this blog upon wrapping the picture… But I couldn’t wait any longer to let you glimpse at my newest flick “11 11 11″.

I had planned to write a long drawn out blog continuing to inform you of the horrors of shooting at what I am convinced is a cursed location… But that will have to await for another blog…  Another time…

Instead, let’s talk about the MOVIE itself…

First off, shooting on 11 11 11 is going AMAZING!  I am getting killer footage, and I truly think this will be the scariest film I have done!

The more of these blogs I write, the more I begin to question my own sanity for writing them. I am at a point now where I am beginning to censor myself, because I feel that no one will believe the words I am writing.

A writer for a horror site emailed me after my last blog: “Great build up for the movie… Awesome viral stuff…”

Already some of my fans things this is some marketing ploy…I too would think this was all some hoax if were not here, seeing the things I am seeing.

Sadly, it’s not viral… My blog has maybe a thousand faithful readers. Nowhere near enough to make this story ‘viral’.

It is real… It’s up to you if you choose to believe me…

This to me is more of an online diary. I know I may never have these type of experiences again, so I thought it made sense to put them out here for you to read…

I left off my last blog with my assistant Carlos finding a hole inside a wall, and deciding to go inside it.

He did not find a dead body, or a monster from “The Descent.” But, what he found was a cavern of other holes and archways all buried behind the wall…

He spent about six minutes inside before becoming sick and having to exit…

No one in the crew has since returned to the hole, though I am sure before shooting wraps, someone will go back.

We have now been shooting in the house for two weeks.

I, personally, have yet to see anything ‘unexplainable,’ but we have had some very upsetting injuries.

The first night at the house, the second AD, Leo, fell while walking to set and broke his ankle…

The script supervisor, Joana had to go to the hospital the second night in the house after falling violently ill.

Last week, Jota (on set props) was standing still during a take when a light suddenly fell from the ceiling, hitting him on the head…

Three instances that can all be written off as coincidence, sure… But these injuries came out of nowhere… We weren’t doing stunts… or crazy antics… No… these crew members were simply “walking around the house”.

I was READY to write everything off until this weekend, when my parents came in from Kansas to visit me… My mom is addicted to the internet… She has been faithfully following my blogs, and having heard the stories now for MONTHS about my uneasiness surrounding this location, she was super excited to see for herself the house, and the mysteries I speak of in these blogs…

and YES – they do have a Cameo in the movie!

Two hours after my parents arrived at the location, my dad became very ill and spent the remainder of the day back at the hotel being ‘sick’…

Again, sure, it’s all a coincidence, one very strange coincidence… Right?

Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with the macabre… I have dreamed of seeing a ghost, a UFO, some other worldly being… Why? I love the idea that we are not alone… that MAYBE there is more to this world that we can comprehend, or are prepared to believe…
Sadly, if these things exist, they have been elusive and have remained outside of my reality…

That being said – this trip, this movie, this location has brought me one step closer to believing that there are things that exist outside of our level of understanding…

About four days ago, one of the producers on the film came down to video village… He stood there for a couple of minutes… White as a sheet… After a long and uncomfortable silence, one of the crew members said, “What?”

The producer pulled the crew member aside… They immediately began speaking Spanish…

Whatever was being said was serious, and passionate…

The producer left set for the day… That night I asked the crew member, what that was about…

“He saw something…”

“What?”

“Ask him…”

The next day, I anxiously awaited for the producer to arrive back on set so I could get to the bottom of WHAT he saw…

However, to my disappointment when he arrived to set, and I tried to prod… He did not want to talk about it… He seemed, embarrassed…

“It was nothing… don’t worry about it!” – he was not a good liar…

That to me is scarier than his telling me… “I saw a ghost…”

He didn’t want to worry me… OR he didn’t want me to think he was crazy…

Regardless, he saw something, and it affected him so much that he left set…

WHAT DID HE SEE?

What is making so many people sick on set? Dust? no… we had the air tested… Mold? No, not that either…

Today the production designer came up to me… “Well, we found something you might want to see…”

“What” “A hole in the wall… with a rolled up scroll in it…”

As the production designer and I were staring at this weird scroll, with strange writing that we still can’t figure out WHERE it’s from, or WHAT it says, a neighbor walked over to us…

“Shooting a movie?” he asked…

“Yes…”

“The house sure has stories…”

“What kind of stories?”

“Maybe ones you don’t want to hear…”

How does one respond to that?

There are only 7 days left of filming… I would be lying if I said I am not going to be relieved getting out of this location…

I will miss the city, and the new friends I have met… But it’s been a long and tough shoot…

That all being said – I think the uneasiness of being in this ‘strange’ place has helped me and the film… The footage is looking incredible.

Tomorrow we start NIGHTS in the location…

If this much crazy stuff has been happening during the day time, I look forward to what the night brings…

dlb

I have been told that making a movie is a lot like having a kid…

The emotions… The ups, the downs…

You birth this project – and raise it… It becomes a part of you… And then, at some point you push it out into the world, hoping it finds its way…

You might have other kids… But ALL of them remain near and dear to you… No matter how many other kids come out of your loins…

SAW 3 is as important to me as REPO… Which is as important to me as SAW 4… They are just… different…

So in comes Mother’s Day… My latest child… One that was pushed into the world last year…

It has been awhile since I have addressed this topic, so I thought with the release of the… um… trailer… We should reopen the scrapbook…

As a director, the hardest part of the job is not the preproduction… or shooting… or even the editing… it’s the letting go…

Mother’s Day became one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had as a director… I was blessed with one of the best ensemble casts I have ever seen in a film like this…

I mean come on… Rebecca DeMornay…

On top of the cast… I had some of the most passionate producers I have had a chance to work with…

The entire experience was awesome…

The problem I have with filmmaking:  there comes a point when you hand the movie over… and have to walk away… where you no longer become a controller… you become a spectator.

For me, that was last May… There is not a day that goes by that I don’t have to remind myself that my part is over… and the film is now in somebody else’s control…

I turned the cut in, shook everyone’s hand, and started working towards my next flick…

The hardest part for me now is the NOT KNOWING…

When we made REPO, we had NO IDEA what it would turn into… We knew WE loved it – and hoped when we put it out into the world others would love it too…  The months that surrounded the release of Repo were harsh to say the least… The waiting… the NOT KNOWING…

With each movie, one would think it gets easier… But it never does…

I, like you, anxiously await Mother’s Day news… posters… trailers…

Two days ago, the DP Joseph White and I were at lunch on 11 11 11 when we saw the foreign trailer…

We had no clue it was online – nor did we see it before it went up…

It’s disheartening, as a parent, sitting back, and watching your child being introduced into the world.

We all worked so hard, to then open the internet and see a trailer for Mother’s Day with the wrong aspect ration… that wasn’t color corrected… the sound design was out of sync… and what the heck was the music in the trailer… Trust me, it ain’t anywhere in the movie…

It’s a foreign trailer, and if that is what sells the movie overseas than so be it… I trust them…

But, part of me wanted to climb to the tallest building and start screaming…

NO… WAIT!!! The movie is BETTER than that trailer!!!

But alas, all I have is this blog… and you, my dear readers…

What you saw leaked online this week was something we edited together for AFM WHILE we were still filming the movie… It was a sales tool, to be shown to a handful of people…

“Look what we are filming” type of thing…

But the internet, as I have learned, is like a bad STD:  it spreads quickly, and burns badly.

Within an hour, that foreign trailer had found its way on most genre sites.

THIS would be your first look at Mother’s Day. Not exactly what I would have hoped for… but, it is what it is…

As I have stated numerous times, Mother’s Day is my best film to date… Now, there are those out in the world who FEVERISHLY disagree with that statement… But as I look back on my films… I accomplished exactly what I set out to with the movie…

A brutal, shocking, emotional, intense film that would divide people. Much like the characters in the movie are… Divided.

I am excited about what comes next… What scene, or trailer, or poster will make its way online…

At this point, I am like you… I wake up and anxiously check my favorite genre sites wondering what, if anything, has been released…

Not sure I will ever get over the whole… Letting go part… I think I will always be the overbearing parent…  Even on things outside of my control.

dlb

There are times in my life that I feel like I am on PUNKed… There is no possible way that all the shit that happens to me is just some random happenstance… No, it cannot be ‘just one of those things…’

Sometimes I hear myself talking, and I call bullshit on myself…

Much like the story I am telling you now… Part of me reads these blogs, and I am like… Whatever… Bullshit… Hype… Manufactured promotion… The other part of me knows that sometimes TRUTH can be stranger than fiction…

Already, many of my friends and genre comrades have called shenanigans on this blog series – - I am not asking anyone to believe… If it makes you more comfortable not to believe me – I AM MAKING IT ALL UP, NONE OF IT IS REAL – THIS IS ALL A LIE – part of an elaborate hoax to hype the movie… To the rest of you, turn off the lights, lock the doors, and let’s continue.

My assistant, Carlos, is pretty bad ass… I cannot remember ever laughing so hard at one person than I do him… He speaks English very well, but sometimes he accidentally switches a word around… such as “Beach” and “Bitch” or “Hungry” and “Angry”. It’s pretty hilarious…

On my first meeting of Carlos – he told me, “I don’t believe in anything”. I prodded further – and he told me he doesn’t believe in ghosts, goblins, or things that go bump in the night… Carlos and I hit it off, and he has become my one-man comedy show… Even if I only understand half the shit he is saying, it’s funny as hell…

When Carlos ran up to Joe and me on our location scout – out of breath, and looking worse for wear, I knew something was wrong…

“Darren, Joe, you have to see this…” His face was a mixture of panic and excitement…

“See what Carlos?”

“We found ANOTHER secret room.”

Now, let us pause and recap the previous blog… I was JUST about to show Joe White (the DP) a secret room we found on the 3rd floor of the house… NOW, Carlos had discovered ANOTHER secret room…

“Wait,” Joe said… “There is more than one?”

Carlos was antsy… I couldn’t tell if he had to piss, or was just really excited…

Joe and I left the hallway we were in and followed Carlos to the basement…

THE BASEMENT:

With any good horror movie, basements are always scary… For some reason, lower levels of any structure give unwelcome strange feelings…

However, this basement was far worse… Not only was the place dark and musty… It was… wrong… There is really no other way to describe it than that…

You walk down the stairs and it feels like something is… well… watching you…

I am seeing the words I am typing and I sound like an insane person… I sound… well… irrational…

But, dear readers, I am not… Fly to Spain, come to the house, walk through its corridors.

The basement itself is not one room, but many… It’s a twisting, turning, cavernous enclosure…

As I walked down the steps, I saw some of the crew members taking pictures with their phones… One crew member muttered something as he passed me, then QUIT the movie…

What Carlos had stumbled upon was a small room that was blocked by a large sheet of DRYWALL… Upon removing the drywall, a seemingly ordinary storage room was discovered…

This was not the secret…

Inside this storage room was a NEWLY bricked up wall… There was some sort of vent, however, that was strangely out of place. Above the vent, ONE OF THE CULT SYMBOLS I mentioned earlier…

So, lets recap… A hidden room covered over by NEW drywall… Behind the drywall a storage space… and within the storage place a VENT with a cult symbol…

“We should open the vent,” Carlos proclaimed…

I don’t know why I was nervous, but I was…

“No, Carlos, I don’t think that is a good idea…”

But the truth was, I did want to know what was behind this vent… Why was the room dry walled up? Why was there a cult symbol over the vent? And what, if anything, stood on the other side…

As a million thoughts were going through my head – Carlos and the production designer had removed the vent…

The production designer turned to me…

“There’s another room back here…. Let me see your camera!”

I handed him my camera…

He reached his hand in and took a picture… then another…

What we saw on the camera made no sense… not only was there a room, but a series of rooms and tunnels and passageways…

“I’m going in,” Carlos demanded…

Before I could stop him, Carlos was pushing himself in the small hole in the wall…

There was not only another room behind the vent – but an entire SECTION of the house covered over.

What he saw? Well… That will have to wait to the next blog…  My first full day of shooting begins in an hour!   I gotta put my game face on.

dlb

(if you have not already, check out PART 1 of this blog series here)

There are some things we experience in life that defy description… I can sit down at my computer – arrange some flowery words and hope that I make a modicum of sense.

The truth is – we EACH make up our OWN reality – what makes sense for me, might not make sense for you…  What scares me, might not scare you… It is what makes each of us unique, different, and individual.

Many of you have written to me warning about proceeding in the dark locales in which we are running.

In the last three weeks, I have hinted in my blogs about the ‘dark’ nature of one of our main locations on my current film 11 11 11… Now, many of you have jumped to conclusions of GHOSTS and HAUNTED BEINGS, things that go ‘BUMP’ in the night…

And while I am almost confident these things might, actually most probably do, lurk within our location, this is not what I am talking about, or anxious about…  (most of the lore surrounding this house is seeped in legends of ghosts and spirits, but this is not where the energy I am talking about it coming from)

I have never seen a Ghost… While I don’t rule out the possibility they exist… I personally have never seen one… Nor, in that matter have I had some ‘out there’ paranormal experience… While I am fascinated by the possibility, I personally have not had the luck of seeing anything that cannot be explained away with rational thought…

A guilty pleasure of mine… I love GHOST HUNTERS, PARANORMAL STATE, DESTINATION TRUTH, etc… I can watch those shows for hours on end…  The idea that something exists out there that MAY change the foundation of my belief system FASCINATES me….

BIG FOOT… UFO’s… DEMONS….GHOSTS…

Maybe that is where my love of horror started… Fear… Fear of the unknown…

This week my very good friend, collaborator, and Director of Photography, Joseph White, showed up in Spain…

For weeks he had been hearing my stories of our locations, and my apprehension to shoot in them… Those who know me, know that I tend to… well… Stretch the truth…

Not really lie – just – make my stories funnier by adding a piece of fiction or two…

So, like always, Joe took my nervousness about the house with a grain of salt.

That was until yesterday afternoon…

Yesterday was our first TECH scout with Joe, and we arrived at this location… Joe was on his iPhone, playing some game, looking cool as a cucumber when the car stopped… He looked out the window…

“This is it?”  He sounded disappointed… Almost let down…

“Yeah, this is it…”

The crew was congregated in the yard, waiting for us.  We stepped up, and there was this… this… nervousness about everyone…

“Let’s go inside,” I said…

When we stepped in, the house was bustling with activity… Painters were there, set dressers, riggers, etc… No longer was it the creepy old house – I was in a production…

One would think this would bring some comfort – and maybe relief – but it didn’t… In fact, in a sense, the feeling was worse…

I turned around to Joe and I saw him just standing there… He looked a little out of it…

“Well?”

“I don’t like this place…”

“As in shooting?”

“No, as in I feel fucking horrible the second I walked in.”

Joe was standing by the front door.  He hadn’t seen ANY MORE of the house than what was directly in front of him…

I noticed a few of the crew members hanging around outside… I asked my assistant why weren’t they joining us for the tech scout…

His only response… “Bad Energy.”

We walked through the house – showing the crew the layout, explaining the shots, filtering questions, etc… But this was not the jovial, fun energy that usually surrounds my shoots…

I try… TRY being the key word to make my sets ‘fun.’  Even Mother’s Day, which is the most brutal film I have ever done was FUN as hell.  The set, the actors, the crew, the locations….

By now I have teased and teased the ‘horrors’ that this house holds, but I have YET to give any examples of what I am talking about.

So let us lift the shroud a little bit.

In the last couple of years this location has sat vacant… Before we came in and took it over, it was used for “SEX PARTIES.”

“Sex parties?”  I am talking full on EYES WIDE SHUT – sex parties…

Your first question will be, how do I know this?

Well, simple… You walk in and there are fliers left over from their last SEX PARTY…

On top of that, they didn’t clean up…

No there were no condoms on the ground, or porn still playing on the TV…

But, the remnants of what they left behind were just as shocking…

Candles surrounding every inch of space… Mattresses lain out on barren floors surrounded by a circle of chairs…

Masquerade masks discarded on the floors, mirrors lining walls and ceilings…

Shocking, sure. But who reading this blog does not like a good sex party…

The secrets this house holds go far deeper, and further back than a secret sex party…

As I turned to Joe, and watched him taking in this insane location  – I saw that I wasn’t alone in the ‘energy’ this place was giving off…

“So, what do you think of the place?” I asked him again…

“I want to leave,” he responded… “Seriously, I feel sick to my stomach.”

For a moment I contemplated if should reveal to him my next surprise… Being the asshole that I am… I did.

“Think this is scary… You ain’t seen nothing yet… Let me show you the secret passage way we found…”

“What? What secret passage way?”

“The one leading to the part of the house that has been bricked over and closed off… THIS is the normal part of the house…”

His face drained of color… the crew tensed up, and we walked up a flight of stairs to a long narrow hallway leading to a false wall, that in turn lead to a part of the house someone had tried very hard to hide, and bury… It is in this closed off, bricked up portion of the house that the real story begins…

But that part of the story will have to wait till next time…

dlb

I am a horror director… to many, including my family, that means that I am sick in the head…

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have been asked…

“Have you been dropped on your head?”
“Did your parents lock you in the basement?”
“Were you abused?”

The answer to all the above questions is undoubtably… NO.

I don’t know if you would call me normal, but crazy I am not…

Recently, while researching this script, I was turned onto a variety of websites that explored various ‘dark’ religious practices and beliefs… The research led to dark corners, Satanism, cults, etc… Yet, most of what I was looking up rolled off my back, and was interesting but never scary… Having the love of horror has allowed me to see some pretty terrible things… All of them however, make-believe.

However, in my research of 11 11 11, I found myself becoming increasingly more and more unsettled… There was a point at which I got utterly depressed…

No longer was I researching horror movies, made-up monsters, or things that went bump in the night. I was seeing REAL people, doing really horrible things…

I am a poser…

I am not a killer or a psycho nor am I mentally damaged… I just like scary movies… I like Freddy Krueger, Jason, Michael Meyers… I like Jigsaw… I hate to shatter your perceptions of who you think I am… But I am just a dude who likes movies… Who owns a fluffy dog, and loves musicals…

Reading these websites, however, introduced me to a TRUE type of evil… It showed me something that seemed like works of fiction but were indeed FACT.

It got to a point that my wife FORCED me to stop digging… She pulled me from the rabbit hole. It wasn’t until weeks later that I truly saw how fucked up I really was…

The research led me to question everything… Not only my religious beliefs – but also the world around me…

Knowing what people are capable of… Human Nature at its worst…

While my studying fueled the story of my script – it also awakened a morbid curiosity inside of me…

WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE? I am not talking about religion, or aliens, or any other cryptozoology creature… I am talking about life in general… Reality… What exists out there in the world that I am not aware of? Could Angels exist? Demons? God? The Devil? Could there be more to the world that I am not aware of?  Or maybe there is truly nothing… Any of these possibilities fascinated me… But, at the same time, terrified me.

I finished the first draft of 11 11 11 without losing my mind – though at times I stepped into some very dark places… But my curiosity ended on the Web. Once I closed my computer and shut off the Internet I was transported back into the SANE NORMAL world in which I lived… My wife… My dog… Seinfeld.

Cut to today. Never in a million years would I have imagined that coming to Spain would bring me one step closer to the horrors I had read about online.

I would consider myself a rational and sane, thinking person… I try not to buy into outlandish concepts… But I can absolutely say, without pause or hesitation, that one of the locations we are using to shoot a big portion of the movie in is the scariest place I have ever been… Not scary in the BOO a ghost might pop out and scare us… Something much darker…

The horror director in me is amazed at the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone, and work in a location that’s history seems as dark as any movie I have worked on… But there is another part of me that is apprehensive about allowing myself back down the rabbit hole I found myself dropped into some months back…

The thing that is bumming me out the most right now, as every day I come from work, and I call my parents, and friends, and want to talk about the crazy shit I have just seen or learned… And almost all of them feel it’s some ploy – or publicity to hype the film.  Instead of being taken by my experiences and research – they roll their eyes and say…

“Yeah, right…”

I will make you a promise right now my dear readers… these next series of blogs are NOT hype for the film, or fiction…

Now that we have gotten the preamble out of the way… Let’s talk about the house…  The main location were we will be shooting 11 11 11.

But, that will have to wait until my next blog.

dlb

Until this point in my career I have had the extreme good fortune of working not only in the same country but primarily with the same crew.   Every film I have done has been shot in Canada and, for the most part, I have had my same department heads since SAW II.

There is a level of comfort being aware of the location, and knowing that my crew has my back.  In some respects Canada became my home, and the crew, my family.

However, times change…  The industry changes.   I, too, must change… Grow up, and evolve — or at least, try to evolve as a filmmaker.

About three months ago I was approached by a producer by the name of Wayne Rice.  He had an idea.  He wanted to make a movie about a number.  Not just any number, but the number 11:11.

Almost immediately a red flag was raised.  About five years back (right after SAW II was released) my agency sent me a script for a movie entitled “The Number 23.”  I read about half of it before calling them in, passing.  The script itself was well written but I had a major problem buying into and accepting the fact of numerology.  To have a narrative story in which the lead character was driven insane by a number seemed like such a stretch, and I couldn’t figure out how to approach something like that.

I explained to Wayne my reservations about doing a movie based solely on a number, but my apprehension did not stop him from continuing to tell me WHY this movie was important.

Wayne is a persuasive type of guy, and by the end of our meeting I found myself not only engaged by the premise, but excited by it.

Our meeting concluded with Wayne saying we would talk again in 48 hours.  However all it took was 24 hours for me decide not only was this a movie I wanted to direct, but one I wanted to write as well.

Here we are three months after my first meeting, and I am writing you from Barcelona Spain, making 11 11 11.

To quote my man Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction – “It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it’s just – it’s just there it’s a little different.”

I wish I could say here in Spain “it’s just a little bit different.”   But the reality is, “IT’S A LOT BIT DIFFERENT.”   At least for me…

Take for example CHRISTMAS – in the states – we have the iconic SANTA CLAUSE in the shopping malls – reminding us of the season… In Barcelona they have CAGANER ( Seriously, I am not joking read this! ).  It’s a dude who poops on The Nativity Scene to help fertilize the ground…

Let me start off and tell you, without pause, if it were not for my lovely and beautiful wife, Laura – I would be so screwed, so out of place here – I would not be able to make this movie.

Fact… I slept through most of high school… I was in REM sleep during Spanish class…

Outside of “Hola,” and “Hasta luego,” the only Spanish I know comes from bad Antonio Banderas impressions.

Luckily for me, the producers have hired a crew who speaks English.  (And a GREAT crew at that…)

But, when I walk outside and try to communicate – forgettaboutit.

I have noticed that I have resorted to not even speaking, simply motioning in very large gestures and looking like a jackass…

Luckily for me, Laura DOES speak Spanish – and is able to make up for whatever ass-clownery I have committed.

I would have to say, however, this entire experience is nothing short of inspirational.  As a foreigner, I have become the character I am writing about in 11 11 11.

I now understand with a greater admiration why movies like HOSTEL are terrifying.  NOT that I think I am going to be sold to a Slovakian business man and tortured, but, things become more unsettling when you can not communicate or understand what those around you are saying.

In my film, the main character, Joseph, travels from New York to Barcelona to reunite with his estranged family.  Things go from bad to worse as he begins to witness ‘strange happenings’ surrounding the number 11:11.

This is NOT an exaggeration – everywhere we will be shooting looks, seems, or IS haunted.

We are not shooting on a sound stage – we are shooting in all practical locations, most of the places being over a hundred years old.

In future blogs I will highlight some of the INSANE stories surrounding some of the locations we are filming in, but as a fan of ghost stories and unexplainable phenomena I am either absolutely terrified, or absolutely in heaven…

The main location where about 60% of the movie takes place is the scariest location I have ever been.  The second you walk in the air becomes heavier, the hair on the back of your neck stands up…

Oh the stories I already have to tell you about that place…

All in all, I am fascinated by how quickly the movie is coming together, and how amazing and surreal my experience in Barcelona has been thus far.

Canonigo Films, the Spanish producers, are on top of their game, and have assembled a FANTASTIC crew.   I also love how they are FANS of the genre – and have already schooled me on my knowledge of horror films.

I am not sleeping much, because I am so inspired by the city, and the secrets my locations seem to hold.  I am excited to finally be making a scary movie…

I remember when Mother’s Day was screened — or SAW for that matter — critics would complain – ‘but it’s not scary…’  Mother’s Day, or SAW was never shot to be ‘scary.’

Violent, YES…

Disturbing, YES…

Shocking, YES…

Scary… NO…

Finally I get to cross over into a subgenre of horror I love… Scary, and atmospheric horror… Still to this day movies like Rosemary’s Baby, The Tenant, Exorcist, The Omen terrify me.  They weren’t violent or gory – they were just… Scary…

I could continue to write for hours – but there is much to be done as we go to camera in less than a month.   The DP Joseph White (Mother’s Day, Repo!) arrives in town next week!

Keep checking back as I will start updated the blogs every couple of days…

dlb

Mother’s Day ended at 3am early Friday morning at it’s first public screening in Austin, TX.

As I walked in the lobby, I knew something was amiss as I saw some friends of mine, turn and hurriedly walk out of the theater.

My wife and I saw a good friend of ours standing by himself, someone who I had snuck into the sold out screening…

“Well?” I asked, hoping for a high five, or at least a thumbs up.

He looked at me, meekly shook his head.  ”I kind of hated it.”

My heart dropped… As I stood there, taking in his five word review – a critic walked up to me threw his arm around my shoulder!  ”Fucking BRILLIANT – Dude, this is your BEST FILM!!!”

A FILM DIVIDED:

“Mother’s Day is by far the best of this sub-genre of horror movies.  It’s by far the best film Darren Lynn Bousman has directed.  And it’s also the best ensemble cast you’re probably ever going to see in a genre film of this sort.”MASSIVE HYSTERIA

“Mother’s Day simply does not work, even as derivative genre fare; and while it may have previously been a badge of honor to release something containing what could be considered the most distasteful scene of the year, in 2010 that’s a dubious accomplishment – which in this case is also a perfect description for the movie as a whole.” TODDGILCHRIST.COM

“Darren Lynn Bousman is a director that not only knows how to craft a great horror film, he grows with each film, and after watching Mother’s Day he’s climbed his way up to my top 10 directors to watch list. Mother’s Day is positively a killer film.” KILLERFILM

Saturday was my last day in Austin.  My wife and I had flown there to screen my latest film, MOTHER’S DAY at the amazing Fantastic Fest Film Festival.

Saturday afternoon was our day off, and we decided to take a walk down to 6^th Street… The epicenter of downtown Austin… bars – restaurants, street musicians, etc.

As we were walking down the street, I noticed this kid sitting by himself, eating a giant sausage.   He was probably eight or nine, a little overweight, pasty white with a half mullet, and sweat pouring down his face.  His shirt looked like it had consumed more of this sausage than his stomach did.

As we passed him, I saw a woman in front of me nudge her husband… “Disgusting,” she said.

The kid was pretty disgusting… At least to a passerby out enjoying the hot Austin weather…

It struck me then, how much my movies… actually, ALL movies, have in common with the sausage eater…

Somewhere, strolling around Austin, was this kid’s mom… Most likely inside her purse she had pictures of her little Sausage eater, which she would happily pull out and show the girls at the beauty shop…

“This is my boy,” she would say proudly, “and he loves sausages!”

Odds are, the sausage eater had friends who liked him, teachers who respected him, and a father who looked forward to teaching him the joy of the birds and the bees.

But not today… Today, to us… he was the sweaty sausage eater who sat alone on a street corner.

I shudder to think how his mother would feel if she knew that while her son was out  enjoying his snack, he was being mocked by those strolling about.

While I was having this profound thought, my phone beeped, and I was alerted I had an email.  A review from my latest movie, MOTHER’S DAY, and it was less than glowing… In fact, it was downright mean…  It was a review filled with hate…

No one ever prepares you for the harsh reality of being reviewed… Being torn apart – having something you love being dissected, and shat on.  Imagine spending years on something only to show it to the world, and then be smacked in the face.

HOW IN FUCK’S SAKE CAN THEY NOT UNDERSTAND THE SUBTLE NUANCES OF MY BRILLIANCE?!  (I kid, I kid)

So I stood there, next to the Sausage eater, reading my review, a little bit crushed, and a lot bit sweating… (It’s Austin… it was fucking hot!)

It was then that it hit me… I, too, was the Sausage eater.

I had put myself out there to be openly ridiculed and picked apart.

SOMETHING THEY DON’T TEACH YOU IN FILM SCHOOL…

Part of being an artist is being able to understand and take critiques… You create art – to hopefully affect the viewer… I am sure there are TONS of artists out there, however, who never PUBLICLY display their creations…  They keep them hidden from the outside world, locked away, only to come home at night and marvel at their work…

In the film world, that is not a luxury we have… You make a movie with the hope and aspiration of the world seeing your story… You put it out there to be picked apart, studied, and eventually… judged.

I have had the good fortune that some of the movies I have been a part of have been ‘critic proof’… No matter how bad your review of SAW was, people were still coming to see it…

Knowing this however does not make the blow any easier to wake up and see you have a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes…

REPO! was a different beast. It was not part of a huge franchise, nor was it a studio darling.  It was a PASSION PROJECT…

I don’t care what filmmakers say in public, they all read their reviews.  The GOOD ones, and the BAD…

In the case of REPO!, the majority of the reviews were bad.

I actually have the bragging rights to say BEN LYONS called my movie the WORST MOVIE of 2008, I believe he was also the critic to say REPO was in the running for the worst movie OF ALL TIME!!!

YOWSA!

There is a point in which you can laugh at certain critics’ ignorance… In Ben Lyons’ case, he has a track record for being a douche nozzle, so that one rolled off my back….

But there are other reviews that are just mean-spirited… Aimed not at the movie, but at the filmmaker…

I will never forget one reviewer saying “BOUSMAN OUGHT TO BE SHOT for encouraging this type of violence in the cinema…”  His review spoke not of the movie… But of the man making the film…

The great thing about America is FREE SPEECH…

Anyone can say anything they want.

Ben Lyons has the right to say I made the worst film in the history of movies, and I have the right to say he hates kittens…

One thing that I have begun to notice about myself as a filmmaker – the movies that I am attracted to seem to be the POLARIZING kind.  The ones that will not only DIVIDE an audience, but also put up a brick wall in between them…

Nothing makes me happier than to read the REPO! DEBATES in which a REPO! fan will try to defend why he/she loves the film, while the haters give examples of why it blows.

Wanna talk about a film that is polarizing? RENT REPO…

So enters MOTHER’S DAY:  in my mind, a major accomplishment in my career as a director.  I think it is not only my most mature film… It’s also my best…

If you are reading this blog, you are probably well aware of the trials and tribulations of getting this movie seen and bought… The movie has been done for months, and only this week was it sold…

I will be the first to admit that MOTHER’S DAY is NOT for everyone… It’s RAW, BRUTAL, VIOLENT, SICK, AND yes, at times MEAN-SPIRTED… Now, some of you may read this sentence and say SIGN ME UP!!!! I love that…. But it is also DRAMATIC… It borders at times on being categorized as a “DRAMA”, and not even a horror film.

So what does all of this have to do with the SAUSAGE EATER?

As the lady in front of me thought, “disgusting,” the sausage eater’s mother sits at home thinking of  “love.”  The same child… TWO completely different outlooks…

Filmmaking, I have learned, is the same… Take this week’s Fantastic Fest screening…

SOME of the best reviews of my career….

“MOTHER’S DAY came at me hard and ran me over like a horror freight train. The flick just wouldn’t stop pummeling the shit out of me and at the end of it, I was a better man for it. Solid acting all around (with De Mornay knocking it out of the park), a grab you by the collar pace, an engaging visual style, tension galore and a knack for shoving the boundaries in a coffin and setting it aflame.  MOTHER’S DAY was the real deal.” ARROW IN THE HEAD

Also… Some of the worst…

“If you held a gun to my head, asked me what positive thing I could say about this film to survive, I’d probably say Deborah Ann Woll is hot and there’s a cool scene (involving a borderline-incestuous hand-job that ends before entering the realm of shock), and Addley is a pretty decent, if generic villain. “ FILM SCHOOL REJECTS

Wow… Maybe they saw different cuts of the movie?   No… That can’t be it…

“MOTHER’S DAY is triumphantly and seriously F’ed Up” AIN’T IT COOL NEWS.

“MOTHER’S DAY – It’s Just Awful…” FIRSTSHOWING.NET

“All of the actors are phenomenal, especially De Mornay, who excited me every time she opened her mouth.  It’s too bad the Oscars are such a sham because De Mornay deserves more than just a nomination… “ KILLER FILM

“…the characters are just paper-thin and rather generic” SLASH FILM

Hmmm…

“The set-up, the dire circumstances (thanks to a terrific script by Scott Milam) and the strong performances all around make MOTHER’S DAY an outstanding fright flick.  Yet it simply doesn’t exist to shock; there is truthfulness about this story that will resonate with those simply looking for more than a good and gruesome horror flick, but it will also appeal to the loyal horror fans looking for something scary, bloody, and edge of your seat exciting.  The simple fact is, you root for these people, even the bad guys.  Brutal, intense, and easily one of the best thrillers I have seen in the last few years…” IAMROGUE

“…there’s nothing else except misdirection, plot contrivance and “forgetful filmmaking” to keep the story going” CRAVEONLINE

“MOTHER’S DAY is not cookie-cutter horror filmmaking.  There is genuine thinking going on here… The film’s power stems from its grey areas and moral complexity.  I see more horror films in a given year than I can handle.  But the turn off in my head isn’t from torture or gore or exploitation: the turn off comes when it’s disgustingly clear that movies have been clicked and diced to fit a formula.   Even the ending is unusual and will leave you with a hollow, twisted feeling in your gut.  I fucking love that sensation, and I fucking love this movie…” AINTITCOOLNEWS

These are all websites I greatly respect, all from critics whose views I admire.   The horror community and these sites have been amazing to me over the years.   I look forward to them all catching whatever I do next, as well, I look forward to their reviews.

But what about everyone else?  What about the thousands of TWEETS that flooded the Internet seconds after the movie…

“THIS THE WORST GODDAMN MOVIE I HAVE EVER FUCKING SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!”

“This is Darren’s best flick – I am still shaking.”

“WTF did I just watch?  And why did I sit through that – it was absolutely terrible.”

“Just saw MOTHER’S DAY #fantasticfest one of the most dramatic well acted horror films in recent history.”

“MOTHER’S DAY = MASSIVE FAIL. Bousman sucks, and so does this movie!”

“MOTHER’S DAY at Fantastic Fest is the reel deal yall!  Best horror film in years”

But was my film the mildly obese kid eating the sausage?   How could someone love something, and someone else HATE it so much?

That, my dear readers is LIFE…

I got into filmmaking to make films that create debate… discussion… NEVER did I envision myself making bubblegum entertainment… So seems to be the case with Mother’s Day… Even looking at the reviews from ONE site there is a massive devide…

1. “MOTHER’S DAY is triumphantly & seriously F’d up!  Good film, tough and mean” Harry Knowles, AINT IT COOL NEWS

2. “This movie is worthless and an insult to your very sensibilities. Avoid it at all costs.” Massawyrm AINT IT COOL NEWS

3.  ”This is one of the good ones of this genre and shouldn’t be missed. It should also be protected like an endangered species.” Capone, AINT IT COOL NEWS

Obviously nothing in my life would make me happier than creating something that is unanimously loved… But the reality is – that is just not life…

“Mother’s Day” absolutely exceeds its source material, and despite the feeling that this sort of material has been done, and perhaps done too much at this point, the film most succeeds, and should be able to reach more than just a horror audience thanks to the strong performances and Bousman’s impressive sense of restraint with even the most horrible moments.” HITFX

“… the lack of character both in the people within the film as well as the narrative at hand leaves you with an empty embrace, as if the maternal passion has long since gone. All that is left are the morsels, and even those are rotting your teeth. You know. Like Mother always said.” FIRSTSHOWING.NET

My wife loves sushi… I can’t stand it…

I love Boo Berry cereal, she hates it…

In our normal life, however, these debates are kept civil, and short-winded… But in film – a debate stretches into the MILLIONS reading it.

I will never forget when REPO! began being screened… A negative review popped up amongst numerous positive reviews.  It came from an online blogger living in Florida.  He had seen the movie during one of my REPO! Road Tours.  He hated it… LOATHED it.  His scathing review is still etched in my mind and haunts my sleep.    His hate-filled rant on the ‘gayness’ of REPO!, calling the film a travesty of cinema – was picked up by a local newspaper… that newspaper ran the article – which in turn was picked up nationwide.   Within 24 short hours, one person’s voice reached millions.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO LIKED IT?  LOVED IT?!

It was then that I came to the most important realization I have had as a filmmaker.  It’s better to be polarizing than it is to be in the middle.

People HATED REPO! – People LOVED REPO! – but it was hard to find many who just ‘LIKED’ REPO!

I see that my new film will swim in the same waters.  While I don’t envision a MOTHER’S DAY ARMY – I think it will be another film LOVED by some, and DESPISED by others.

…You know what… I am okay with that.   I am fine being the Sausage eater.  (wait… that didn’t come out right!)   Some will watch and laugh – others will look on adoringly.

“…“Mother’s Day is a hateful, sloppily written, horribly performed story with the same slick execution Busman has become known for… Iike catching a glimpse of a car wreck as you pass on the freeway.  It’s just bad, and that car wreck you may have held out hope for catching sight of has been cleaned up, but bloodied bodies are still laying on the pavement.” FIRSTSHOWING

“With the Saw films and Repo! The Genetic Opera behind him, he tackles the psychological aspects of the film with terrific and intense results…” SHOCKTILLYOUDROP

I don’t think I will ever grow a thick enough skin to let the negative reviews roll off my back… I will always obsess, and fixate on the negative.

A girl walks down the steet, nine guys approach her and tell her how beautiful she is, and complement everything about her.  One guy see’s her and calls her a fat cow.   Suddenly the nine the guys are trumped by the one…

That being said – I am proud of the flick, and stand behind the vision of the film.  I look forward to finalizing everything, and getting it ready for mass consumption.

MOTHER’S DAY is coming… I look forward to you all seeing it and seeing which side of the fence you fall on…  Either side is cool by me!

Until next time,

dlb

MOTHER’S DAY

Okay, so many, MANY of you have been reaching out to me screaming, “WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH MOTHER’S DAY?!?!?!?”

I have been screaming that exact question for months as well, and I KNOW what is happening with Mother’s Day. (I kid, I kid)

First off, let’s dispel some rumors.

NO, Mother’s Day is not going STRAIGHT TO VIDEO. We will be released in theaters.

NO, it’s not ONLY going to be in a handful of theaters. Mother’s Day will be IN YOUR CITY and AT YOUR THEATER.

And, NO, we are not coming out in the next couple of months.

Things that ARE REAL…

The movie has been bought and the company loves the film. We are now just putting our campaign together. There will be months of silence and then an explosion of content.

Actually, I tell you what… You have all been waiting SOOOOO patiently for a trailer, a poster, THE MOVIE…. With patience comes reward… In this case – your reward shall be a smoking hot picture of Annette aka Briana Evigan!!!   Briana’s character in the movie does a little ‘modeling’ – so to help you connect with Annette more – let’s meet her, shall we?

Ok, back on track…

The world never moves as fast as you want it to. Hollywood REALLY doesn’t move as fast as I want it to…

But the long and short of it is this: Mother’s Day is in a VERY good place.

We have screened the movie for a handful of genre press and have had nothing but glowing reviews…  (below are some of early thoughts)

AINT IT COOL NEWS

SHOCK TILL YOU DROP

DREAD CENTRAL

IAMROGUE

HORROR.COM

and, for all you French speaking fan’s. ( I have no idea what the review says, but hopefully it is good)

DeVilDead

This is the most proud I have been as a director, as I truly believe this is my strongest work to date. The movie is horrific, dark, and extremely emotional. The cast knocked it out of the park, and I can truly say with a straight face there is not a weak performance in the movie.  I used blood and gore in SAW to cause fear.  In Mother’s Day, I just used the cast and their amazing performances.

So the million dollar question – What is the hold up?

Trust me, if I could show you Mother’s Day tomorrow I would… In fact, come on over to casa de Bousman and I will do a backyard screening!

The reality is Mother’s Day was made ‘outside’ the studio system.  Truly independent.

With Saw, or REPO! when we filmed the movie we had Lions Gate already behind us. We had a release date, and the campaign for its release was underway while we were still filming!

Mother’s Day was a different beast. We didn’t show the movie to anyone until the film was completely done, score and all!

Now enters the ‘business’ side of the movie ‘BUSINESS’: negotiations, contracts, lawyers etc, etc.   Once the contracts are done, the ‘plan’ begins… How we promote, the marketing material, choosing a date, etc… It’s not as simple as saying MOVIES DONE, let’s release it… There are about a million moving parts, and they all have to move in unison.

I am as anxious for you all to see the flick as you are! Maybe more!  I am so proud of the film, it’s performances, and the feeling it leaves you with when you walk out of the cinema.

In the next few months the tides will change, the campaign will begin and trailers will emerge (maybe more pictures of Annette as well).

In the mean time, check out our updated website (www.mothersdaythemovie.com).

Go rent the original TROMA classic.

But more important, REST ASSURED, Mother will be coming home very soon!

dlb

STOP READING: First catch up on the previous blogs:
BLOG 1
BLOG 2
BLOG 3
BLOG 4
BLOG 5

My short film ZOMBIE was met with a cold, to lukewarm response… To me that was EXCITING as hell, as all my previous short films where UNWATCHABLE – the mere fact that ANYBODY was able to sit through THIS short film was nothing short of a success on my part…

It was also exciting to me… On a Thursday, I had no short film… On a Sunday I had produced, written, directed, and edited MY OWN short film.

I had accomplished something… Was it GREAT?  No… Was it the best short film ever?  No… But it was mine… I had FINALLY done something… I didn’t just TALK about it.  I DID it!  For a moment, I was important.  I set a goal, and followed through with it – and here it was; I was holding a DVD in my hands of ART that I created.

When I went in for my second meeting with Lionsgate the tension in the room was palpable.  I shudder to think what Gregg Hoffman had to do to get me a second meeting…

By this point SAW was still in theaters – and over-performing ALL expectations.

LGF and Twisted knew they had a hit – and yet here I sat, some dude from Kansas who made a moderately watchable short film ZOMBIE surrounded by suits and scowling faces…

I remember Peter Block sitting there, running the meeting.   At the time he was the scariest person I had ever met, as he held my future in his hands…

“So, Darren, why don’t you tell us why you think you should direct SAW 2?”

I didn’t miss a beat… I started talking… I said everything I thought they wanted to hear.  I talked, and talked, and talked and talked…

Then I saw it… They began to shift uncomfortably, eyes flicked to their blackberries, others looked at watches… I WAS LOSING THEM…  I looked to Gregg Hoffman, who once again looked ashamed… I was blowing it…

Then, like some Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie – I felt the KICK to my groin…

I stopped mid-sentence…

“Peter, why should you hire me? You shouldn’t….”

What the FUCK was I saying?!?  Everyone looked up surprised…

“I am the complete WRONG guy for this.  And THAT, is exactly why you should hire me…”

Peter leaned forward, a slight smile on his face… “What do you mean?” he asked…

And for the first time in this whole process, I stopped telling them what I THOUGHT they wanted to hear, and told them what I FELT…

“James Wan had never directed a movie before SAW; he was a nobody living in Australia. YOU GUYS gave him a chance, HE HAD something to prove, and now you have a hit on your hands…  You took a risk, and it worked…   I am another risk… I could sit here all day, and talk to you in flowery adjectives about why you should hire me, but the reality is at the end of the day you have to decide if you want to take ANOTHER risk… You hit a blackjack – are you going to double down?”

That is when the entire meeting changed… Peter Block stopped being this scary force who could crush me… I saw him for who he was, a HORROR FAN wearing a suit.

I remember Jason Constantine  (one of the nicest execs in the business) asking my opinion on how SAW 2 should begin…

“Capture Jigsaw.”

“Why would you capture Jigsaw?  He is our villain, people want to see him doing terrible things.”

“And that’s exactly why you need to capture him in the first TWO minutes of the movie…  As an audience member – I NEED to see how you continue the movie when you captured the killer at the beginning…”  We talked for about an hour… I stopped talking as a director – and talked to the room as a fan of horror… What I wanted to see…

Two weeks later – I was on a plane to Toronto – to begin preproduction on SAW 2…

People say talent can unlock unimaginable doors.   Know what else can unlock doors?  KICKING THEM IN!!!!

My thesis for these series of blogs is the following:   talent has only a small part to do with your success in Hollywood.  The majority of successful people I know are cocky, self absorbed, and SELF CONFIDENT.  In short… They don’t care if they fail… Don’t care if they make an ass out of themselves.  Why?  Because THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!

It’s like THE SECRET… You attract what you put out there…

Who is going to hire a director who is shy and second guesses his art?   Who is going to hire you to write their script when you are constantly teetering on “is this good?”  ”is this not good?”

My biggest gift… I think I am awesome… Am I awesome?  No, not really… But I THINK IT…

Cocky, arrogant, self absorbed… These are all just words – labels that the unsuccessful throw at those who have made it…

If I am a producer and I am going to give a director MONEY, in the case of Saw 2, MILLIONS of dollars, I need to know without a shadow of a doubt that this person is confident, has a vision, and knows how to get it…

You are entering one of the most  competitive businesses in the WORLD.    What are YOU going to do to set  yourself apart from EVERY wanna be director / writer / actress who has moved to Hollywood to make it?

What is your pizza box idea?  How are you going to stand apart from the crowd?

It has been five years since I directed SAW 2.

The harsh reality is that it doesn’t get any easier.  The majority of my days are still filled with failures.  Movies that drop me.  Producers who lose money.  Scripts that cannot attract actors…

For every ONE movie that I get made, there are 99 that collapse and implode.

So for those of you that have followed this SIX part Blog series and are hoping to find the answer of WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH YOU IN FILM SCHOOL: grab your pencils, take note – as this is the best advice I can offer you…

THERE IS NO CLEAR PATH.

Everyone’s journey is completely different.  Talent will only get you so far… Passion, confidence, and not being scared to fail will take you the rest of the way…

I am a director… it’s my job… I get paid to direct movies… However, the majority of my day is not spent planning shot lists, choosing lenses, or talking to actors – it’s spent POLITICKING.  In the first blog I stated I know 1,000 people more talented than me that CANNOT get a job.  Why is this?

In film school you are led to believe that a great short film and an amazing script can get you the keys to Hollywood…

NOT TRUE:  it might get you the keys to a studio apartment in North Hollywood, IF you are lucky.

I, however, am an example that ANYONE can make it… I didn’t have connections when I moved here, NOR did I come from money…

Years passed as I floated from job to job, until one day I got a letter from my pops… and I became DESPERATE.

So this is my letter to you, my dear readers…

You have ONE YEAR… Write a script, or Produce One… Direct a film, or Act in one…  Just do SOMETHING… Don’t talk about it… DO IT…

You might fail… That’s okay, embrace it…  I have failed many more times than I have succeeded.

There are two types of people in Hollywood… Those that wait for the knock on their door, and those who go KICK IN the mutha’fuckin door…

I would love to write some more, but I have to put my steel toe boots on and kick in some balsa wood…

Until next time,

dlb

We are winding down here folks, only one more blog to round out the story! Make sure to catch up on what you have missed!

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The phone rang in my shitty studio apartment early in the morning. I saw the caller ID was coming from Twisted Pictures – my immediate reaction was here we go… they are going to back out…

I had been peddling my script for over a year at this point – and I don’t care to remember how many douche bags had attached themselves with PROMISES of making it, and me famous…

When I answered the phone, I was met with an excited Gregg Hoffman…

“What if we turned THE DESPERATE into SAW 2?!”

NOTE: The first Saw had not been released. Nor had I seen the film.

“Ummmmmmmmm.”

“Bousman, it makes sense, come to LGF – we want to screen the first SAW for you.”

Hours later I was in the car, and on my way to LGF.

As I sat in the theater watching the film, my stomach was in knots… NOT only because the film was intense, but because it was so strikingly similar to The Desperate. The tone of the film, the twists, the character arcs… EVERYTHING.

The credits rolled, and I sat in silence…

Gregg Hoffman came to me…”So, what do you think? Wanna turn The Desperate into SAW 2?”

One thing I have learned to do VERY well living in Hollywood, is bullshit. I can talk for an hour, and not really say a fucking thing… It’s a gift… (or a curse) So, feeling pressure to make a decision I talked in a circle… I didn’t commit – nor did I turn my back on the idea…

As I drove home, I was flooded with feelings… MOSTLY RAGE.

I had worked for YEARS to make something I was proud of, I wrote a script about MY desperation, MY blood, MY sweat, MY tears, and NOW someone wanted to take it, shit on it, and relabel it a SEQUEL to another movie?!

There was about a whole week that I refused to so much as entertain the idea of ‘selling out’ my project…

Not a chance in hell…

Luckily I had some good friends around me, that smacked me back down to reality…

I was broke… I had been peddling myself for YEARS trying to get a break, and thus far had failed each and every time…

I wasn’t SELLING OUT… I was BUYING IN – there is a big difference… This wasn’t a CURSE, it was a BLESSING!

FUCK YEAH I WILL DIRECT SAW 2!

“Direct Saw 2?” Gregg Hoffman asks me…  ”I didn’t say DIRECT Saw 2, I said REWRITE your script to be Saw 2. Saw hasn’t been released, we don’t have a greenlight yet.”

And there it was my dear friends… The OTHER SHOE had dropped…

There I was… once again, DESPERATE…

A couple of days passed before my Desperation turned to Motivation.

I went into the Twisted Pictures offices.

“I want to turn THE DESPERATE into SAW 2 – BUT I want to direct it!”

At first, Gregg Hoffman was reluctant to respond… Then, after what seemed like forever he goes:

“Do you have a take on how to take what you wrote, and bring it into the Saw Universe?”

“YES, 100%” (side note – I had no idea how to adapt it – or what the fuck I was gonna do)

“All right, Bousman, let’s do this…”

And it was that simple… or so I thought…

For the next two months I chained myself to my desk, and began to rewrite The Desperate…

During this time, ads for the First SAW film were popping up. A buzz starting forming around town about this little Sundance gem.

SAW was about to blow up.

And then it happened… SAW opened around the country, and made a LOT of noise in the horror community…

EVERYONE was talking about this movie… Everyone…

At first I was excited, then I became scared.

I was a nobody… A dude who had been fired from almost EVERY job he had.. I had no demo reel, no track record, and some really terrible short films… WHY in world, would anyone trust me with the franchise… On top of that, I was not a green lighted director. Just a guy Gregg Hoffman, Mark Burg, and Oren Koules found. LGF could blow me out of the water if they so chose.

I can only imagine the phone call to Lionsgate…

“Hey, Lionsgate, yes, good stuff with the SAW film opening so huge! Hey, we have a great idea, lets green light a sequel right away, and hire a NO NAME, NOBODY!”

I remember the weekend after SAW opened my phone stopped ringing. I was terrified… How do I read that? Was Twisted Pictures so busy due to the success of SAW that they hadn’t had time? Was there second guessing going on? Was I about to be fired, and James Wan brought back?

I was a nervous basket case. It was hell…

One afternoon my phone did ring… Gregg said he wanted to set up a meeting for me to go in and pitch my script to the heads of Lionsgate. This would be the deciding factor on my future with the SAW family.

As I sat there in the waiting room with Gregg Hoffman I couldn’t decide if I wanted to vomit or punch someone in the throat. I was so wound up and nervous, and more importantly, I knew I was about to fight a massive uphill battle.

They called me into an office. In this office, five ‘suits’ sat in a circle. I took a chair, and sweat started pouring down my face almost immediately.

They asked me questions – and I blubbered through the answers…

It was one of the most surreal meetings I have ever had… I was sitting there, watching myself sound like an ignorant ass…

I was sitting there, watching them lose interest in what I was saying… I was CRASHING, and BURNING… no – EXPLODING.

Eventually, I think they were embarrassed for me… A producer by the name of Pete Block stands up, and goes,

” Darren, do you have any short films we can see? Something horror based?”  (side note – this would be the first of five projects the Great Peter Block and I would collaborate on”

“YES! Of course!” Wait! Who said that?

“Great – can you drop it off at our offices say Monday morning?”

“YES! Will do!” WHO THE FUCK IS SAYING THIS?!?!

Then I realize I am saying this… First off I had NO short films to show them… On top of that I really didn’t have any HORROR short films to show them…

As Gregg and I walked to our cars , I saw the disappointment on his face. I had sounded like a nervous douche.

“Well, guess you better go home and find that short,” Gregg said as he opened the door to his car.

As I drove home, back to my shitty studio apartment in the valley, I pulled out my cell phone…

I called my good friend Joe who was a DP (REPO! and Mother’s Day). “Joe, we need to shoot a horror short film”

“Ok, when?”

“Tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow? Darren, it’s Thursday night – all the rental houses are closed.”

“Tomorrow, Joe! We gotta figure this out!”

Every favor in the book was called in!  We pulled strings, offered reach arounds, and black mailed…

24 hours later we had a film camera and lighting package and began shooting the short film that would land me SAW 2.

I left LGF late in the afternoon on Thursday.

I was shooting my short on Friday.

Got the film developed on Saturday.

Edited it on Sunday.

Monday morning I drove my horror opus to LGF.

Two days later – Gregg got me a second meeting…

THIS time I would be prepared… It was time to harken back to the pizza boxes and singing telegram. I needed to stop selling my ideas – and START selling me…

Check back next week for the conclusion of WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH YOU IN FILMSCHOOL.”  And please help me spread the word of this blog to your friends!

Until next time,

dlb

However, I do have something VERY pressing to inform you about.  COMIC CON 2010.

It has become a tradition that every year REPO! rolls up and take over a theater!  This year is no exception!

Come join me, and some of the REPO family, Saturday night at 11:00pm for what is guaranteed to pure insanity…

If you have NOT seen Repo! in a theater then you have NOT seen Repo! at all…

Drive out, and hang with us, and meet The Tutor – Terrance Zdunich as he unleashes a very special lesson to the crowd!!!!

Tickets are on sale now!  PURCHASE TICKETS HERE!

**** You do not need tickets to the convention to get into the Repo! Screening

]]> http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/comic-con/feed/ 0 http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/life-lessons-part-4/ http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/life-lessons-part-4/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:55:52 +0000 darren http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/?p=403 Originally I had planned on making this blog FOUR parts… But, after I started writing I realized that there was just too much to say… So I have expanded it into TWO more parts. PART V will be released next week, with a CONCLUSION to follow.

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So after 5 years in Hollywood, countless packages of Ramen Noodles, and many drunken nights of crying myself to sleep, I had a MUSIC VIDEO on MTV, and more importantly I had a REAL producer, who REALLY wanted to make THE DESPERATE, or so I thought.

Grab your pen and take a note… NOTHING in Hollywood moves as fast as you want… Nothing…

While the producer was very much ‘legit,’ (or, as legit as one can be in Hollywood… or so I thought), I soon saw days turning into weeks, and weeks into months. Meeting after meeting after meeting about THE DESPERATE, but no real plan on actually MAKING The Desperate.

It wasn’t long before once again I found myself bitter and angry… Meetings consumed my days… Each one I went to I thought THIS IS IT… This will be the final meeting before we REALLY start shooting…

But we never really began shooting…. The finish line kept being moved further and further away. I began to question if this ‘producer’ could even produce me a cup of coffee.

And then something strange happened… One morning I woke up and ran out the door for my daily THE DESPERATE meeting, and the producer didn’t show…

I tried his cell phone and got a recording… “THE NUMBER YOU ARE CALLING IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE”

Dear God… please say this is not happening… Please tell me that I am getting punked…. I called again… and again I was greeted by the recording… “THE NUMBER YOU ARE CALLING IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE…”

I will never forget that moment… It was at that moment that I truly was ready to give up… Pack my bags, go back to Kansas, become a waiter, accept my fate at J CREW.

I came to find out that the ‘producer’ was a lot more shady than I had initially assumed. I guess I only wanted to see rainbows and kittens, and kept dismissing all the red flags he continually showed…

See this producer had ties to the ‘adult entertainment’ industry. He was trying to go legit… (note to all future filmmakers – when someone tells you they are trying to go legit, RUN AWAY) I guess he got in over his head on his last MATURE FEATURE FILM, and had a mini melt down – he split town, changed his number… blah blah blah SHIT….

I got a phone call from the douche some time later, apologizing. He told stories of family drama, stocks crashing, mid life crisis.

I was still working at The Firm… Still in the dub room… and once again, I began to feel DESPERATE.

Over the next few months various people would enter my life, claiming to be my salvation, claiming they wanted to make my movie, claiming they had money… All proved to be liars, cheats, and dead ends…

I continued to direct some more ‘spots’ for The Firm. I directed a Clay Aiken PSA, and even something for KORN.

I made a little money, but not enough to write home about…

Then an idea hit…

I was walking around, asking people to please give me money to make my movie…

No one in their right mind is just gonna hand some kid $1 million to go make a movie when all he has on his reel is a Static X video and a Clay Aiken PSA… Just not going to happen…

So fuck it, back to the refrigerator boxes and the singing telegrams… I needed to do something that would get me noticed… something that would show the world that THE DESPERATE would be amazing…

I would shoot a trailer… I would once again drain my bank account, and go shoot a trailer for what I wanted the movie to look like…

So I made a list of everything I would need…

The first thing that was SUPER important was a great DP. I needed this thing to look amazing.

And that my dear readers, was when a man walked into my life and rocked my world… (wait, that came out wrong).

One of the first people I met with was a guy named David Armstrong. David had just finished shooting a movie called sAW. Now, keep in mind, this is WELL before sAW was released. No one had even heard of sAW. David was looking for his next project, and at this point, still wasn’t well-known.

He came to THE FIRM to meet me… (that was where I took all my meetings — I would tell whomever I was meeting with that I was client there, not working in the dub room…) We sat and talked for about an hour. He loved my script, and told me it reminded him of sAW. This raised a red flag for me, as he was the third, or fourth person whom I had met who said THE DESPERATE reminded them of sAW.

After talking to me about my ‘vision’ for the film, David politely shook my hand, and asked if I minded if he showed my script to a friend of his. I of course agreed, and David went on his way…  He called me moments after our meeting, telling me he was driving my script over to a ‘producer’ friend of his.  He asked me to give him 24 hours.

But it only took two hours after the meeting for my phone to ring…

“Hello,” I said.

“Is this Darren?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Darren, I want you to do me a favor… I want you to come meet with me tomorrow morning…”

At this point in the call, I did not know who was on the other end… I was silent for a long while…. Then…

“Darren, I just read your script… David Armstrong gave it to me… I love it and want to make it…”

There was something about the way he said he wanted to make it. For some reason I believed him…

Up to this point, I had never signed a contract regarding The Desperate. I had no ties to anyone. Just a lot of people doing a lot of talking.

TAKE NOTE: The majority of people in Hollywood do one thing VERY well… Talk… Action, however, is a completely different beast.

ADVICE:  If you wanna be a filmmaker DON’T TALK ABOUT DOING IT – just do it… You want to make a short film – don’t talk about it… GO SHOOT IT.  There are way too many people who waste their time talking about what they plan on doing.  In my experience, those who make it – are the ones who don’t talk about it.  They just go out and fucking do it.

The next morning I drove to a little company in Hollywood called TWISTED PICTURES. Little did I know that by walking into that room, my life was about to change.

For the next two hours I sat in the office of Gregg Hoffman… Gregg found the first sAW script, and was in the middle of finding his ‘next’ big franchise. He immediately connected with The Desperate, and I immediately connected with him. It was a match made in horror heaven.

I left the meeting optimistic. This guy was no douche, Gregg was the real deal.

Within the week, Twisted Pictures bought my script.

That was all I needed… That was the sign I had been waiting for… I gave my two weeks at The Firm!  I was going to get to direct THE DESPERATE…. or so I thought.

At this point I am sure you are thinking the rest is history… Not so fast… This is where my real story begins… This is where I get laughed out of LGF. This is where I almost get fired just days before production… This is where it gets good.

Until next time…

dlb