TIME MAKES THINGS CLEARER

On Friday May 4th, my film Mother’s Day is released in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.

A few days later, the movie is released on DVD. (preorder it here)

It seems like a lifetime ago that I shot Mother’s Day.

In reality it was just 3 years ago…

Time…

Something I think we all wish we had more of.

In my life I think time has become my biggest enemy. 24 hours is nowhere near enough time for me to do what needs to be done.

While on The Devil’s Carnival Road Tour, our lives have become slaves to the clock. We have a preset schedule, and one that we can’t deviate from. Five minutes late to something throws off our entire day…

I find myself constantly running to catch up… Answer emails… finish scripts… spend time with the family.

Time moves forward regardless of how much I protest…

In some cases however, the passage of time is a blessing… Time heals all wounds, makes us forget, or, allows us a chance to reflect.

3 years is an abundance of time. A lot can happen in 36 months: wars have been fought and lost… relationships have blossomed and then been destroyed… children have been conceived, born, and taken their first steps…

In the case of Mother’s Day, 3 years was the amount of time it took me to become disillusioned with the filmmaking process.

LET’S REWIND

We wrapped production in 2009. At the time, we had all hoped to have the film done and completed for a Mother’s Day 2009 release. However midway through production it became clear that that would never happen. We all decided to take a breath, and do what was right by the film, and make the movie perfect and release it in 2010.

After the festival circuit we sold the movie to a company, who will remain unnamed… Said company gave us a sweet heart deal and promised us the world. 1,000 screens. A sizeable P and A buy… Things were looking good…

Things began to look better in 2010 when we tested the movie in Chatsworth and we exceeded what the company was expecting. For those out there unaware on how the testing process works, take a seat… Allow me to shed some light onto the filmmaking process…

Once you finish a movie and sell it… The company who buys it usually requests the film be ‘tested’. What this means is they want to gauge how a film plays to ‘middle America’. As a filmmaker it’s one of the most nerve wracking – vomit inducing – wanna blow your brain out experiences.

Literally they recruit an audience, and play your film, and then ask them to rate it, and give mini reviews on it.

EVERYONE’S A CRITIC

But in the case of testing, this score that is produced from the test screening holds so much weight it makes me physically ill…

What is worse, as the director, I have to silently sit in the back of the audience and blend in, and listen, as this audience picks apart every aspect of the film…

I have learned to cope with the testing process with the help of my good friend Jack Daniels. He has gotten me through many an awkward screening…

After the misfire testing of Repo! The Genetic Opera – I was considering bypassing the Jack Daniels and going straight to the Heroin.

When we tested Repo! We scored a jaw dropping 13… To put this in perspective, of the audience that came out to see the test screening of REPO only 13 percent of the audience approved of what they saw…

YOU CAN’T HELP BUT FALL

This was the first time since being kicked in the balls with REPO that I had to journey back to Chatsworth and put my soul out to be judged with 300 theater-goers who would basically determine the fate of Mother’s Day…

The next two hours were the single worst two hours of my filmmaking career… So much was riding on this one screening… So much would be determined based on what this one audience thought… I didn’t have the courage to even sit in the theater… I found a bar in the parking lot, and nursed drink after drink trying to work up enough courage to hear what the audience thought of my new endeavor…  My head was POUNDING… Nerves were shot..

I have seemed to thrive in the cult film world… Repo propelled me forward with my rabid fan base of cult musical lovers…

I owe them everything… But nothing would make me happier than having one mainstream hit… just one film that propelled me forward that was not SAW.

When I arrived back at the test screening, the movie was ending and the questionnaires were being filled out. Mr. Daniels, please don’t let your courage juice run out…

The next 15 minutes were unbearable… The waiting… Did I have another REPO score on my hand?  I had so many feelings raging through my body… But the reality was my fate was already determined… I was powerless to stop what was coming.

I am a fan of Mother’s Day… I really am proud of this movie… I was proud of it going into the test screening, but I became infinitely more proud of it when the scores were revealed and we had almost double the expectations given to us from the studio who purchased the film…  Our score was considerably above norm… And my highest tested film.

I remember looking back at the studio’s reaction when the score was read… It was a mixture of bewilderment and excitement… Part of me wanted to high five the film’s producer Richard Saperstein… But instead, I sat there cool and collected…

Of course it tested well…

When the audience left the theater, and the business men were all that were left, a feeling of jubilation overtook the empty auditorium.

“We’ve got something here…” The main guy said… He winked at me… I remember that moment like it was yesterday… For the first time in years, I really felt confident in the future, and in my career.

The next morning I received an email informing me that the company had decided to expand its theatrical commitment from 1,000 screens to 2,000 screens… They also were upping their P and A budget!

Finally, something positive…

For the next few months I was on cloud 9…

At that point in my career I was just a director; my job is to direct a film, and edit the film, and finally turn in a film. Once the movie leaves my hands I have little to no control left.

I moved on to other projects… I moved to Spain and starting filming my new movie…

I didn’t realize until almost 10 months later something was rotten in Denmark.

My emails were not being answered, I was seeing a lack of promotion for Mother’s Day 2010…

Panic set in….

I will spare you the ugly dramatics… But to shorten a very long story, the company who had picked up my baby… had… internal issues…

“Issues” is as far as I will go in explanation, but their issues crippled the release of a Mother’s Day 2010 release…

It was a knife to the gut…  Like being stabbed by a friend… For over a year we had worked with this company who sold us all a bill of false goods…

Rage would not be a strong enough word for what I was feeling inside… I had been promoting the hell out of this movie… I had been to festivals… I had done countless interviews promoting a date that had come and gone.

What is that smell???? Is that the smell of a tainted film?

Once a film misses its date, a stigma is attached to it… Something MUST be wrong with it…

But for me, what was much worse than looking like a douche promoting a film that had missed its date, was letting down the actors who all had turned in AMAZING performances.

I had become close with the entire cast, and in my opinion there was not a weak link in the entire ensemble…

We had all been anxiously counting down the days for our premiere… we were all proud…  We had surpassed just working together… we were friends..

The cast came to my wedding… They were my friends…

It was the first time in my career where I actually felt ashamed… Utterly embarrassed. Mortified even.

I had been hyping this film for over a year now… I had been teasing the cast with this amazing release we were going to have…

In one moment, everything shattered.

What do I tell Rebecca DeMornay… Rebecca had just turned in this tour de force that was nothing short of riveting… What do I tell Deborah Ann Wohl, or Shawn Ashmore…

What about Jaime King?  This girl gives one of her VERY best performances… and she was counting on this!

What the hell do I tell Frank Grillio? Or worst yet… What will Brett Ratner think of me?  This guy trusted me.  He trusted that I would delivery him a hit.

What was worse than missing our date, was not knowing WHY we missed our 2010 release… And what did that mean to the fate of our film?

Months passed, and then more months… No new dates were scheduled. I found myself becoming more and more of a recluse, as I dreaded showing my face anywhere and inevitably getting –

“Yo bro, when’s Mother’s Day coming out?”

Every single I interview I did always would start with – so Darren, can you talk about what is happening with Mother’s Day?

I dreaded doing press… I dreaded seeing my friends.  I dreaded seeing the cast.

A REALITY CHECK

You are only as good as your last film… Repo! was considered a commercial failure… and now my next film was on its way to being a paper weight on some shelf…

My career is over…

Offers stopped coming in…

Movies fired me… Literally fired me. Why? My foreign sales number dropped…

As a director you are only as important as your foreign numbers…. Repo tanked overseas, and now my latest film was missing its release in America – thus affecting its foreign overseas value. Thus hurting my business… My business is my name…

All I had worked for was crumbling…  I bleeding out.

All WE had worked for was lost.

I was watching the world change around me… doors were not only closing… they were locking.

How did this happen?

Mother’s Day is good film…

MY OWN WORST ENEMY

I have a reputation in Hollywood of being difficult… There, I said it…

I get it… I am difficult… Very difficult… I send TONS of emails and cause a raucous when films I have worked on for YEARS get dismissed… thrown out, and discarded…

I fight back… I get in a van… I drive across the country… I create an Army… I make noise…

But isn’t that my job as a director? Not to accept… Not to be complacent… Fight as hard as I can to get the ART seen? I will never be the guy who sits back and accepts… Not any more… Not ever again…

When I believe in something, I fight for it…

People were counting on me. Investors, actors, producers.

Lloyd Kaufman was counting on me… Troma was counting on me…

My failure was Epic…

In 2011, after I had all but given up on anyone in America seeing the film, Anchor Bay stepped up to the plate…

By this time we had left Studio 1, realizing we had already been burned numerous times…

Two years had passed, and there was such a complicated and dramatic stigma attached to the flick, I was not only surprised, but amazed by their balls taking on a project that had basically been homeless for years.

Here we are now, Mother’s Day 2012, and the film is FINALLY seeing the light of day…

Granted it’s only in 3 theaters, but that is three more theaters than I was expecting given the hardships the film had faced…

I applaud Anchor Bay for breathing back life into a film that I truly think deserves to be seen…

They are my Knight in BLACK GOTHIC ARMOUR…

Thank you for allowing Rebecca DeMornay’s performance to see the light of day…

Thank you for putting out a film, in which I truly stand behind every single performance…

I will be first to say, this is not going to be everyone’s favorite… In fact, there are numerous critics out there who proclaim this is “BOUSMAN’S WORST!” (read blog here) – - but let them call me names, and attack my “amateur directing” all they want… I don’t give a fuck… I am proud of Mother’s Day…

Some things are worth fighting for…

Mother’s Day was worth fighting for…

dlb

May 4th theatrical release in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago
o   New York – Village East Cinemas
o   Los Angeles – Chinese Complex 6
o   Chicago – River East

I am writing this blog from the back of a van… a van that has thus far traveled 7,000 miles in the last few weeks.

A van that smells of tears and sadness.  Tears, sadness, and corn nuts… let us not forget the corn nuts…

I am not sure what state we are in… It’s snowing outside, and it’s cold.  I am guessing we are in one of the Virginias, but that is just a guess…

The reality is, most days I don’t know where we are.    I am borderline delirious.  My diet has been replaced with a steady intake of Pop-Tarts, chocolate milk, Cracker Barrel and Nerds candy…

My insides hurt… Terrance is sitting behind me eating a sandwich we picked up from a gas station…

Nothing is sadder than hearing a grown man cry, and I am pretty sure I hear weeping as he devours yet another meal with no nutritional value…

By the end of this tour GraveRobber will transform into GraveBlobber… I kid, I kid… He’s already there.

We are on day 20, though it feels like day 200. We are not even half way done yet…  I am not sure my body can handle one more hour, let alone one more month…

What am I doing?  I am a fucking director…

This isn’t directing… This is an endurance test on how much truck stop food one man can endure before suffering a heart attack…

It wasn’t suppose to be like this…

Let’s rewind…

There has not been a moment in the last few months that I have not woken up in a cold sweat.  The stress and anxiety that has over taken my day to day existence has probably taken at least 15 years off of my life.

I AM A SADO-MASOCHIST

I look back on the shit I have done to myself and I am in awe at my stupidity.   Did I really just say that?   Did I really just do what I think I did.  I watch myself doing ignorant and insane things and find myself powerless to stop.

Self destruction at it’s finest.

What ever possessed me to think I could self distribute my own movie might have been the biggest jack ass thing I have done to date.   What in Lucifer’s name was I thinking?  Who did I think I was?

I guess part of me did it out of spite.  Spite from being burned on my last few releases getting dumped into obscurity.   Part of me did it out of rage.  Rage towards a system that didn’t get, comprehend, or care about these strange, weird, and at times self indulgent films I was making.

Or maybe it was I was just pissed at myself for being unable to live up to the bar I set for myself while on the Saw films.

But, what if these critics were right?   What if I was a hack?   Some chump who got lucky and road the coattails of a brand… Whatever the reason, when I heard myself utter the words “fuck it, let’s put this out ourselves”. I thought it was a good idea

The days and weeks that followed were the most horrific and depressing of my life.  I had once again done what I am becoming known for, speaking without thinking…  Jumping off a cliff without checking the parachute.

Within hours of declaring we would self distribute The Devil’s Carnival we made tickets available online.    We signed contracts with venues.  We sent deposits out to theaters.    We filed for city permits, we hired opening acts.   Almost instantly we had fired the shot that would start a war, and there was NO turning back.

I have always acted impulsively.  I am not one to stop and consider the repercussions of my actions.   In part, I think that is why I have had a modicum of success.   I don’t second guess myself.   I follow my instincts.  Do now, apologize later, and NEVER ask permission.

I AM IN OVER MY HEAD

In a few days time the backlash of what we were trying to pull off became fully realized.

No magical elves were going to suddenly appear and take care of the mountains of paperwork I had just slung upon us.

Insurance certificates…
Sellers permits…
E and O policies…
Rentals of PA systems
Lighting equipment
Buying of Merch
The list goes on and on.

And then I needed to hire a team of people.  I couldn’t pull this all off with just TZ, Spooky and I.  I needed to hire a driver, a Merch person, an accountant, roadies.

We were setting up mini concerts every single night, literal live shows with various musicians, burlesque performers, and freak shows…  AND we were about to live out of a van.

Who the fuck did I think I was?  I still have no idea what the hell I am doing as a filmmaker let along a distributor or promoter.

I AM TERRIFIED

When the weight and the scope of the project became apparent it was too late to back track.  As much as I wanted to reverse robot myself out of the hole I dug, this was moving faster than me.  I had started this, but I did not have the power to end this.

We had just booked ourselves in over 40 venues.  Most of them over 500 seats, some over 1,500 seats.

We were literally packing up a van and heading off into the great unknown for almost 2 months.

What if no one showed up?

What if they didn’t connect to the material?

What if they hated the movie?

What if the critics all tore me a new asshole?

What if…

Trying to explain my career choices to anyone in my life proves to be an impossibility.

My decisions seem flawed to the outside world.  You can only hear you are crazy so many times before you begin to question your own sanity.

And to the majority of Hollywood I am crazy… or maybe I am just a joke.   To the lions share of my friends I am certifiable.   At these times of self reflection I realize just how selfish I must sound.

“Hey Laura, you know that money we saved on my last movie?  Yeah, well I just put all of that in my next movie!”

“Hey Mr. Agent, please let everyone who might want to hire me know that I am gone for next three months shooting this short film. Then touring it around.  Oh, by the way, I am not making any money on this, thus you get no commission.”

“Hey Chance Dawg, sorry baby girl, daddy can’t walk you for the next 60 days. He is going to be living out of a smelly dirty van”

When we pulled away from Los Angeles, none of us knew what we were getting into…  This whole thing could end up a terrible disaster… The theaters could be empty… The events themselves could implode with technical malfunctions…

We all jumped in with blind faith, faith that the REPO! community still existed…  And if they still existed, they would show up?

As a team, we dove head first into something, having no clue of the outcome.

I AM A FAILURE…

I am a failure… In my life, I have failed more than I have succeeded…  People only hear about the success… The Saw’s… The Repo’s…

No one really talks about the failures, the countless projects I have been attached to that have died horrible deaths. Projects that have let me go… or asked me nicely, and not so nicely, to never return.

Fear is a hell of a thing. It stops people from seeing things clearly… Being scared is like having a fine film over your eyesight… it’s milky… distorted… and at times, irrational.

Sadly, most people live their life with fear being a major component of their decision making.

We are so scared of making the wrong choices, we rarely make the right ones.

I am scared of a lot of things…

One thing however I am not scared of is failing… I embrace it… I welcome it…  I think that is what separates me from my friends who have yet to make it… I am no better than them… In fact, in most cases they are much more talented than myself.  The only thing separating me from them is I am willing to put myself out there… I am willing to fail… Willing to look like an idiot… Willing to jump off the ledge without checking the parachute.

As we drove into the great unknown however I began to question my resolve… I don’t know how I would deal with this tour not working…

It only took two stops on our road tour journey to realize that would not be an issue…

SHOW IT, and they will come.

Fear stops people from doing a lot of things… In the case of me, it almost stopped me from embarking on this journey… Self distributing this thing….

I AM HUMBLED

This blog is being written exactly half way through the tour…  And while I have written almost 5 pages, I am not sure I know the right words to capture what I am feeling…

We have done something here.  Something that is working.  Something that now drives me, and defines me.   Not only as a filmmaker, but as a person…

I try to tell my friends, my colleges, my family… But I end up always sounding like a babbling idiot.   Unless you are experiencing this, there is no way in words I can accurately explain it to you…

I get so much shit on a daily basis about my faulty decision making, that for a long while, I began to think I was wrong…

This is not commercial…

This is not mainstream…

There is no audience for this…

You are wasting your time…

I get that I am weird… I get I piss people off… But they are not seeing what I am seeing…

Most filmmakers will work their entire life  and never realize how their work has effected others.

A director could make 20 films, make billions at the box office, and before his retirement all he has to show is his mansion, his millions in the bank account, and some great posters hanging around his office of movies he was apart of.    Let me be the first to say, nothing would make me happier then when I die, I have the mansion, the millions in the bank and some great posters.  But I want something more… Need something more.  I want to know I made a difference… I need to know my films have made a difference…

These fans… this audience are here NOT because of a billboard ad, or a TV spot.  They are here because they too are carnies – and they bask in the strangeness of what we do… they crave something different, because they too are different.

An artists job is to create and hopefully inspire.   However, once in awhile, it is the audience who creates…  Whom take this ‘thing’ and shape it… make it their own… No longer is this piece of art, this film, yours… It’s theirs.

They no are no longer just fans… They are the artists.

The majority of people who know me, have no idea what this really is, or why I am continually out championing behind these small out of the box projects.

This tour,  this whole experience is a drug.  And I can 100% with conviction tell you, as a filmmaker and artist, I am addicted…  It fuels me… it keeps me wanting to fight.  I am Popeye, and this is my spinach.

Gone are the days that we have to accept the fate handed down to us…

If I can get into a van with 6 of my friends, and create what we have created, than so can anybody else…

Gone are the days where I bitch about lack of support, or ‘the man’.   There is no man… There is only ME standing in front of MYSELF…

The only thing stopping people from seeing my films is ME…

I will never be complacent again… I will never just ‘accept’ my fate… If need be, I will make this  van my home…  Punk Rock Filmmaking!

While my pants size has grown in the last 20 days, so has my understanding of filmmaking and sacrifice.

Being a director is more than calling out the shots… It’s about exposing your art to the masses, no matter what the costs… It means putting your work in front of your comfort.  It’s about connecting with your audience, and finding them.

Filmmaking is about getting in a dirty van, and driving across North America, and not stopping until your art has reached the masses..

I have found my audience… And they have found this…

For the last 20 minutes I have been scouring through my pictures to find that gem to end the blog with…  I have decided on the one below.  It’s not one of cool costumes, or packed theaters, or the nightly insanity… It’s something much simple and fitting when trying to encompass all that is happening in one image…

This didn’t happen because we willed it… Or because we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best… This came to be what it is because a bunch of people… artists… friends… got together and decided to change the fate of our project.  We refused to just accept, so we went out and created our own fate…

I am tired, worn out, and borderline delirious… And let me tell you this my dear readers… It’s a glorious feeling…

dlb

BUY TICKETS FOR THE ROAD TOUR

]]> http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/random-thoughts-from-the-road/feed/ 40 http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/666/ http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/666/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:53:02 +0000 darren http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/?p=606 For almost two months now… since the reveal of the first trailer, fans, critics, and friends have emailed me, and facebooked me…

“What is The Devil’s Carnival?” I’m confused… is it a movie? Is it a play? Is it concert?

Yes… Well… No… actually, it’s none of those things…

Seeing as our tour kicks off this Thursday in Los Angeles, I felt it timely to actually address this question, and hopefully shed some light on exactly WHAT the Devil’s Carnival is… and why.

The word carnival… in essence means: An exciting or riotous mixture of something…

Exciting and riotous… two words that I think pretty well describe our Carnival… But the reality is… The Devil’s Carnival is not anything clearly definable… More so than anything, our carnival is an idea…

Just a Carnie with an Idea:

I might be the luckiest guy I know…

At 26 years old I directed a movie that opened at number 1… at 27 I directed another movie that opened again at number 1… at 28, once again…  Now, this has little to do with talent, and a lot to do with LUCK.  I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right project…

But, where does one go from there? How possibly could I trump the experience I had in my twenties during my tenor with the SAW films?

Nothing, I repeat nothing is cooler than driving down SUNSET BLVD and seeing a SAW BILLBOARD… Bus stops ads, commercials on TV, and even late night talk show hosts talking about this ‘thing…’ this experience that I had some small hand in.

I look back on my life, and relate my experiences with SAW to an amusement park and riding the BEST roller coaster first… At the time, it sounds like a great idea… but once you have tackled the biggest, baddest roller coaster first, everything else pales in comparison…

The best part about SAW was I literally had to do nothing outside of show up to set, and direct… There’s no drama, no pulling out of the hair… SAW was a well oiled machine.

LETS REWIND:

There was a moment, before I became a director, where I was sitting with a producer that I worked for. I was his assistant… he was an amazing man, and one I learned a great deal from… This producer shall remain nameless… But I promise you, you know his movies, and his work…

One afternoon, I showed up to his house to bring him something, and he was sitting at his kitchen table. He was not his jovial, fun self… In fact, he was the most depressed I had seen him. I asked him what was wrong. This producer, who I will refer to as Producer X… Looked up to me, a sad disillusioned look in his eye.

“Darren… if you learn anything from me… If you only take one lesson away from your time working with me, it is this…

Everyone in Hollywood is fighting, and climbing to get to the top of the mountain… Everyone wants to stand on the top of the mountain and look around and say I DID IT… I got here! I made it… some spend their entire lives climbing this mountain… some get there by luck… others by talent. But everyone tries to climb it. But be careful… Because there is only one place to go once you reach the top… straight down…”

Straight down…

You can’t help but fall…

At the time I didn’t realize the importance of his parable… I got what he was saying, but it didn’t connect with me at the time. I was a PA… an assistant… My job was to get coffee… drive him around in his expensive car… My job was to pick up his dry cleaning.  My job was to DUB videotapes.

Now, some years later I look back on his words and consider them the most poignant and important that I have ever heard in my time in Hollywood.

I went from my films being released in 3,000 screens, to my last being released in just 10. My current film Mother’s Day comes out in only 3 markets… No bus stop ads, no tv commercials, no press days or red carpet premiere.

My dear readers, I came to Hollywood and I rode the BEST roller coaster first. Everything else was sure to fail in comparison.

SAW II, III, IV 3,000 screens

REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA 12 screens

11 – 11 – 11 10 screens

MOTHER’S DAY 3 screens

Down… down… down… I fall…

Depression is a hell of a thing. It’s crippling… But for me, what was worse than the depression of watching my art fall from the grace it once called home, was the complacent position I took as I watched myself fall…

Over the course of a few years I went from being confident, to not only second guessing everything I did… But believing the stories I was being sold…

“We can’t market this movie…”
“There isn’t an audience for these types of films”
“too dark…”
“…not dark enough”

I remember opening up one of my favorite website recently and reading the headline – “Bousman’s fall from grace…” It was clever title for a film review on a religious film I wrote and directed called 11-11-11.

And I got it… 11-11-11 might not have been my finest hour as a director. But as I read the review the sickness I felt in my stomach also grew… Just five years ago I was directing movies that had an ARMY of people supporting them, marketing them, and nurturing them… Now, I had a film that opened and closed in the same weekend… and as filmmaker I was powerless….

And what was worst was I felt lost… I was relying on people, a system to release these film, nurture them… promote them… Something… Anything…

MOTHER’S DAY, in my opinion, is one of my best films. I couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out. From the cast, to the script, to the editing… It just clicked for me. When I turned in my director’s cut, I couldn’t have been prouder. We tested the movie… It tested AWESOME, and I was SURE this was going to be the movie that put me back on the map… Put me BACK in the place I was when I fell from the SAW royalty…

Right? WRONG…

MOTHER’S DAY has sat on a shelf for two years while it ping-ponged distributors… And there I sat. Powerless to stop it. Powerless to change the fate of a movie I worked SO hard to make. The fate of this film, rested on the shoulders of a legion of other people… And I had to sit back, and wait, while ‘they’ decided what its outcome would be.

And then there’s REPO! You all know the story behind that, so I won’t bore you with the details. But TEN YEARS creating something, and in one moment… One decision, the fate of its release is decided upon… and the rest is history….

So how does this relate to THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL?

The Devil’s Carnival is our answer to what I feel is wrong with the system… The Devil’s Carnival is our response to the machine that so many filmmakers and artists find themselves tirelessly navigating. The Devil’s Carnival is about putting your fate in your hands, and not relying on the machine to tell you what will work, and what wont…

I love making movies… I love telling stories… I love creating things that have the potential to live long past I die… What I don’t love is the phone call “Hey Darren, sorry, the marketing department can’t figure out how to sell this movie to mainstream America…”

If you have read any of my other blogs, you will note that I understand the necessity and importance of the “business” side of the movie BUSINESS…

If a movie doesn’t have an audience it can not make money… If it can not make money, it is a failure. No matter HOW great your film is, if no one sees it has failed as a ‘business’ venture.

I seem to thrive in that GREY area. I am drawn to films and music that fall outside of the box…

I am drawn to things that are different… things that are not always mainstream… Surely there is a way to capitalize on others with like minded interests?  Surely there is a way to monetize the strange and bizarre.

However, as much as I truly love Hollywood, I hate the fact that I spend years creating something only to be told by a group of people – “sorry, we can’t really find a home for your movie…”

What this does, is it cripples originality. Instead of artists creating out of the box, unique pieces of art, we copy other things that are familiar, and safe… Why? Because we know that there is a formula that works… and if the formula works, why change it?

I just bought a house. Buying this house has made me question a lot of things… I need to work to continue to pay the mortgage… If I don’t pay the mortgage I lose the house… The rational side of me thinks, I should start reading the stack of remake scripts sitting on my desk.

The rational side of me thinks… Dammit, why did I just turn down this sequel? Those are safe bets, right?

Then the artist in me rears its ugly head… FUCK THAT… do what you love. Do what inspires you… Do what you want, surely there are others like you who will embrace the insanity that drives you…

And so THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL was born.

An experiment. A test… a movement….

Let’s put all our eggs in this one basket. Let’s go for broke. Let’s do something completely out of the box and different, and strange, and beautiful, crazy, EXCITING and RIOTOUS…

Let’s do what moves us. What makes us happy, what WE want to see.

Terrance and I met and made a list of all the things we wanted to see in a movie. In a musical… in a work of art… We decided not to care was this commercial, or was this safe, or would this appeal to the masses… we just wrote and filmed something we LOVED, and moved us… for once forgetting about the ‘game’… or the mountain in which we could fall further from…

We set off on a journey to do this without permission, without seeking approval… PUNK ROCK filmmaking… Hopefully people would get it, and join us on our journey… Maybe they wouldn’t.

All we knew is we believed in it, and hopefully others would to. Hopefully there were others out there that had the same attitude, that shared the same feelings, that wanted to do something outside the system that makes the decisions on what gets seen, and what doesn’t.

We just didn’t care. This was for us… our Repo fans… this would not be about the business… This would be about the art.

What happened next was nothing short of miraculous

Other artists signed on to the project. Actors we could NEVER afford. Musicians we never thought we could get…

Crew members who would make more NOT doing our project than by doing it began signing up…

Our carnival began to grow. What was supposed to be a ‘short film’ turned into a production. A crew of 20 became a crew of 100. A cast of 5 became a cast of 30… A 25 minute short film became an hour… five songs became twelve.

When we rolled cameras the first day, we knew this was NOT just a short film. This was something more important. This was a statement.

We were able to create something outside of the mold. Outside the system… With the blood, sweat and tears of like minded artists who were fueled by passion, not dollar signs.

We didn’t have a company building our merch… We did it. We didn’t have a label producing our album… we did it. We were making a movie with friends, and family. For a moment in time it was only about the art… and nothing else.

On Thursday the fruits of our labor will finally be revealed… Some will love it, others will despise it. There will be those who dress up in costumes and become part of the experience, and there will be those that turn their noses up at it calling it self indulgent crap. I welcome both responses…

In my 10 years of making movies, this is the single most rewarding experience as a filmmaker… As everything you see, from the posters, to the CDs, to the trailers, to the movie itself came from friends who dedicated their time and talent because they believed in what we were trying to do with THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL.

There is no puppet master pulling the strings on this one. No studio who will take out bus stop ads, or billboards on Sunset Blvd.  Sadly, the team who promoted Saw will not be promoting this, we have someone better… We have people who live and breath outside of the ‘norm’… The majority of our publicity comes from the fans… as they are too part of the Carnival… They do helped create this, and fuel this.

This began with a group of people wanting to do something different, and be completely independent in our decisions, and that is what you will view at The Devil’s Carnival.

You will hear the music that was recorded in Joe Bishara’s home studio. You will view sets that were built and painted in Derrick Hinman’s backyard and costumes that were designed in Dawn Ritz’s apartment. You will watch a movie that was edited in my garage with visual effects from a guy working out of his studio apartment whom I met on Craigslist.. You will view these events in theaters that Spooky Dan personally booked, and we will travel there via a van that our producer Sean E secured after calling all his friends for favors. We will stay in motels that my beautiful wife found and obtained. You will see merch that was created by close friend Sean Scoffield, that will then be sold to you by our script supervisor who is joining us on the road tour… This movie is a family affair.  A bunch of friends doing something that moves us… compels us…

The Devil’s Carnival is a labor of love… Not just my labor of love, but also everybody who worked on it.

The Devil’s Carnival is an escape. A reason to leave your houses, and apartments, and see something different, something unique, something out of the box.

The Devil’s Carnival is a live show, one you are all very much apart of… Not just because of the opening acts, but because YOU give it life by your interactions.

The Devil’s Carnival is a movie, one that just four months ago,was an idea. Something that we hoped we could pull off with no money and little resources.

More so than anything The Devil’s Carnival is proof… Proof that any artist, filmmaker, musician, playwright can change their fate… Just because someone passes on your art – does not invalidate your work… Just because no one wants to buy your painting, your script, your movie, does not mean no one wants to see it…

5 years ago we were told there was no audience for Repo! Our response: get in the fucking van and find an audience…

When TZ and I first starting pitching the idea for The Devil’s Carnival we were once again laughed at, and told find something more commercial… Our response…. Fuck you, we will just go make it ourselves… And make it we did… Now we are bringing it to you!

THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL will not change the system, nor are we trying to reinvent it… But together, with all of your help we can navigate around it… and we will…

BUY TICKETS HERE!

See you at the Carnival….

dlb

There was a time in my life that I thought I wanted to be a magician… Even took a class or two…

Those that have worked with me know that I am a fan of card tricks… even been known to conduct mini magic shows at video village…

Let’s call it serendipitous that when I moved to LA I worked at a management company that represented the likes of David Copperfield, and Criss Angel, among others…

In a lot of ways making a movie is one big magic trick… Tricking people into believing something that isn’t there.

To me going to the cinema is a MAGICAL experience… I know what I am looking at is an illusion, but, in that 90 minutes I am there, I allow myself to be mystified.

In my short career, I have had extreme ups (SAW 2), and extreme downs (11 11 11)… With each film, however, I am reminded of the connection between magic and cinema…

If you were on set for let’s say SAW 2, you would see the tomfoolery taking place… The childish behavior, the crazy antics, and yes, even the drama – - however, when sitting in the theater – you allow yourself to be transported into our trick, and hopefully be mystified. You know it’s fake… Jigsaw is just TOBIN BELL, that sewer is just a SET, and that blood is just SYRUP. But for 90 minutes, you enter a place where it doesn’t matter…

The problem with magic is most rational-thinking people realize that a trick is nothing more than that… a trick… They look for a tell, or a reveal so they can make sense of what they are seeing…

No, Amanda did not fall into a pit of needles… Shawnee jumped into some Styrofoam with plastic syringes placed on top…

No, Tony Nappo didn’t really get SHOT in the face in MOTHER’S DAY, it was a prosthetic…

So magic doesn’t really exist, right? Wrong… Twice in my life now I can truly say I have been surrounded by something magical… Something that defied all logic and reasoning… something that cannot be explained or accurately described… The first time I saw real MAGIC was REPO! There is no other word than that to describe walking into the soundstage and journeying through the labyrinth of sets… The entire experience of REPO! was nothing short of fantastical…

It is like a drug… Once you have an experience like I had making REPO!, something misfires in your brain and you get a glimpse at something that will define you… drive you… and in a sense, destroy you…

True artistic freedom…

A note to up and coming filmmakers; being a director does not give you the license to be creative… In many cases, it’s more important to be ‘safe’ than it is to be ‘creative’.

Let us not forget that this is the entertainment BUSINESS… Sometimes… a lot of times… creativity does not sell.

There is a reason sequels and remakes plague our cinemas… They’re a safe bet…

REPO! was about as far from safe as I could get at the time… and it was liberating.

Since the moment REPO! ended I have found myself in a state of withdrawal. A junkie needing a fix, an addict without a score…

And then came THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL… my hit of ‘Z’.

Something that once again returned me to a world I had been CLAWING to get back into…

Magic…

The real kind of magic… Where things happen that you can’t explain. Where laws of our universe somehow are bent, and we find ourselves transported into another world… another time… A world without grownups, or more importantly… rules…

I have awaited this film since the moment we cut cameras on REPO!…  Something that moved me… Inspired me… DEFINED ME.

This is why I became a filmmaker… This is why I direct… This is my passion… my love, and my magic trick…

I can’t wait for you to come play in our carnival…

Don’t forget to visit the official site – a big update coming soon! www.TheDevilsCarnival.com

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