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We sat down with “Saw” director, Darren Lynn Bousman, to discuss his new film experience, “Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival“. Darren also opens himself up to discuss how he came into filmmaking, several stories relating to his extensive work with the “Saw” franchise (including how he ended up as the director for 3 films in the series, his favorite traps, and an unforgettable prank he pulled on “Saw III” star, Angus Macfadyen), how failure is an advantage for an artist – all leading up to his work on “The Devil’s Carnival” franchise. A very candid and entertaining interview with one of independent film’s most established and exciting directors.
“Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival” is rolling out to theaters in cities near you in the coming weeks. Here is the official synopsis:
After triumphant collaborations on 2008’s REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA and 2012’s THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL: EPISODE ONE, cult filmmakers Bousman and Terrance Zdunich are back with the second installment to their fantasy-musical film franchise. In ALLELUIA! THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL, Lucifer sets a plot in motion against Heaven and all hell breaks loose.
Highlights from our interview with Darren
On what prompted Darren to get into filmmaking:
‘I decided, ya know, one afternoon I called my parents up and said I’m wasting your money right now, I’m literally wasting your money. We have two options. You continue to pay for me to go to school, and I’m going to walk out, ya know, probably with a 1.8 GPA, and I will have learned nothing. Or we can put me into something that I actually care about. And my parents being badasses said, ‘Don’t waste our money, what do you want to do?’ And I said – ‘I want to go to film school. I want to make movies’. And so they sent me to film school, and I exceled. That was something that I cared about. I actually, it DID inspire me. So, when something inspires you, you’re more akin to pay attention and give it more.’
On how Darren’s script for “The Desperate”, which became “Saw II”, was originally planned as its own film:
‘Part of what I wanted to do with “The Desperate”, was I wanted to rebrand myself and rebuild myself up, and basically I wrote what I considered to be the most shocking, hardcore, depressing script ever, realizing that if I wrote bubblegum and wrote down the middle, it would never be seen. So, I knew that I had to write something that was so in-your-face shocking, that people would laugh at it and give it to their friends and be like ‘Dude, you gotta read this script called “The Desperate”, it’s fucking crazy!’ So that’s what I did. When I wrote it, I thought that I was going to get a couple hundred thousand dollars to go off and make this as my film, never in a million years did I think I was going to make “Saw II”. So, when it was bought, it was bought as “The Desperate”, it was never bought as “Saw II”.’
On how planned out the “Saw” franchise was:
‘Ya know, I’d be lying if I said that when we made “Saw II” we knew where “Saw IV” was gonna go, we didn’t. But, ya know, there was…I will say that the “Saw” movies were made with a very loving group of producers who very concerned about jumping the shark. Everyone was concerned about jumping the shark, so it was scrutinized up and down, up and down, and up and down. ‘Are we jumping the shark if we do this?’ So while there wasn’t , I don’t think, a master plan, there was a lot of thought that went into them all.’
On why he left the “Saw” franchise to pursue more personal projects like “The Devil’s Carnival”:
‘I never wanted to do horror films, that was never why I came to Los Angeles. I didn’t come here to go make horror films, I came here to make musicals. I think even more importantly than that, I found myself getting lazy, like extremely lazy, because I think I became so comfortable in the “Saw” universe, I knew that I would never really fail. I knew that the “Saw” movies were a juggernaut and Lionsgate needed the “Saw” movies at that time, and so even if I completely shat the bed, and it was a terrible movie, they would fix it. They would fix it in post, they would fix it in sound, they would go back and reshoot stuff. Ya know, there was not the risk anymore, and I think that part of being an artist is knowing it’s ok to fail. Not only knowing it’s ok to fail, but actually failing again and again and again and again.’
On how “Amelie” inadvertently inspired “Repo – The Genetic Opera” and “The Devil’s Carnival”:
‘Movies have become these things that are churned out, there’s nothing magical anymore about me seeing a movie. I think the last time that I felt any sort of magic in a movie theater was when I saw “Amelie”. This is crazy. It was one of my first, it was my first year in Los Angeles and I was driving down the street and I saw this independent movie theater showing “Amelie”. I didn’t know what “Amelie” was and so I went in there, and I sat down by myself in the theater, no one else was there, and this movie came on…and it was magical. And it was just me, and a thing of popcorn, and I felt almost like a religious experience. There was something magical about it. I don’t get that when I go to movies much, but I got it then. And so, I wanted to make going to a movie theater magical and cool and different and unique and something that people talked about.’
On how ‘cult films’ like “Rocky Horror”, “Repo”, and “The Devil’s Carnival” click with audiences:
‘I think to some extant there is a formula on how to do it, I don’t think you can do it with every movie. I think why “Rocky Horror” succeeds, and why “Repo” and “Devil’s Carnival” succeeded is, they are so extreme, there is nothing subtle about them. There is nothing subtle about “Rocky Horror Picture Show” whatsoever, it is extreme. It is flamboyant. It is over-the-top. The characters are over-the-top, the costumes are over-the-top, everything is just extreme. But I think the fandom, and why the fans have embraced it so much, is that everyone identifies with a different character. They identify with Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, or to Brad or Janet or Riff Raff. There’s so many different people that you can identify with in it, because they are so specific. They are the hunchback, they are the young ingénue, they are the crazy transvestite. They are so specific that different people can identify with different characters.’
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