DLB Radio Interview - 08.30
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2024 2:57 pm
Our fearless leader took to the radio waves this morning for an hour-long chat with KC's own Johnny Dare on 98.9 The Rock. The conversation can be heard here: Director Darren Bousman brings a new level of horror back to KC!!.
The conversation starts with a quick byte about DLB's background followed by Johnny immediately launching into how weird and awesome DLB is. DLB talks about how he grew up in Overland Park and listened to Johnny Dare every morning on his way to school. He talks about how his love of horror started in KC. He then talks in depth about his experience in Hollywood and how he started as a PA and was fired from every job he had because he was terrible, mostly because it just wasn't what he wanted to do. He didn't want to get coffee or laundry, he wanted to be directing. As even he was getting frustrated, he received a letter from his father that said that in 1 year, if he was still a PA and was still borrowing money, he needed to rethink the career path he was on. As a result of this letter, DLB wrote a script: The Desperate. It was based on his own desperation and the feelings he had about letting his parents down and wasting their money. 11 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days later, DLB was on a plane to direct the movie that came from that script, Saw 2. Johnny and DLB discuss that sometimes it's that feeling of being pushed out of the nest, getting out of your comfort zone and deciding for yourself whether you're going to sink or swim, that leads to success.
DLB recounts how he lied, cheated, and manipulated to get his script in front of the right people. He realized that assistants are the first people to read scripts so he leaned into that and had all of his assistant friends write up fake coverage to get The Desperate “trending”. He started getting calls which prompted him to finish the script. Eventually he was meeting with Lionsgate and they asked about his directing experience, at which point he lied again about how he had directed a ton of short films. He called his parents, they sent him funds to make a film over the weekend and he was on a plane a week later to direct the film.
Johnny asks what it was like to be thrust into the spotlight and DLB talks about how he had some imposter syndrome and a constant fear of being found out. When the movie came out and went #1, he got a call from a guy named Eli who had just seen his movie and invited him out for a drink. He gets there and it’s Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and a bunch of others. That was the first time he realized that he had made it and life was going to change.
He talks about what it was like to do so many successful movies back-to-back and compares it to riding the best rollercoaster first, and then going to ride the smaller ones and it just isn’t as fulfilling. He took a break to travel the world and look for inspiration. He found that in an extreme haunt called ‘Blackout,’ a psychological immersive experience. DLB loved it for it forcing him to have feelings and emotions that he wasn’t used to having. He also loved that, each time he went through, he could tweak it and have a completely different experience, which you can’t do with movies. He wanted to bring his audience into the story.
Then they started talking about Exiled: Crooked Rose Woods, and Johnny and DLB both talk about how they’ve tried to explain the experience to people that are curious and they have a hard time finding a way to do that. DLB talks about his experience at the haunts in the West Bottoms really turned him on to macabre and horror. He talks about he went to all the haunts around town last year and Exiled was the last one he went to. After that, he reached out to them, and proposed a partnership to allow him into to put on an experience where people can step into their own horror movie and choose their level involvement. Johnny talks about the terrain being tough, and the woods inherently being spooky at night. DLB explains that they’ve created a universe and storyline that goes with it, and that your interactions dictate your experience. He only briefly discusses the actual storyline but this is what he said:
Eventually they ended up taking calls from listeners to give away tickets. DLB asks each of them a question and gave them tickets based on their answers, really hammering home the idea that you get out of this experience what you are willing to put into it.
The conversation starts with a quick byte about DLB's background followed by Johnny immediately launching into how weird and awesome DLB is. DLB talks about how he grew up in Overland Park and listened to Johnny Dare every morning on his way to school. He talks about how his love of horror started in KC. He then talks in depth about his experience in Hollywood and how he started as a PA and was fired from every job he had because he was terrible, mostly because it just wasn't what he wanted to do. He didn't want to get coffee or laundry, he wanted to be directing. As even he was getting frustrated, he received a letter from his father that said that in 1 year, if he was still a PA and was still borrowing money, he needed to rethink the career path he was on. As a result of this letter, DLB wrote a script: The Desperate. It was based on his own desperation and the feelings he had about letting his parents down and wasting their money. 11 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days later, DLB was on a plane to direct the movie that came from that script, Saw 2. Johnny and DLB discuss that sometimes it's that feeling of being pushed out of the nest, getting out of your comfort zone and deciding for yourself whether you're going to sink or swim, that leads to success.
DLB recounts how he lied, cheated, and manipulated to get his script in front of the right people. He realized that assistants are the first people to read scripts so he leaned into that and had all of his assistant friends write up fake coverage to get The Desperate “trending”. He started getting calls which prompted him to finish the script. Eventually he was meeting with Lionsgate and they asked about his directing experience, at which point he lied again about how he had directed a ton of short films. He called his parents, they sent him funds to make a film over the weekend and he was on a plane a week later to direct the film.
Johnny asks what it was like to be thrust into the spotlight and DLB talks about how he had some imposter syndrome and a constant fear of being found out. When the movie came out and went #1, he got a call from a guy named Eli who had just seen his movie and invited him out for a drink. He gets there and it’s Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright, and a bunch of others. That was the first time he realized that he had made it and life was going to change.
He talks about what it was like to do so many successful movies back-to-back and compares it to riding the best rollercoaster first, and then going to ride the smaller ones and it just isn’t as fulfilling. He took a break to travel the world and look for inspiration. He found that in an extreme haunt called ‘Blackout,’ a psychological immersive experience. DLB loved it for it forcing him to have feelings and emotions that he wasn’t used to having. He also loved that, each time he went through, he could tweak it and have a completely different experience, which you can’t do with movies. He wanted to bring his audience into the story.
Then they started talking about Exiled: Crooked Rose Woods, and Johnny and DLB both talk about how they’ve tried to explain the experience to people that are curious and they have a hard time finding a way to do that. DLB talks about his experience at the haunts in the West Bottoms really turned him on to macabre and horror. He talks about he went to all the haunts around town last year and Exiled was the last one he went to. After that, he reached out to them, and proposed a partnership to allow him into to put on an experience where people can step into their own horror movie and choose their level involvement. Johnny talks about the terrain being tough, and the woods inherently being spooky at night. DLB explains that they’ve created a universe and storyline that goes with it, and that your interactions dictate your experience. He only briefly discusses the actual storyline but this is what he said:
DLB explains that there is something for everyone, though. Anything from basic jump scares to a night of debauchery and drinking. He talks about his experience with the haunts in KC and that this is going to be something new, that blurs the lines between reality and haunted house. But he does specify that this isn’t an extreme haunt in the same sense as some others that have popped up in recent years. There’s no physical danger but there will be a lot of psychological aspects in play and that it is fully immersive. The sights, sounds and smells will make you feel like you’re actually in a scene. They want to take you out of your comfort zone. Make you feel something that you don’t feel every day. They want Exiled to be fun, boisterous, and sexy. DLB talks about how they are bringing in a lot of Hollywood effects to accomplish all of this.We, for the last 6 months, have been building up this story about this new family named the Redcurves who have come over to Exiled and have taken it over. This family has sinister plans in mind, and you have been invited to their hootenanny, for lack of a better word. They’ve got popcorn and cotton candy and carnival games and a bunch of other stuff. Go and talk to them! You can go and you can communicate and say whatever you want to them and what you decide to say will dictate your night. It’s great because there’s unlockable things. Let’s say you go to the carnival and you say “I want a hotdog” and you go buy a hotdog. Well, that hotdog is going to unlock something for you. It’s like a video game. And now, the hotdog vendor might give you a coin and say “when you’re on the trail, I want you to give this coin to so-and-so on the trail.” But if you got a hotdog AND a cotton candy, now you’ve got a different coin. And it’s all based on what you decide to do within the carnival will dictate what happens to you the rest of the night.
Eventually they ended up taking calls from listeners to give away tickets. DLB asks each of them a question and gave them tickets based on their answers, really hammering home the idea that you get out of this experience what you are willing to put into it.