This week The Boulet Brothers' Dragula says “hello uglies” to its fifth season, but for its creators Swanthula and Dracmorda it’s more like the first page of the second chapter of their hit reality series and its spin-offs.
One of the major changes this time is that the Boulets are pulling double duty continuing their roles in front of the camera as judge jury and executioners, but now they are also stepping behind the camera as its directors “It was just very rewarding,” Dracmorda tells PRIDE. “It's for the first time I feel like we can see the vision of what we had for the show actually manifest on screen.”
Their hands-on approach to the season did not just benefit Boulet's vision but it helped the competitors to best showcase their talents on screen, meaning this season the artists are really able to bring it all to the stage.
“Something that it really paid off, was that we were able to interface with each competitor before they went out there to do their floor show — the floor shows are a little bit different this year — and really just kind of prep them mentally like play to this camera,” says Swanthula. “What that ended up doing was boosting their confidence and all their performances. And it allowed us to capture the best of them, which is, of course, what we try to do every year.”
But that's not the only change coming our way this year, the cast of monsters is its most diverse yet, proving that even 5 seasons in we're just scratching the surface of the complexity of artists and artistry in the dag scene. That's not to say there won't be some familiar faces popping up in new and exciting roles. PRIDE sat down with Drac and Swan to get all the tea about what is coming this season and how this time around the series is both a return to its roots and a step into the future.
Shudder
PRIDE: Let's talk about the season because there are some big changes coming. Can you talk a little bit about how directing changed the experience for you this time?
DRACMORDA: As drag artists ourselves who are on stage we come on stage and do the floor show intros. And we do our own dynamic section where you see our outfits and everything, we're in the same position that they are and working with the same directors in the past. And a lot of times you walk out on stage and you're like,' the fuck am I doin? Is someone gonna say something?' I felt like in the past, I saw that in the competitor's faces. Part of that was testing them. You want to see how they do on stage and just let them come out. And then you would see who would rise to the occasion and who wouldn't. But this year, I wanted to personally communicate with all of them and thoroughly explain it to them. So everyone has exactly the same fair chance.
I can see how that's super beneficial to the competitors, but I’m curious how that impacted judging for you. You used to have more church and state but now you are in it and also in some ways judging your own directing. How do you handle that?
SWANTHULA: We had to grapple with that mentally even before the season started. Traditionally we maintain a big distance from the competitors and they only see us in drag and when we come out it's this huge intimidation factor. So when we said yes, we're gonna direct, the payoff is worth it, the show will be more of what we always wanted it to be. But we're gonna have to interact with them out of drag and direct them.
What ended up happening was a closeness that we were able to achieve, because we're trying to pull the best out of them. And then when it came time to judge, I think the separation was kind of easy and amplified by the fact that we are now in drag, you're not seeing us as guys directing you and behind the camera... we are now transformed. It's Drac and Swan and we're sitting in the in the judges booth. And it really allowed us to kind of separate it.
Scotty Kirby
After Titans you said you saw this season as the beginning of a new chapter of Dragula. What does that mean to you?
D: It means two things to me. One, the floor shows are not going to feel completely different. But we want to show the competitors in the best light. So we presented them in this music video style, where you'd see a lot of cuts. Sometimes people would say, "I can't see the whole outfit." Well, you're not gonna say that anymore. Because you see everything, you see details. One of our main commitments for the new chapter was, I want you to see the drag. This is a drag competition. It's not about how cool of an edit this is. It's about how cool is this drag. And so the focus is on showing them in their full glory. So there's this moving rotating platform, when they first come out, that rotates in a complete circle and you get a full view from top to bottom of their shoes, their makeup, their nails, so all the details are shown.
The second thing was getting back to what the show is. This is a competition show. So we wanted to lean back into the basics. We want to show incredible drag. We want to show how this drag is being made. And then we want to show drag artists doing insane, dangerous things. That is what the show is. And that's what we sort of got back to.
I saw a bungee jumping extermination in the season five trailer that has me very excited!
D: We're even gonna lean more into that in the future. I'll spoil something: You do not see as much drama about random things this year. In Titans it was like love triangles. When [these artists] get into it, they're getting into it about the competition. So this season is very competition-focused, it's not going to be fighting about random unconnected things.
S: Some of the same stuff that we always love is still there. It's just been streamlined. And it's faster, It's spicier. It's fun. So watching Dragula, we've always kind of likened it to a roller coaster through like, Knott's Scary Farm or something. And that's what that's what it feels like.
Nathan Noyes
So exciting! Anything else unexpected you can tease about this season?
D: Someone is eliminated in a way that has never been done on the show before.The person who it is, I feel like people are gonna be pretty upset. But definitely, they should have been eliminated.
S: Our goal was to create like the first entry into chapter two of Dragula, and we've kind of boiled everything down to its most potent. So the themes are amazing. The set is incredible. The boudoir is now the laboratory, it's doubled in size. It moves faster. There are fright feats and exterminations. And the themes are really fun. So if you love what's at the heart of Dragula, I really think you're gonna love season five.
This is just part one of our interview with The Boulet Brothers. Stay tuned for more tomorrow. The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 5 Premieres tonight on Shudder. Watch the trailer below.
