Today, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula says “Hello uglies” to season 666 and it’s six-six-sickening. The show’s creators, Dracmorda and Swanthula, promise it’s going to be the most “wild card” of a season yet. As the diabolical duo explain, there’s a magic to casting a reality series and together they have cracked the alchemical code.
Along with plenty of fresh meat, season 666 will also feature a couple of familiar faces, Majesty (formerly James Majesty) and Yuri (formerly Yuri Gauii). That in and of itself will shake up the game, but beyond that, The Boulets decided to take an even more daring route with their casting this time around. “This one was unique because in previous seasons, as the show’s gotten bigger, we’ve become a little bit distanced from the club world and the drag performance stages,” Swanthula recalls to PRIDE. “But there was always a floating folder in the casting process that we labeled the ‘wild cards.’ It was just like the people we didn’t really know a lot about. We don’t know what they’re going to do. How will they be on camera? If there was a question mark, they ended up in that folder. Season six comes around, and we…just said, we’re casting everyone from the wild card folder.”
Courtesy of Shudder
“Even Majesty, that was such a wild card decision,” adds Dracmorda. “There’s a lot of talk of ‘Well, shouldn’t she be on a Titans season?’ You’ll see [in the premiere episode] why he ended up on this season. But that in itself was a wild card choice. And we’re like, you know what? This season’s gonna be crazy. Let’s go for it, like, let’s just throw them in the mix and see what happens,” she reveals to PRIDE.
Clearly, the duo are on the right track. Not only is the show more popular than ever, but even the The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences had to take note of the drag and television excellence coming out of The Boulets’ dark laboratory. This year, the two were nominated for two Emmys for Outstanding Makeup for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program.
While the nods feel very correct, the duo reveals the news still came as a surprise. “The funny thing is, we were in bed and I didn’t even know that they were announcing the nomination,” recalls Dracmorda. “I just wasn’t paying attention. And [Drag Race judge] Michelle Visage texted me while I was in bed at like, 8:00 in the morning. It was like, ‘Congratulations!’ And I was like, ‘On what? What happened?’ Then I went online and tried to dig around, like, ‘Oh my god, wow!’ So, it was really shocking.”
“We got inundated with texts, and everyone was like, ‘Oh my god, congratulations. What are you going to wear?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh God, just shut up. Let me enjoy this before you stress me out how we’re going to appear there!’” jokes Swanthula. “To be honest with you, we’re so used to being outliers in everything, on the social fringe, so to be recognized in that way, I’m literally googling, ‘How prestigious are the Emmys exactly?’ It’s the topm so it was very much like a ‘pinch myself’ sort of moment. It felt very affirming when we were there. It felt very correct.”
For fans of the show, this recognition was a long time in coming. There’s something so powerful about seeing the work of queer people and queer culture not only being celebrated, but the people who create it getting that same kind of attention. All too often, queer culture is plucked, grabbed ,and appropriated by the mainstream, leaving the artists behind. It’s a trend The Boulets are well aware of.
“We’ve had, what, six seasons now, a spin-off Titans season, and the Resurrection feature? Traitors is a new show, for example, which shares some similarities with Dragula. The way that they kill the people at the end and Alan Cummings is very Boulet Brothers in his presentation. You see how they were recognized immediately. So, there is still a cross to bear by being queer and making queer art. It’s not embraced as quickly.” says Dracmorda. Thankfully, that’s changing for The Boulets who aspire to more Emmy nods next season, including one for casting. Based on their new approach this season with casting, we think they may have this one in the bag.
In the past, the duo have spoken about the “alchemy” of casting but digging a little deeper into how they find their monsters, Swanthula says there is in fact a bit of a formula they follow. “You have to have a love of reality TV, not just drag, but reality — and [have a] knowledge of people,” she explains. She goes on to add that first you find artists who are “musts” and then the fun part begins: finding the elements that, as she puts it, “agitate, support, contradict” to stir up drama and raise the stakes.
That being said, there are limits to just how “agitating” a star can be. “Just to be frank, we don’t cast assholes like, we just won’t do it,” says Dracmorda. “There are people out there that, people ask, ‘Why aren’t they on the show?’ and same thing with judges. I’m like, ‘because they’re an asshole.’ I’m not going to put someone like that on the show. I’m not going to elevate someone like that.”
For the most part, the queens feel they’ve been successful in executing that ethos. “I think in the entire history of the show, there’s only one that has snuck through, in my opinion, who has proven to be more destructive, I guess,” Dracmorda shares. “We really want to elevate the people that we cast on the show. Now, will we cast someone as delusional? Absolutely. I mean, unaware, delusional, all those things are great, but we don’t want to elevate someone who just has sort of a hateful heart.”
Courtesy of Shudder
Sometimes crafting the prefect cast also means casting queens who have previously starred on another drag competition, like Yuri this season, or Jade Jolie in season four. Again, this comes back to adding a spice and “agitation”. It’s evidenced by the way the season four artists tested Jade’s bona fides as a super monster; these queens come in with a little something extra to prove. “Because people have preconceived notions about who they are and what they’ll do, and if you’re really ‘this’ and trying to almost gate-keep being alternative — which I hate,” explains Swanthula. “The entire art form is alternative. Whether you’re a pretty supermodel or you’re an ugly supermonster, the mainstream world is not looking at you like a sane person. So the separation I don’t appreciate. Jade’s journey is a little bit different and her reception was different than Yuri’s.”
In fact, The Boulets reveal Yuri almost starred in not one, but two previous seasons of Dragula, season three and season five, but it turns out season 666 was her destiny. Also, if there’s any doubt if she — or any of the other drag artists — featured this season belong on the show, the exterminations will quickly sort the normies from the monsters.
For those unfamiliar with the exterminations, they’re the test of will, grit, and endurance. They’re often terrifying, grotesque, or painful — and this season The Boulets say they’re more wicked than ever. “We did not skimp on the exterminations this year, sometimes we’ll be like, ‘Oh my god, the first two episodes were so rough. Let’s change three and four and make it easier.’ We did not do that this year. So fans will be shocked every episode,” reveals Dracmorda.
Beyond simply being unbelievably entertaining, the exterminations exist to both push the artists and to reveal their deeper layers. “There is a method to the madness. It’s as fun as it is to watch drag queens doing insane things. You know, the whole idea behind it is to succeed and show business, you really have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone,” says Dracmorda. “Some people rise to the occasion.”
It’s also the way that some queens are able to save themselves from elimination when they’ve let themselves down in the floorshow — although taking part in the extermination alone isn’t always enough to propel the artist through to the next challenge. What makes the difference? It’s complicated. “You can tell when someone’s defeated. And sometimes by the time you drive them out to the location they’re waiting for all the equipment to get set up and you can just tell they’re done. I think that determines a lot,” explains Dracmorda.
“To expand on that just slightly, because sometimes it will be where, 'wow, the performances or the looks were so close in the judging. Let’s look at the extermination.' The extermination almost then becomes, like, a qualifier,” adds Swanthula. “You have to endure this...whether you like it or not, if you want to stay here, that’s what’s got to happen. Then [if you do] it could potentially go back to the drag. How were they on stage? How was their presence? How were they during the judgment? Can they take a critique? Are they professional? These are all things that we consider.” After all, once the season wraps and airs, The Boulets tour with many of these queens and having an idea of how they operate under pressure can be very... illuminating.
Not that The Boulets have much time to ruminate on anything at the moment, as they have so many projects in the works — including entering their video game vixen era. The two made history as the first-ever horror hosts to be featured in the extremely popularDead By Daylight. ”It’s so awesome. We’re so excited. It’s an honor. It’s really exciting for us to be the first horror hosts featured in the game,” gushes Swanthula. “If you’ve been a Dragula fan for a long time, you probably would have thought this day would never come to light: The Emmys and you can play The Boulets in a video game? It’s wild!”
“People in the industry would be like, ‘what?’ but it’s almost more of an honor than winning the Emmy, to be in Dead by Daylight,” admits Dracmorda. “All the horror icons are in there. It’s Jason and Freddy [Krueger] and Michael [Myers]. I mean, everybody’s in there, and us! It was really humbling.”
While most people would be satisfied with taking both the worlds of television and video games by storm, there’s truly no rest for this wicked duo. Case in point: They’re heading into spooky season with one more incredible project up their dark and billowing sleeves: their new EP Halloween Houseparty.
While musically The Boulets are known for having a harder, gothy edge, these new tracks are a major and delightfully spooky departure. The sound of the new EP is all retro rockabilly and classic standard vibes with a camp and creepy edge. In other words, prepare for it to make its way onto all of your spooky season playlists, in perpetuity.
Courtesy of The Boulet Brothers
For The Boulets, this new EP was a true passion project that reveals another side of the duo they’re excited to share with fans. “We love vintage Halloween stuff. I collect Halloween blow molds, like the light up, old school antique ones. I have many battles on eBay to collect them all. And I think that this album is a classic holiday Halloween album,” shares Dracmorda.
“The Boulet Brothers aren’t just glamor and evil. There’s a part of us that really appreciates camp and kitschiness,” says Swanthula, explaining that the new EP was actually born in part out of one of the new performances they did on the season five tour. “We developed a new show, and we call it like our Halloween Mask show, with retro dancing skeletons in the background. It was cutesy, we were presenting ourselves as cute and dark, not evil and dark.” Swanthula admits that they were initially concerned the fans wouldn’t take to seeing them through this new lens. Instead, the reception was overwhelmingly positive, and they knew they were on the right track with the new music.
One thing all of this makes very clear: The Boulets have found their lane and are blazing down it all the way to hell — we’re just excited to be along for the ride.
The Boulet Brothers Dragula season 666 is streaming now on Shudder and AMC+, Halloween Houseparty drops October 4 and is available to preorder now. The first single from it, “All Hallows’ Eve”, is available to stream now on Apple Music, Spotify, and other music platforms.
