A lot of us love scary movies, but unless you are Elvira, Mistress of the Dark or Stephen King, your opinion on cinematic things that go bump in the night probably pales in comparison to those of the Boulet Brothers.
As drag culture iconoclasts and “horror’s new icons” per genre authority Fangoria, Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet managed to create a reality competition series (The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula) that serves as both a love letter to horror and a refutation of the idea that reality TV can’t be underground and subversive. Now, the duo is launching The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans on Tuesday (Oct. 25) on Shudder and AMC+, a spin-off series featuring 10 standout contestants from Dragula’s first four seasons.
“The fans are not ready,” Swan tells Billboard. “The competitors dubbed it ‘Gagula’ because there’s so many different twists.”
With Halloween month (aka gay Christmas) and spooky szn upon us, we spoke with the Boulets about their 10 favorite horror movie soundtracks of all time. We’re talking about everything from John Carpenter’s iconic minimalist score for Halloween to Danny Elfman’s zany theme for the HBO series Tales From the Crypt to the synth fantasia Tangerine Dream crafted for the cult favorite Legend.
The Boulets also explain how the music in these movies affects their own work. “If it’s campier or more fun — and there are definitely fun challenges in this Titans season — you might hear a little music that sounds like Danny Elfman. But if it’s more epic and dramatic, you might hear our love for Bram Stoker’s Dracula and that score in those epic moments,” says Swan. “With so many episodes, it allows us to express musically all the ways we love horror.” Plus, the season will feature a new Boulet Brothers song called “Ascension,” which Drac says they “wrote specifically for the grand finale of the show.”
Read on — and expect to hear some of these sounds when the Boulets throw their annual Halloween Ball in Los Angeles on Oct. 28-29 at the Globe Theatre.
