Booger

Hello I'm Shaurya Thapa of Borrowing Tape. Today, I'm joined by Mary Dauterman, the writer and director of the body horror comedy, very interestingly titled Booger. Welcome, Mary. So, for my first question, in your film, the title Booger alludes to the name of a cat that goes missing. My first question is, why Booger? Why? Any particular reason behind this naming choice?

Actually, the reason is because I almost named my own cat Booger, but I didn't. So it's the cat name that I never actually committed to, but I think it's a great name.

What is your real cat called, out of curiosity?

His real name is Bobby. He's named after Bobby Hill from King of the Hill. And he actually plays Booger, I would say, about 50% of the time in the film. So he's in the movie.

That was another question I had. Filming with a cat actor for your first film — what is that like?

It was definitely challenging. I had worked with cats before in commercials and knew what he could and couldn't do, but he's a biter, so that's why there's a cat bite moment in the film, but we redid that shot four times. My DP is a friend who lives nearby. He came over, and we kept trying to recapture it to get the exact right angle, so it was a challenge to get the cats to do exactly what I wanted them to do, but it's very fun to have them on set.

So, were there any specific body horror films that inspired Booger or any other genre films, for that matter?

For sure, Cronenberg's The Fly was a big one — me and Grace Glowicki, the lead actor, loved that film and loved the range of humor to tragedy in that film. And also, I think the body horror is just amazing — it's so gross, and it's so funny at the same time. Raw was a movie I was thinking about too — a little bit different of a body horror type of movie, but the changes are internal, and the actor's behavior starts becoming more and more animalistic, like something we're talking about. And Black Swan, I don't know if you call Black Swan a body horror per se, but for me, it is. I think it's really upsetting, and also, just so well done; the effects are just hit enough that they make you really squeamish. But yeah, I love all kinds of Cronenberg stuff and shocking things. I've also said Gusher's commercials are an inspiration for me. Anything where someone is transforming in a way that's shocking and in your face — I love it.

It's not exactly a body horror, but while watching Booger, I also could thematically get reminded of Swallow. Have you seen Swallow?

Yes, very upsetting. Yeah.

Talking about upsetting because Booger — starts off as a tragic film. In the very opening minutes, you establish that your protagonist is going through a state of grief. And she's coping with loss and grief, and the cat is also gone now. But then there are moments where I'm laughing throughout like there's this bleak sense of humor. Balancing these multiple tones — you're exploring grief, exploring bodily transformation, mental transformation, and this bizarre sense of humor throughout just a 78-minute runtime — how did you balance such different tones while writing or conceptualizing the film?

Yeah, I think, as a person, I do see comedy in everything, even if it's painful or tragic; it's just how my brain frames the world. I think that the themes of the film about grief and loss are something I definitely take really seriously and felt a lot, writing it and putting this character through it. But I also think just existing in the world is so awkward, being a human is so awkward. We're constantly butting up against things that feel cosmically strange to the point that it's actually funny now. So that really kept happening within the film. And also, the way this character is dealing with her grief is just, yeah, making the world that much more ridiculous, like she can't deal and in fact, she's turning into a creature, and the world just goes on. It's crazy to have your boss keep calling you and asking you to do something that seems so stupid when you're going through something really tough, but it's also kind of funny and kind of cringey at the same time.

But how's the transition been from directing short films and commercials to your own full-fledged feature directorial debut? So, how's that transition been for you?

Yeah, it's been just a gradual stepping stone from one thing to the other. I feel like it was really nice. I worked with a lot of the same crew on my shorts and my commercials as this feature, so we all knew my brain fairly well, which explaining now —it's like explaining my humor, explaining the kinds of things I gravitate towards. It's nice people get that and what we're all coming together to make. But it is so much easier to keep the world of a three-minute film or a 60-second commercial in your head while you're making it versus, like, oh, this is the entire character arc. We're shooting out of order because it's a low-budget film, so we're block shooting on these locations. It's a lot more, more story and emotion and character to keep in your mind all at once.

I'm lucky I was surrounded by a really great team. My producer, Lexi Tannenholtz, had been developing the project with me for a long time, and then Grace Glowicki, who plays the lead Anna, is a writer/director herself, so she's thinking beyond just the simplicity of the scene, and she really understood the whole project as well. So I'm just so lucky that she said yes and was on board for this film. I feel like it was invaluable.

And now, coming to the technical aspects of your film, where was Booger filmed, and how long did principal photography take you?

We shot it all in Brooklyn, mostly in Bed-Stuy. Some of it's my apartment, some of it's my sister's apartment, and some of it's our DP's apartment. So, definitely a lot of love from the crew to make it all happen. That's authentically where the story took place as I was writing it, so it felt really right. It is hard to shoot in your own home, though I don't recommend it if you don't have to.

And our principal photography was 15 days in July 2022. We took weekends off, which was really great, but we shot three weeks in a row. So we edited for a few months and then we did a pickup a few months later, that was two and a half days, which was really great to really polish and make certain story aspects more cohesive. So that's something I learned in editing and writing of it all.

Given that this is your first film as a director, body horror is such a genre that it can have its repetition; it can be monotonous at times, like from Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis to the Cronenberg films. There are certain tropes that get checkboxed in every body horror film. But for audiences who are watching Booger — what advice would you like to give them while they're watching it — to not see it as just another body horror film?

Yeah. In this movie, it's definitely not all about shock and being as disgusting as possible, though I hope it disgusts people. It's really the manifestation of this character's emotions and how it feels to go through something so internal and struggle with something all alone. Of course, it's going to manifest in some way. And in this particular movie, it's manifesting in these disgusting hairballs she's throwing up. So it's all tied to her journey through grief. And I hope that is something a lot of people can identify with and understand. But yeah, we're still trying to make the visual exploration of something so messy about life. It makes sense to me that that's where the story went for me.

You filmed this way back in 2022 if I'm not wrong, and now that the film is finally going to be out this weekend. Your future projects — would they still hark back to genres like horror, or would it be something totally different?

Yeah, in general, the stuff I'm working on now and interested in exploring is a genre mash-up. I think there'll always be a thread of humor in my work, but at least right now, I'm not terribly interested in doing something very straightforward. I'm working on one thing that's going to be more of a comedy thriller that gets really ridiculous and bloody. And I'm working on some other ideas that have more supernatural elements. The way my brain connects ideas is just like where's the really strange visual world we can go to explore some of these emotions and what do I think would be the most interesting story, most unexpected, and get to take you on a ride you weren't expecting.

All right, Mary, thank you for your time. I'm done with my questions, but if you want to add anything else, feel free to do so we have some more time.

Awesome.

Best of luck for your film. Just again, this is not related to your film, but we talked about body horror films, and you mentioned some of your favorites, like The Fly; what would be your favorite cat film?

My favorite cat film?

Yeah, I mean, there aren't many that I can think of, but still, if you would know.

Yeah, I have an answer: House the Obayashi movie from 1978. [1977]

The Japanese...

Yes, obsessed with that movie. And then, as a kid, there was this movie. I've actually just bought the DVD because I couldn't stop thinking about it, but this movie called Thomasina ["The Three Lives of Thomasina"]. And it's about a girl who has an orange cat that keeps and the cat's nine lives but's just like a very gentle 1960s children's film, but there's some really absurd set builds and like supernatural elements when the cat dies that are so cool and so strange that they're in a kid's film.

All right, that's interesting. Thank you for your time, Mary. My favorite cat film will always be Alien.

Oh, hell yeah.