PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SGA-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Kill Dolly Kill being covered here wouldn’t exist.
I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Kill Dolly Kill, the sequel to Heidi Moore’s 2016 feature film directorial debut, Dolly Deadly. As with any sequel, Kill Dolly Kill is bigger, bolder, and surpasses the original in craziness and musical numbers. This was definitely an act of “Go big or go home!”
BENJI is back. Now living as his alter-ego DOLLY DEADLY, he’s all grown up and ready to kill… AGAIN.
To celebrate the film’s world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023, I chatted with Heidi about being a part of Tromaville, making the film a musical, what’s up next, and more!
PopHorror: It was exciting to get to finally watch Kill Dolly Kill!
Heidi Moore: Thanks for watching it!
PopHorror: Absolutely. It was a lot of fun! What does it mean to you to be welcomed into Tromaville?
Heidi Moore: It’s a really big deal. I grew up watching Troma movies, as a lot of us have, and now I get to be friends with Lloyd Kaufman and be part of the universe. Citizen Toxie inspired me to write my first script, which has never been produced but it was very inspiring. When I was trying to be a filmmaker, my ex-husband was not supportive and the last fight we had was, “You know, you need to get a real job. You’ll make a movie. This isn’t Troma.” Now I have and it is Troma.
PopHorror: I hope you rubbed it in his face. The cast is a who’s who of indie horror – Drew Marvick, Dixie Gers, Anastasia Elfman, Julie Prescott, to name just a few. How fun was it to make this?
Heidi Moore: It was so fun. When we did the Las Vegas shoot, and everybody left, we were all depressed because we were having so much fun on set and then it was over. Especially watching the movie, it was like, “Oh my god. Everybody is so funny and doing so well.”
PopHorror: It’s nice to see some familiar faces.
Heidi Moore: It was weird because you know how social media now, everybody has all these friends that we never get to meet, we all got to meet in real life and create together.
PopHorror: That’s awesome. How important is it to you to make Kill Dolly Kill a movie that showcases drag, nonbinary, counterculture in such a colorful fashion?
Heidi Moore: It’s really important. The thing is though, starting with Dolly Deadly, people would always ask, “Oh, is Benji gay?” It doesn’t matter. They’re a person going through a hard time in their life. That’s the same with Kill Dolly Kill where it’s not necessarily about being nonbinary or drag, it’s just about people who are treated badly, and they just happen to be drag queens or outcasts or whatever. I edit porn for a living so my whole life is surrounded by all these different types of people, and I forget that it’s even a thing that anybody thinks about – gay or whatever – they’re all just people.
PopHorror: I feel like representation in entertainment, especially for drag and even just LGBTQ characters, especially trans characters, I feel like while it’s getting better, it still isn’t to the point where it’s just a character and actor and it doesn’t matter if they’re trans or gay or whatever. It’s just, “I hired this person and cast them because they’re great.” I feel like we’re getting there but we’re not there just yet. So to have movies like this that really showcase them helps that grow even more.
Heidi Moore: Yeah, yeah, I agree because it’s where people have like a token Black person. I’ve seen some independent filmmakers full on make a post announcing their crew and they’re like, “Oh, we have such a diverse crew. We have an Asian person, we have a Black person, a Hispanic…” Um… They’re actors. Why do you have to point out anything… Why are you thinking of them as different in any way? We’re all just people acting. The people who do drag are my friends but I also love the characters that they play when they’re performing. They’re performance artists so that’s why I wanted to work with them.
PopHorror: I love that. What made you decide on the musical route for the sequel?
Heidi Moore: Tom Komisar (Death Care 2020) really liked Dolly Deadly, and he actually wrote the script for Kill Dolly Kill. He’s a musician so he asked me if I would be interested in it being a musical and I was like, “Um, yes!” That’s been my dream. I love musicals. That’s how it became a musical. Tom wrote it as a fan and he’s a musician. He wrote all of those songs and he played all the music for them and everything.
PopHorror: The songs are super catchy! I liked the “Hey Spooky” song and it was at that point that I realized it was a musical. It added something extra to the film.
Heidi Moore: Donna Slash, who plays Dolly, hates musicals. So that was pretty funny.
PopHorror: That is pretty funny. I’ll have to mention that when we do our interview. Was it always your intention to create a series of films and continue the story of Benji?
Heidi Moore: No, it wasn’t, in the beginning. I went to a film festival for a documentary I did called More Blood!, and I ran into somebody who is a filmmaker and they were like, “Oh yeah, I would love to make a sequel to Dolly Deadly,” and I was like, “Oh, I never even thought of that.” I was open to it, but now, especially since we’ve made the sequel, a couple of my friends – including Donna Slash – have been thinking of script ideas for Dolly Deadly 3, 4. I will take it as far as it can go. I started thinking that it would be like Dolly in outer space because all the horror films go to space. And then another friend of mine, Dai Green, who is also in the movie, wanted to do Dolly in Hell, where they go through the different circles of Hell. And then Donna Slash had an idea of this post apocalyptic story. So who knows?
PopHorror: That sounds exciting! You’ve got them all on board, so that’s good.
Heidi Moore: Yeah, they all contacted me like, “Hey, what do you think about this?” I’m open to all of it, yeah!
PopHorror: What is it that draws you to horror?
Heidi Moore: I don’t know. I’ve always watched it. When I was maybe 11, my mom gave a note to all the different places in town that rented videos – like the Chester Video store, two of the gas stations rented videos, and then the grocery store – and she told them that I’m allowed to rent whatever I want. Everyday I would be at all the different places looking at movies and every time a friend would spend the night I would rent Demonic Toys. I don’t know. It was just fun for me when I was younger to always rent these movies because I would be like, “I don’t get scared.” They were always just fun. And I would also watch Up All Night. Did you watch Up All Night?
PopHorror: I did!
Heidi Moore: They would always have these weird horror movies. I mainly just really liked weird stuff, and a lot of the weird movies were also horror.
PopHorror: We used to watch that at slumber parties.
Heidi Moore: I would always fall asleep. We had this playroom with our bean bags and TV, and I would watch Up All Night and I would fall asleep, and then I would wake up to like, Silk Stalkings.
PopHorror: What is up next for you?
Heidi Moore: We did produce a movie called Good Vibes Only and it is a social commentary on toxic positivity. It is a horror film, as you may know already, but I do more like psychological horror because for me, I feel like humans are the… You can’t create anything more terrifying than humans. For me, emotional and verbal abuse is the worst kind of thing. I don’t really believe in the “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Why don’t you just beat the shit out of me or kill me or something. Like, please don’t torture me in that way. It’s kind of like this woman who was really happy and believed in all this “good vibes only” but she realized this is kind of oppressive. Like you have to live up to this where you’re always happy, just like change your mindset, do yoga and be happy. I wrote it in three weeks. This was after I was diagnosed with BPD, which is Borderline Personality Disorder, because I was trying so hard. I was trying to change my mindset, I was trying to do meditation, yoga, all of those things and nothing worked. It’s because that’s not the part of the brain that’s affected. None of that stuff can help you. You have to go to therapy and do behavioral therapy, and take medication. Sure, going to the gym will help, yoga, but then as soon as you’re done you get an intrusive thought and your whole day is ruined. So I would always see these posts on social media where people would sell self-help books and supplements and all of these things and they’ll make you happy, and people spend money on all of that because they’re so desperate to feel better. But what they really need to be doing is spending money on therapy. Anyway, the main character realizes that this is kind of bullshit. She works at this place that’s surrounded by “good vibes only” and you have to live up to this certain image, and she just starts losing her mind because she’s learning the reality of the world. And then she kills people.
PopHorror: I’ve never heard of toxic positivity, but I feel this in my bones. Perpetually positive people are just unrealistic, and I am definitely not one of those people.
Heidi Moore: Because that’s not real. Now that you’ve heard it, you’ll start noticing it everywhere.
PopHorror: Just because I’m not smiling all the time doesn’t mean I’m not happy. And just because I’m smiling doesn’t mean I’m happy. Please don’t tell me to smile. It really pisses me off. I’m excited to hear more about this. I have just one last question for you. What is your favorite scary movie?
Heidi Moore: Ooh, okay. I always blank when people ask me this. I would say my favorite spooky movie is Beetlejuice. Out of the franchises, Nightmare on Elm Street has always been my favorite. I think part three, Dream Warriors, is my favorite.
Thank you so much to Heidi for taking the time to speak with us. Kill Dolly Kill had its world premiere September 23, 2023, at Fantastic Fest.
