How drag duo the Boulet Brothers are building a queer horror empire

Waiting for your favorite holiday to roll around can be a real drag. Halloween enthusiasts no longer have that problem. AMC-owned horror streamer Shudder is using its hottest commodity—drag duo the Boulet Brothers—to make half-Halloween a thing with The Boulet Brothers’ Halfway to Halloween TV Special.

The celebrity-filled special, which dropped on the streamer earlier this week, is the first foray into fully scripted television for Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet, the impresarios behind Shudder’s The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans competition shows, which are something of a Drag Race-meets-Tales from the Crypt fantasia. 

The Boulet Brothers (not brothers, but a longtime couple) have become a big draw for the streamer since their horror- and fantasy-infused drag show landed there in 2020. They’re now building a media empire that includes Shudder projects, the Creatures of the Night podcast, a series of global live tours (their current one wraps in June), and an unscripted project with horror juggernaut Blumhouse’s TV production arm that’s still in its early stages. 

Though Shudder doesn’t share viewership numbers, it says that the Dragula franchise is among its most-watched series. Shudder VP of development and production Nick Lazo said in an email that the Dragula series and specials “continue to be tentpoles in our biggest months of the year.” As an off-season offering, the special is part of Shudder’s larger annual Halfway to Halloween programming, when it uses its original films and specials to “mark the halfway point to horror’s favorite holiday.”

The Boulet Brothers are also bringing new viewers to Shudder. “We’ll pull in drag audiences, but we also pull in fans of horror,” says Dracmorda. “It’s a new crowd that’s a real mix of anyone who feels like they’re an outcast who connects with the show.”

When The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula debuted on YouTube on Halloween 2016, it was a decidedly low-budget affair—like a lot of now-iconic horror franchises. Despite its limited budget, the show—which shared a name with the popular LA club event hosted by Drac and Swan, as they are known familiarly (they prefer to keep their real names private)—was infused from the start with their creative vision. It also showcases the Boulet Brothers’ dedication to drag, horror, filth, and glamour—the four pillars of Dragula intoned at the beginning of every episode by a pair of lips in black lipstick. “We funded the first season ourselves and said, ‘Hey, here’s a proof of concept. This is what the show is,’” Swanthula says. The LA club show “had grown this huge cult following, and that’s what got the eyeballs on [the series] in the first place.”

Among those eyeballs were those of executives from Canada’s OutTV, which licensed the first season, as well as the subsequent two seasons, to air in Canada. In the U.S., the second season aired on Amazon Prime, as did season three before moving to Netflix after the finale aired, accomplishing a long-held ambition for the duo. “That was the goal from moment one,” Dracmorda says. “We never thought about what the plan was after it got there.”

In 2020 the AMC-owned Shudder ordered a two-hour spin-off special, Dragula: Resurrection. Its success led Shudder to acquire rights for all previous seasons and greenlight season 4, which aired in 2021 and was followed by Titans last fall. Now, a fifth Dragula season is currently in pre-production. AMC’s backing, though perhaps not part of their plan, has given the duo an audience and a budget that matches their ambition.

“The Boulets have committed so completely to their vision of telling a story. I feel like they are doing it in a way that nobody in entertainment is doing right now,” says actor and producer David Dastmalchian, whose recently launched Good Fiend Productions co-produced the Halfway to Halloween special with Boulet Brothers Productions. A longtime fan of the horror genre and Dragula, he connected with the Boulet Brothers (via the editor of Fangoria magazine) for a stint as a guest judge. He found kindred spirits on set. 

It’s a feeling that seems to be shared by Dragula fans, who have been drawn in by the Boulet Brothers’ celebration of artists and performers whose work has long been outside the mainstream. “We always had a voice coming from the subversive space,” Swanthula says. “It speaks to who we are, how we grew up, and where we came from. We were misfits growing up in areas of the country where we didn’t see ourselves in anyone or anything around us.” 

That subversive inclusion is a big part of the Boulet Brothers’ ethos. And it’s drawn in younger fans, even as protecting children from drag has become a central battle cry of culture warriors in recent years. “Most of our content is intended for adult audiences,” Swanthula says. “But teenagers have resonated with the message of our show because it’s about empowering yourself: If you don’t fit the mainstream of society you can find strength in our show.”

The Boulet Brothers have been able to find a sizable audience—and espouse an inclusive message—even while making a product that’s not meant to be palatable for every audience. That’s what drew Dastmalchian to them. “They’re still going to push the boundaries,” he says. “They have been doing this for a minute and concocted some incredible things that have dropped people’s jaws for quite a long time. But in many regards, especially when it comes to the entertainment industry, they’re just getting started.”