Interview with the creators behind Shudder’s The Boy Behind the Door

1428 Elm: Sometimes kid actors tend to overact, but everything these two did was completely believable. I interviewed Matthew James, who wrote the score for The Djinn, and we talked about the challenges of shooting pretty much the entire film in a confined space. It was much the same for The Boy Behind the Door. What were the challenges with that?

Justin: You know, we really love shooting in confined spaces. We think it really ups the tension in horror movies, when you kind of keep things claustrophobic. But, I think the biggest challenges with it came from the specific location we found itself. We just had a lot of logistical hurdles that we had to deal with, but once we got past those, we were able to really lean into what I think are our strengths: telling a visual story in a confined space. Just navigating the endless restrictions of that specific location was definitely one of the biggest challenges regarding that.

The bigger challenge was regarding the kids’ hours and the limited time that we could use them, that was the bigger issue.

1428 Elm: The Djinn actually had a limited run in theaters, so that had to be really exciting after COVID. Did you go watch it in a theater so you could see the audience reaction?

David: We did get to see The Djinn in theaters, and that was such an incredible experience for us. The restrictions were still pretty heavy at that time, they still had, I think barely half the capacity they were allowing people in the theaters, so that was a little unfortunate. If it was like two weeks later, it would have been a lot more open. It was still nonetheless a really cool experience, we kind of wish we had that experience for The Boy Behind the Door. But, we are still really happy that Shudder was excited about the movie.

1428 Elm: Yeah, I think Shudder is amazing, and they have a big fan following, so I think that’s going to work out well for you. Considering these are your first two movies, you guys did really well for yourselves. Tell me what you have coming up in the future now.

Justin: We don’t have anything technically slated yet. We really want to get a couple projects off the ground that we’re really excited about, there are two that we’ve kind of been working toward that will hopefully get going soon, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

1428 Elm: I sure will, I’ll keep my eyes open for them. Thank you so much for your time, I really enjoyed talking to you, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Have you seen The Djinn and/or The Boy Behind the Door? What did you think of Justin and David’s films? Tell us about it in the comments section.