10 Years of ‘The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,’ and the Diabolical Duo Is Still Raising Hell

It’s been 10 years since Dracmorda and Swanthula picked up their black parasols and descended into a basement at the gay bar Precinct to make television history. Right away, the show garnered a cult following as the antithesis of everything audiences thought they knew about drag competition shows. It was raw, uncompromisingly raunchy, terrifying, and hosted by the diabolical duo, who served up cutting commentary, crass comedy, and chthonic cunt in equal measure.

In the decade since, the show has only grown in scale, popularity, and notoriety. And this year marks a decade of making aggressively queer — and just as aggressive — television and delivering it into the living rooms of viewers around the globe. That small and subversive show, which started subterranean, has emerged into the mainstream and has gone on to serve up six seasons of the main show, with the seventh premiering next week, two seasons of Titans, a pandemic-era special, Resurrection, multiple scripted holiday specials, and four Emmy nominations. It’s a towering achievement, one that the Boulets have been so busy making they’ve barely had time to reflect on.

“It’s kind of hard to pan back and just look at it from like the 30,000 foot view, because we’re so enveloped in it,” Swanthula tells GO. “When I tell you, we have our hand in every pot we do, and we have since the beginning. We joke like no one else could make this show because it’s so weird and it’s so specifically odd that our voices kind of come through and really have to guide all aspects of it. So we’re really wrapped up in it. Every now and then, the light will come through and I’ll see it and I’ll realize it, and yeah, it’s exciting and it can kind of make me even emotional a little bit.”

If anything, their ambition has only grown since the show originally premiered on Oct. 31, 2016. On the one hand, Dracmorda reflects on what that version of themselves would think of all they have accomplished: “We’d be thrilled,” she says. But at the same time, having the kind of drive it would take to have done what they have in just 10 years means they’re always working toward more. “Our minds as world builders and content creators just goes so far above and beyond that I don’t know if we can ever be satiated,” muses Dracmorda.

For all the reflection on their legacy and the dreaded emotions that it brings up, the duo shows no signs of sentimentality when it comes to season seven. Monsters and fans who think the pair might get caught up in the nostalgia and go easy on their new pack of drag artists are in for a surprise. That’s in part because they intentionally went into this season treating it less like a victory lap and more like an opportunity to execute some of the dark and fiendish concepts they’d been dreaming (nightmaring?) up since Dragula began.

“One thing that we leaned into … was that all the death scenes this year are shot-for-shot recreations of classic horror movie kills from the ’80s. We’ve always wanted to do that,” reveals Dracmorda. “The ambition was there but the budget and technology was not. This year we were actually able to do it and flex our skills as directors, writers, and creators.”

No surprise, they’re already looking ahead to seasons yet to come. “There’s another idea that we had. We were like, I want to do that this year, but we just didn’t have the time to do it … we’re gonna set our sights on 2027,” says Swanthula.

“Oh, we’re deep in it in the background. Let me tell you,” adds Dracmorda. “We’ve got the next couple of years plotted out. Believe it or not,” she laughs.

But in the meantime, fans have plenty to chew on with season seven when it arrives this month, if the drama-filled trailer is any indication. The show is staying true to its artistic and reality TV roots, a bold choice as its latest season arrives in a very different cultural moment than the one in which Dragula began; one where the Boulets see queer expression itself taking on increasing political significance.

“Our voice is the same that it’s always been. It sort of clashes against societal norms, and it’s meant to make you a little bit uncomfortable,” says Swanthula. “We’re still saying the same things, but it’s going to hit a little harder and be a little bit more important to be reminded that, you know, queer expression — I hate to talk like that — but it’s political, just existing, because it clashes against what people are trying to kind of groom us to feel is normal. I mean, when the president is saying the derogatory trans terms … people need to be smart and expressive and artistic and get that out there more now than ever.”

The political consequences of this moment aren’t theoretical. The current administration has directly complicated the Boulets’ ability to bring international artists onto the show. “There were actually three other cast members that were supposed to be on the show that are international cast members, and it got completely screwed up because that was the time when they were doing all that crazy immigration stuff,” recalls Dracmorda. “It really messed with immigration and our ability to bring international cast over.”

While this season’s cast does feature artists from around the world, Swanthula vows that we will still see those artists who were denied the ability to compete this season. “We had another couple of other international competitors that really would have spun the alchemy in the direction that we intended. But we still got people from Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Costa Rica,” she shares, adding, “Those competitors are just locked and loaded for the next season.”

If anything, the restrictions around season seven have the Boulets doubling down on the importance of Dragula remaining a space outside the mainstream. “Our show’s network isn’t owned by Skydance, so we don’t have to worry too much about it yet, right?” jokes Dracmorda. “Thank God AMC is an independent network. One of the last ones, so I’m thankful for that.”

Their choice to lean into the ’80s horror aesthetic also creates an uncanny historical resonance, recalling an era when horror was treated as dangerous and the so-called “video nasties” required censorship lest they corrupt viewers’ minds. This desire to suppress provocative art was unsuccessful and, if anything, helped cement many of these films as cult classics. The chilling effects of that era’s censorship, which the Boulets will no doubt reference, can’t help but be reflected in the current political climate’s impact on queer art and expression, especially art as uncompromising and intentionally subversive as that of the Boulets and their monsters.

It’s something Dracmorda sees as both historical and ahistorical. “This is such uncharted territory for our society,” she says. “Between the influence of social media and AI and the levels of corruption that are happening in the government right now, it’s mind blowing and it makes you see how Nazi Germany, for example, controlled [its] population. The citizens weren’t Nazis, they weren’t sitting there like, ‘yeah we love this idea,’ they were just getting dragged along the way with these crazy people that took over their government and I feel like we’re in a similar situation now. In the past, I think you know oppression caused people to make powerful, controversial queer art.”

The Boulets intend to do just that. They are 10 years into this revelatory project, and they aren’t slowing down now. When asked what the next 10 years might look like for the duo, Dracmorda answers with her typical wry humor. “Hopefully, in 20 years, we’ll be hosting via our AI clone robot, whatever the hell, synthezoid, and we don’t have to get dragged for it. So we’ll see.”

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula returns for season seven Oct. 27 on Shudder. Check out the trailer below.