Fantasia 2023: Booger writer-director Mary Dauterman on wrangling cats, grief, and “The Piña Colada Song”

Booger Interview – Mary Dauterman

During the world premiere of Booger at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, audience members were handed barf bags as they entered the theatre. While they apparently went unused (as far as we know), Mary Dauterman’s feature debut definitely has some stomach-churning scenes, alongside moments of genuine tenderness and off-kilter cringe comedy.

Booger centers around Anna (Grace Glowicki) who is mourning the loss of her best friend Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin). While her life is beginning to fall apart all around her, Izzy’s cat Booger escapes from Anna’s Brooklyn apartment, leading Anna on a frantic search through her neighborhoud to find her dead friend’s beloved cat. But as Anna moves through the city and reflects back on their close friendship, she begins undergoing a mysterious physical transformation that includes coughing up hairballs and a burning desire for cat food.

A thoughtful and sincere look at the bonds of female friendship set within a full-throated horror film, Booger is a unique tone-hopping experience that sets up Mary Dauterman as an exciting new voice within the genre.

We caught up with Mary Dauterman following the film’s world premiere at Fantasia to discuss directing cats, the horror films that inspired Booger, and how the ’70s pop hit “The Piña Colada Song” unexpectedly ties the whole film together.

Booger Origins

Bad Feeling Mag: How did Booger come about?

Mary Dauterman: It’s kind of funny. I started off writing what I thought was just going to be a pretty typical body horror, kind of like a contemporary Brooklyn female version of An American Werewolf in London or something. And I had a lot of ideas around that and the transformation and the horror elements.

And then New York went into lockdown. And I was writing the story during the heart of the pandemic, definitely feeling very isolated and alone. While I was feeling all of these things, it just kind of made sense that it became a story about loss and grief, because of what I was going through, and also it gave the entire transformation so much more meaning. It really did need that emotional component.

Balancing the Film’s Tones

Bad Feeling Mag: How did you settle on the tone for the film? Was that balance of the comedy and horror elements all in the script, or did it evolve in the editing?

Mary Dauterman: I think it was in all of it. The script made sense to me tonally, but then sharing it with my editor and different producers, people were kind of like, “I’m curious how you’re going to pull it off.”

I remember my editor was a little bit worried. But I feel like a lot of the tonal shifts to me were —  as long as we’re always following Anna, and we’re always seeing the world through her lens, there will be meaning and logic behind this. And it’s not just like, now we’re randomly disgusting. It’s based on her feelings.

And the comedy was something I wanted to be part of it as well. A lot of it is kind of cringe comedy situational, getting her into these spaces. But a lot of it also came from the actors, I cast a lot of comedians. And I cast a lot of people who I just think are funny, and kind of understand my sense of humor. So while we were shooting, everyone would kind of be like, “There’s somewhere to go here that’s funnier than you would think.” So I would say that’s partially setting up the right scenario in the script, but also just the performers knowing where to take it and knowing what will make me laugh, which was great.

Hausu, Raw, and the Fly Inspired the Film

Bad Feeling Mag: Were there any films you showed the cast and crew as touchstones for what you were going for tonally or emotionally?

Mary Dauterman: Yeah, it’s funny because my crew who I’ve worked with for a long time know me and know the stuff I love. I’m constantly talking about Hausu, the Japanese horror film, and I love showing visual references to that. It’s obviously not the same tone in any way but it is one of the most important cat movies.

I talked about Raw a lot, because I think that horror movie has a lot of humor in it. I don’t think that’s what people really remember about that movie, but I think it’s so funny. And then the other movie we were talking about a lot is The Fly. Just because the themes of that movie are devastating. It’s very sad as a story about this couple that can never be together because he’s turning into goo. But the story is so sad, and the scenario is so funny. And the physicality is funny. I think Grace’s physicality [in the film] is pretty scary and vulgar, but I think giving it that playfulness was a really nice way to kind of bridge the idea of the question of: Is this hilarious? Or is this upsetting?

Bad Feeling Mag: Were you ever playing with the idea of whether this is all happening in Grace’s mind?

Mary Dauterman: Yeah, I definitely did a pass on the script both ways. And in my mind, I know my interpretation of it now. But I do like leaving it open to audiences because I think you’ll have a different experience with the movie based on what you want to see, which I think is cool.

Bad Feeling Mag: What was it like capturing the cat acting?

I recently saw a Q&A with Kelly Reichert, and she said that cats are the hardest animal she’s ever worked with. And she’s obviously worked with every animal and I felt so vindicated. I was like, okay, it wasn’t just me, this is just the worst animal to have ever picked. But I had worked with cats a little bit in commercials and had an understanding that they just require patience, you don’t really know what they’re going to do, and that it was going to be a wildcard.

But I also knew my own cat could do certain things. He bites so much, so he was the biter, of course. And he’s in all of the flashback videos with the friends. And then we hired a professional cat to do anything outside because my cat does not travel well. But there were a couple of scenes where I was like, okay, I am pretty sure we can get a cat to walk across a room, and then that took three hours or it just never happened. So I definitely learned a lot.

Why Every Film Should Have an Animal On Set

But it’s very fun to have any animal on set. I feel like it’s really fun for everybody. But it also was really frustrating in the context of an indie film where you only have so much time. Every moment is really important, which makes that process more stressful than it might be on a bigger production.

Do You Like Piña Coladas?

Bad Feeling Mag: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about how you got “The Piña Colada Song” song in the movie.

Mary Dauterman: It is crazy to get a song this big for a movie this small. So, what happened was, I always had a karaoke song in the movie, and I always had that kind of being a touchstone for the friends. I didn’t know what it was going to be, I had a lot of ideas. And then when it came down to like, okay, here’s how to license a song, that started getting terrifying.

And I was talking to a friend who was asking, “How’s the film going? How’s casting going?” And I was like, casting is amazing, I feel so good about that, but I don’t have a karaoke song. This is what is driving me insane. And he was like, “Well, one of my best friend’s dad wrote “The Piña Colada Song.” And he connected me and my producer.

And it turns out Rupert Holmes is super cool. He loves independent film, his son is a screenwriter. And he was very happy to support the film and let us use this song. And also have different artists make covers of it. It was really one of those magical moments, I was like, I can’t believe this is happening. And I think it works perfectly. It’s such a funny, silly song. And I think the way that we were able to figure out how to use it in the edit to both be this representation of this fun special friendship and also make it devastating was something I’m really proud of.

Bad Feeling Mag: Do you have any word on when people will be able to see Booger next?

Mary Dauterman: Well, we just signed with a sales agent after Fantasia. So we’re kind of figuring out where the US Premiere will be, hopefully sometime this year. I hope it’s available for as many people who love cats and weird shit to see.