You don’t often find a ballsy New Orleans mob queen battling it out with an arch-nemesis named Poodles in queer cinema. Add some drag queen eyelashes, plenty of gore, and big splashes of noir, and Big Easy Queens has the makings of the sassiest queer horror film around.

Director Erynn Dalton (The Gravedigger, American Cryptid) wanted it that way. The new indie film, written by Robert Leleux, recently won the Audience Award at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival, a great nod to Big Easy Queens’ campy noir vibe. Relish the plot: After Mob Queen of the Quarter Minnie Bouvèé/Ms. Bouvèé puts a hit out on the crew of her arch-nemesis Poodles Makenzie, she’s ready for the blowback. Lurking behind the scenes is an eerie, masked figure, who leaves behind frightful notes and gardenias. Things take a curious turn when Ms. Bouvèé’s estranged sister — the gal who stole her man so long ago — suddenly reappears in her life. The plot thickens.

Big Easy Queens stars Eric Swanson (Miss Bouvèé), Benjamin Shaevitz, Jennifer McClain, Alexander Zenoz, Varla Jean Merman, and Matthew Darren. It’s indie filmmaking at its most entertaining. But there’s a deeper layer to this endeavor, one that’s as bold as it is a quasi-pushback to Florida’s much-reported discrimination efforts. Director Erynn Dalton and star Eric Swanson opened up with MovieWeb in this exclusive interview.

The Story Behind a Queer Horror Romp
Big Easy Queens

Erynn Dalton came across Big Easy Queens serendipitously. She’d been at the helm of a horror theater space near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and she often rented the space to LGBTQ+ theater producers. Eric Swanson, who had been performing as Miss Bouvèé for several years, and writer Robert Leleux approached Dalton with the script. Dalton immediately realized it was a chance to combine her love of horror films, and to also honor the LGBTQ+ community, which was becoming a very large part of her support in South Florida.

“All of our producers for the film are from Wilton Manors, Florida, for the most part, and a wonderful cadre of gay men who supported this film,” Dalton shared, continuing:

“And I must mention that while we were doing all of this, Gov. Ron DeSantis was passing all the anti-drag laws and ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws. And that just made us even more determined to tell this story and get this done in the state of Florida. Just to prove that, you know, we’re still here and that’s not representative of all of Florida.”

The filmmaker succeeds on that front. Big Easy Queens has the makings of a cult classic. Breezy yet bold, it manages to nicely balance all the campy frills with surprisingly effective gore and horror. Music, too. Audiences will appreciate the drag performances here in the queens’ clubs and elsewhere. As the main story unfolds, Miss Bouvèé, Poodles (Jennifer McClain in a powerful turn), and Mimi Bouvèé-Truve (Benjamin Shaevitz in a commanding performance) must come to terms with their own past. And maybe fend off some tripped-out zombie madness.

Related: 7 Iconic LGBTQ+ Characters from Horror Movies

To be sure, Erynn Dalton wanted the film to make an imprint. “I wanted people to know that it’s still possible to make film that is original and goes in different, unexpected places that’s not necessarily based on previous IP,” she said. “I think we’re seeing a lot of that coming from the big studios.”

The biggest impacts for indie films right now are horror films. We wanted a horror movie, but to also weave in other genres like musicals and noir and combine those things to create something people haven’t really experienced before.

Miss Bouvèé Needed to Be in the Spotlight
Big Easy Queens

Big Easy Queens has been nailing it at film festivals around the country. Setting the story in the spooky underworld of New Orleans, the film is a unique brand of queer horror with original musical numbers, voodoo, zombies, drag queens, and, as the filmmaker notes, “campy neo-giallo delight soaked in blood, gristle, and glitter.”

For Eric Swanson, who so perfectly embodies Miss Bouvèé, the film role was an opportunity of a lifetime. The star had been performing as Miss Bouvèé since 2020. During the pandemic shutdown, he continued finding “her” voice, and began doing live-streaming once a week. Swanson explained:

“People would just sign on to my Facebook Live and I would take song requests and just tell funny jokes. I did that for 16 weeks and it actually helped me. When all you’re doing is talking to a screen like this and reading comments, you have to be on your feet. I really thank the pandemic. It was the pandemic pivot that made Miss Bouvèé rise from the ashes of that.”

He moved to South Florida in fall of 2020 and found a home in the cabaret circuit there. Then Robert Leleux helped him refine the character. “He had interviewed for another movie. I won’t say for what network, but it was a major network, and he didn’t get it, and he sort of stormed out of the room and poured himself a glass of wine, and came up to me and he goes, ‘Miss Bouvèé should do a movie.’ And I just thought he was ludicrous because I’m a Broadway baby, and he put his money where his mouth was, and he wrote this amazing script and pushed me to connect the dots.

“It was as if too many things aligned very quickly, including the money, including the investors, including the motivation to be sort of anti-DeSantis with all the anti-drag laws coming in,” he added. “There were just all these things happening, and I couldn’t say no.”

Related: The Best New Orleans Movies, Ranked

One of the main things Dalton and Swanson wanted was to create a story with strong queer characters, something that wasn’t rooted in trauma.

“I think a lot of times queer stories are told because of being thrown out of your house because your parents disowned you or coming-out and coming-of-age stories. Not that those aren’t valid stories,” he said, elaborating:

“We all have them especially as queer people, but we really set out to lead in a genre that had strong queer characters in positions of power and in elements of love. Without question, this was a normalcy for them. And in essence, to mainstream it in a way that made it feel like you weren’t watching a traumatic story. And that’s really what I think we accomplished.”

For the Love of Queer Fear

Erynn Dalton was quick to praise the entire cast of the film, which also features iconic drag performer Varla Jean Merman in a unique role. She noted the dedication of the performers and noted that some days of shooting were to about 14 hours. “It was really an embarrassment of riches, to be honest,” she said of the talent.

“I mean, to be a director and really have these world-class performers coming on set who also wanted to learn filmmaking, was great. I know Eric in particular was very concerned about, being ‘too big.’ So we had lots of rehearsals beforehand and [made] sure everybody felt comfortable and prepared.”

Looking ahead, Swanson has a big hope for the movie. “We want to develop the camp culture of this film,” he said. “Some people are walking away thinking, ‘This can be a midnight film showing. This is the next Rocky Horror. I want to dress up. I want to come dressed as Poodles with my Poodles cane and watch this movie and have a party.’

“That’s great,” he added, “and we’re being sensitive to the Florida circuit. So, we’re playing Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival where we’re doing OutShine, which is the big queer festival here. And then we’re opening the Tampa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival [Oct.5-8]. It’s exciting.”

Big Easy Queens is currently making the rounds at film festivals and will expand to broader release in the future. You can download the original motion picture soundtrack on all streaming platforms, and learn more about the film and upcoming screenings here.