Rod Blackhurst is a filmmaker, director, and producer whose work spans documentary, narrative, and horror.

He made his narrative feature debut with Here Alone, winner of the Audience Award at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, and later returned to Tribeca with Blood for Dust (2023), starring Scoot McNairy and Kit Harington. He also co-directed and produced the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Amanda Knox. He also co-created The White Room, a Blood List script later acquired by Amblin, and co-wrote the story for Blumhouse’s Night Swim, which grew out of the 2014 short film he made with Bryce McGuire. Rod also directed and served as showrunner for Peacock’s John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise and directed on National Geographic’s Welcome to Earth with Will Smith.

His latest film, Dolly, is a beautifully shot 16mm slasher that evokes the grime and menace of early horror classics while carving out its own identity. In this episode, Rod and I talk about his path into filmmaking, the realities of getting indie films made, and the making of Dolly. Please enjoy this conversation with Rod Blackhurst.

Key Takeaways

Wear your influences openly, but metabolize and integrate them.

Rod talks about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a major influence, and it is really clear when you see the movie, but he is careful not to recreate it in a way that feels like blatant homage. The useful principle is that inspiration works best when it is absorbed into the DNA of the film and filmmaker rather than pasted on top of it as a wink. As a result, the movie feels like it takes place in the same world as these influences instead of attempting to overtly acknowledge or recreate them, which can take viewers out of the movie.

Investor trust is built with transparency.

Rod is one of the most financially responsible filmmakers I have spoken to. His financing advice is unusually concrete. He informs investors how the equity works, how they might recoup, what the timeline is, and acknowledges the very real risk that they could lose all their money. He also shows prior accounting and distribution sheets to demonstrate his own personal track record, treating his career like a business, which it is. That mindset treats filmmaking as entrepreneurship, not just art, and it is one of the most practical pieces of advice in the conversation.

Cast the person who can give the monster a soul.

Rod found Max the Impaler through wrestling and quickly realized he had found more than a physical presence. Max’s background as a largely nonverbal performance artist made them perfect to play Dolly, the slasher, and their emotional investment transformed the character into something much richer than what was on the page. Think about David Howard Thornton and Doug Jones. A monster is not just a costume and makeup job; it comes down to the soul of the performer.

Show Notes

Movies Mentioned

• Dolly
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
• The Evil Dead
• Blood for Dust
• Snow White (1937/1938 animated film)
• The Vanishing
• High Tension
• Martyrs
• Barbarian
• Night Swim
• Undertone
• It (via the Bill Skarsgård / Pennywise discussion)
• Castle in the Sky
• The Iron Giant
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Project Hail Mary
• Marty Supreme
• Backrooms
• Obsession
• Here Alone

Follow Rod Blackhurst at:

• IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2060444/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rodblackhurst/
• X (Twitter): https://x.com/rodblackhurst
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/rodblackhurst
• Website: https://www.rodblackhurst.com/