Dakota Daulby talks about being a part of NEON’s hit horror film Longlegs, as well as co-writing and co-directing the upcoming short, Adjoining.
Dakota Daulby stars in Longlegs, the NEON horror film that is taking the world by storm, but he isn’t just an actor. He is co-directing a hororr short, titled Adjoining, with Harrison Houde, that has just been picked up by Screamfest and is set to premiere at the iconic TCL Chinese Theater.
We spoke with Dakota about both of these horror projects.
Dakota Daulby On His Recent Horror Projects
Tessa Smith: What does the reception that Longlegs has gotten feel like?
Dakota Daulby: I’m so happy for Oz Perkins, who wrote and directed the film. He’s obviously extremely talented. He’s done some great films in the past and it’s just good that he’s finally getting his breakout hit with Longlegs, it’s well deserved. But it’s weird, you do these movies and the scripts are cool. And you can see the vision on set, but you never know how people respond to it. So when people respond, and it blows up, and everybody messages you and says they’re watching it, and it’s like, Oh, neat, people actually go to movie theaters still and see films.
Tessa Smith: Let’s talk about your short Adjoining, because I have seen it, and it is fantastic.
Dakota Daulby: Adjoining as a film that myself, my creative partner, Harrison Houde, and Petey Beats from Popternative, we all made together through our companies. So Harrison myself have been making films for eight or nine years and Petey came to us through a mutual friend of ours and he had this crazy idea for a horror film that takes place in a motel.
It’s about a young woman who’s essentially a voyeur. She watches the people that stay there. And we just thought it was super interesting and creepy and he had a really cool, unique vision for it. So we all wrote the film together and produced it in Los Angeles. We filmed it with a company called Cineplex studios. And we actually just got accepted into Screamfest. So we’ll have our premiere in Los Angeles at the Chinese Theatre, so we’re pretty stoked about that.
Tessa Smith: The Chinese Theatre is iconic, what does that feel like?
Dakota Daulby: I mean, it’s iconic. It’s kind of surreal. We found out and called Peter, and he’s all just freaking out. Because, again, you put together these films, and you believe in the story, and you’re trying to make the best film possible. Then you just throw it out there in the world and you don’t know how people are going to respond. You believe in your material, of course, but you never know what people how they respond to it. So to have that be our first festival, that was our first submission. And our first response was for us to be accepted into an incredible festival like that. It’s an overwhelming experience. It’s a really, really happy experience.
Be sure to watch the full interview with Dakota Daulby to learn more about both Longlegs and Adjoining.
About Adjoining
Starring actress Brenna D’Amico, known for her work in the critically acclaimed Disney franchise Descendants, we can guarantee that audiences will watch Brenna shine in a way people have yet to see. Carter Glade joins our cast, from Blumhouse’s Freaky, and Sid Noelle who deliver equally terrifying performances.
Adjoining co-directors, Dakota Daulby and Harrison Houde, who brought the film to life, are no strangers to horror. As actors, both have starred in notable projects: Dakota alongside Maika Monroe in this year’s most anticipated horror film Longlegs, and Harrison in the 2018 film Summer of ’84 and Netflix’s Dead Boys Detectives series released in April of this year.
The film is shot by Andy Chen who has been making headlines with his short horror fan film The Spider starring The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs.
This is also an exciting time for executive producer Peter Roumeliotis as Popternative is officially branching out its production and content offerings with films under Popternative Pictures. Popternative is a global media outlet which features interviews, news, reviews and featured content from worlds of pop culture, lifestyle, music and more. Adjoining is one of 4 films part of the 2024-2025 slate for the newly established production company including the plane thriller In Flight starring Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernandez which officially got distribution from Gravitas Ventures.