Critical darlings at the Sundance Film Festival and winners of the Grand Jury Award at the Atlanta Film Festival for their first feature, “Greener Grass,” actors, writers, producers, and directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe are primed to break out in the industry in a grand fashion. The comedians, both alumna of the prestigious Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Theatre, have redefined the suburban satire subgenre in an audacious, unique, and immoderately imaginative fashion.

On the cusp of the theatrical release of “Greener Grass,” I spoke with the budding filmmakers about their personal and creative inspirations for the story, utilizing their UCB background at the helm, hybridizing comedy and horror, and more.

You two have managed to create a suburban satire that boldly separates itself from the rest of the subgenre. How did you conceive of this unique concept?

DeBoer: Oh, what a nice compliment in that question. Thank you.

Luebbe: Perhaps you know that “Greener Grass” started out as a short film that Jocelyn and I made back in 2015. And that was the first thing we made together. We had known each other and worked together on a sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade for about four years before that. And one thing that Jocelyn and I were always drawn to and interested in exploring on that sketch group and then with the short film [was] the drama of domesticity and drama of the mundane. We both grew up as middle children in the midwestern suburbs. We really drew from similar backgrounds and points of inspiration in the short. With the feature, we really wanted to expand on that, and in particular, this theme of politeness taken to the extreme and also, identity and people seeking identity in their exterior and the environment around them rather than from [inside].

Read the rest of the interview at The Playlist.