Die Bully Die Directors Nathan Lacey & Nick Lacey on Revisiting Trauma Through a Horror Comedy Lens

The Curb

Die Bully Die is a short film built on the notion of retribution and exorcising the pain inflicted by a high-school bully. Actors and writers Matthew Backer & Drew Weston are directed by Nathan Lacey & Nick Lacey, and collectively they bring forth a horror comedy that shows in bloody fantasy sequences how a victim might just want to throw that pain back at their inflictor.

Die Bully Die was the winner of the Sydney Film Festival Dendy Award for Best Short Fiction, and is nominated for Best Short Film at the 2025 AACTA Awards. Nick and Nathan also received nominations for Best Direction in a Short Film at the Australian Directors Guild, while Nathan was nominated for Best Editing in Short Drama by the Australian Screen Editors, with cinematographer Patrick Coe nominated at Australian Cinematographers Society for Short Film Cinematography, and the sound team featuring Troy Mauri, Brendan Croxon, Cristobal Penailillo, and Jack Moiseyev, were honoured with a nomination at the Australian Screen Sound Guild.

In the following interview, Nathan and Nick talk about building a trauma informed horror comedy, what the collaborative process with actors and writers Matthew Backer & Drew Weston was like, how Gaspar Noe's style influenced the production, and a lot more.

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