Dara Van Dusen on Her Passion for ‘A Prayer for the Dying’: “My Brain Was on Fire”

One movie we did not get to cover on the latest CinemAddicts episode was A Prayer for the Dying, a drama headlined by Johnny Flynn, John C. Reilly, and Kristine Kujath Thorp. I’m assuming co-host Eric Holmes forgot he had seen the movie when we taped last week, and that is also why his interview with filmmaker Dara Van Dusen is running a day late (and a dollar short!). The feature is now playing in theaters via Quiver Distribution, and check out Eric’s full interview with Van Dusen in our post.

Read more: Dara Van Dusen on Her Passion for ‘A Prayer for the Dying’: “My Brain Was on Fire”

A Prayer for the Dying centers on Jacob Hansen (Johnny Flynn), a Civil War vet who aims for a new life in Friendship, Wisconsin. Acing as the town’s sheriff, clergyman, and mortician, Jacob has a ton of responsibilities. When a plague hits the area, Jacob does whatever it takes to protect his community.

The feature is based on Stewart O’Nan’s novel of the same name which came out in 1999.  ”Kind of by accident, my father handed me this book in an English language bookstore and said, ‘You should read this,’ said Dara Van Dusenh, . “Little did I know that it would consume my life for 20 years after that moment. But I read it in one sitting, and it just completely overwhelmed me, and it shocked me.”

Reading A Prayer Before Dying certainly put the filmmaker in a state. “I remember putting it down, and I was wandering around,” said Van Dusen. “I just couldn’t understand what had happened. It was such a visceral, strange experience of reading just words on paper. And I felt like my brain was on fire.”

The impact went beyond being captivated by a good story. O’Nan’s novel left Van Dusen examining her own beliefs, and that experience sparked her desire to bring it to the silver screen.

“There were unanswered questions, and there were things that made me think about myself, my own beliefs, about the big questions, ego, faith, and morality,” said Van Dusen, who made her feature directing debut with A Prayer Before Dying. “And as a 19-year-old at the time, it was just overwhelming that something so short and brief could do that to me. And I thought how amazing if a film could do that.”

Van Dusen emailed O’Nan, expressing admiration for his book. That initial exchange developed into years of conversations and a friendship that helped sustain her through the adaptation.

“He’s not only, like, my favorite author who wrote the best book ever, but he’s an unbelievable supporter, cheerleader, and friend now,” said Van Dusen. “And I’m just grateful that he was by my side the entire time.”

Keeping the novel’s core intact remained a priority. The film’s camera work, colors, and visual style offered Van Dusen a way to express what the book made her feel all those years earlier.

“I think they’re very much in line with the experience I had as a reader of it,” she added. “And I hope that other readers feel the same.”

Watch CinemAddicts co-host Eric Holmes’ interview with Dara Van Dusen below.

A Prayer for the Dying is now playing in theaters.

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***We review Deathgasm II: Goremageddeon and Once Upon a Time in the Middle East on the latest CinemAddicts episode: