Destry Allyn Spielberg on Crafting Dread and Humanity

Interview by J.L. Sirisuk

“I have a dark mind. I don’t know. It’s one of those feelings - horror, darker ideas, I think it’s an emotion that is hard to tap into in your day-to-day life, and I find it fascinating. ”

- Destry Allyn Spielberg

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Destry Allyn Spielberg’s debut feature Please Don’t Feed the Children hits like a quiet apocalypse - one that’s anchored not in gore, but existential dread. Shooting on an indie scale in just 18 days, Spielberg channels a lifetime of creative instinct from childhood equestrian discipline to spiritual awakenings behind the camera. Rather than mirroring horror standards, she internalizes the emotional residue of films like The Shining and Spirited Away, translating them into a psychological tapestry that’s as unsettling as it is humane.

In the film, Michelle Dockery plays a chilling maternal antagonist, surrounded by a cast of mostly fresh faces Spielberg deliberately chose to support emerging talent. The result is a performance-driven portrait of survival and betrayal in a world where only children roam. At Sitges Film Festival, and now streaming, Please Don’t Feed the Children invites viewers into a world that’s panoramic in its societal collapse, yet intimate in its emotional clarity.

We recently spoke with Spielberg, who reflects on how her discovery came not from ambition but instinct, how working with young actors inspired joy in creation, and why she’s compelled toward darkness. Beyond the name she carries, Destry Allyn Spielberg has found her own voice: a filmmaker drawn toward shadows, and determined to make them speak. She directs not with a need to impress, but with a willingness to surrender to mood, to silence, to the slow unspooling of something haunted and deeply human.

J.L. Sirisuk: I want to rewind a bit to childhood and some of your creative roots – the things that sparked creativity for you.

Destry Allyn Spielberg: Yeah, I was a horse girl growing up. I lived on kind of a farm and we had horses and lots of dogs and chickens. I would say, just the outdoors sparked creativity. I painted a lot, played outside with my friends. I didn’t grow up with social media, that came later, so we had to go outside for fun.

JLS: You mentioned horses. It’s fascinating because you once trained for the Olympics, and then things pivoted to the creative realm. The discipline to be an athlete is something else. Do you bring some of that to your creative work?

DAS: I definitely do. I’m glad that I grew up as an athlete because it taught me how to take direction. It also taught me how to give direction. I’m a visual person, so on top of getting direction on a horse, it was a lot of listening. And then teaching my nieces how to ride, I found it easier for me to give direction with more movement, and my body a little bit more visual. I definitely use that discipline in my work.

JLS: You previously tried writing and acting. How did you know directing was the next thing to try out?

DAS: I was going out on auditions for acting and I wasn’t booking anything, and so my friend and I wrote a short film and we made it. So I directed it because we couldn’t afford a director.

JLS: How was that first experience?

DAS: It was definitely spiritual because I stepped on set and immediately felt in my element. Even though it wasn’t really a career idea for my future, I felt like I had instincts that I didn’t realize I had. I grew up making movies with friends for fun. It was exhilarating. I was really soul searching for a passion after ending my writing career - that was a big moment for me where I realized I don’t actually want to be in front of the camera, I want to be behind it.

JLS: I think it’s beautiful you mention how it felt spiritual. Also, I’ve read that you were influenced by films like The Shining and Spirited Away. Have you taken anything from those inspirations and applied it towards your own filmmaking?

DAS: I think I’ve tried to take feelings that you feel after watching those movies and sort of how specific elements or scenes made you feel. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I try to take or replicate specific shots. I mean, you learn a lot from filmmakers. You learn from watching movies, but I think that I learn more from how I feel after watching a movie, and I always want to figure out how I can recreate that feeling with my own take.

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JLS: This brings me to your feature film. What drew you to the project? How did you connect with this team?

DAS: When I first got the script, I actually set it aside. I’d been told what it was about, and honestly, it didn’t feel like something I was interested in at the time. I was in this search for what my first feature film should be, and nothing had really clicked. Eventually, I read that one last, and something shifted. It just clicked. There was this instinctual feeling, like, “Yeah… this is the one.” It felt right. It was unexpected, it was challenging, and it felt different. That’s how I ended up meeting everyone involved.

JLS: And you made it in 18 days. Is there anything within that process of shooting in 18 days that surprised you that you didn’t think would end up in the film?

DAS: One of the toughest things about having a really short shoot schedule is when you’re in the editing room, you realize that the scene actually doesn’t work and you’re going to cut it, and then all you think back to is, “Oh, we could have had that entire day for something else.” But you can’t Monday quarterback that. I would say that searching for accidental rolling shots, I used some of those to create scenes, and just reorganizing the placement of where the scenes were in the script to make things work a little better.

JLS: And lots of fresh faces. How is it working with new talent?

DAS: Great. I love working with new talent. It brings me joy that they’re so excited to finally be doing something that they love in a very elevated setting. We’re all new to this, and I think that I relate to them as well. This is my first feature and it’s nice working with people who are also new to that world. You get to create an environment and a future together. It’s an exciting moment for everybody, and being able to share that with them was really nice.

JLS: After you shoot, edit, and it all comes together – how did it feel for you personally when you watched the completed film?

DAS: I’ve watched it so many times because you’re in the editing room, and so I think I’ve seen a million versions of it. The final version, I would definitely say that I was numb to it at first. I think it wasn’t until we went to the Sitges Film Festival that I really felt the excitement around it and how the audience would react - that’s why I really believe that movies do better in theaters because you get that experience with everybody around you. With this one, it’s streaming, so I do hope that when people watch it, they’ll watch it with friends so they can also get that experience.

JLS: And your next film is going to be a murder mystery?

DAS: Yeah, it’s a whodunit murder mystery.

JLS: What draws you to this darkness?

DAS: I know, right? I have a dark mind. I don’t know. It’s one of those feelings - horror, darker ideas, I think it’s an emotion that is hard to tap into in your day-to-day life, and I find it fascinating. A lot of dark emotions and dark ideas come from very deranged human psychology and that just interests me a lot. Hopefully it won’t drive me stir-crazy. I love anything dark. You also get to play with different elements within it. I think when a movie takes a really disturbing turn, you have to figure out how to work with each actor, the buildup, maybe tricking the audience, making it seem like it’s actually not going to go the direction they think. I enjoy playing with minds, if that makes sense.

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