Key of Bones: Curse of the Ghost Pirate needed a drag queen to get possessed by a pirate ghost in a Key West nightclub. They found one suprisingly easily. She had been working at that nightclub since 2008. That is either a very lucky casting choice or the universe doing its job.
Jessica T Deveraux is not a newcomer to any room she walks into. She has been competing in drag pageants across multiple states since she was 14. She held the title of Queen Mother XXXV, one of the most respected titles in the Florida Keys. She has been a resident headliner at Aqua Nightclub since 2008.
“When the opportunity came up, I was super excited, but also super nervous,” Deveraux said. “I was excited because it was something I’d always wanted to do. And nervous because I had never done it before. I had no idea what to expect.”
She said yes anyway. The film now exists.
What the Film Actually Is
Key of Bones: Curse of the Ghost Pirate is a horror-comedy written and directed by Tony Armer, shot entirely in Key West. The plot follows a local waitress, a ghost tour guide, and a tourist who accidentally awaken a curse connected to the legendary pirate Anne Bonny. What follows involves drag queens, lesbian pirate ghosts, and cursed treasure, which is either an accurate description of any given Saturday in Key West or the most efficient logline of the year.
Armer pitched it as Shaun of the Dead meets Goonies meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Deveraux confirmed that is the pitch she received. She also confirmed it did not fully prepare her. “As much as you think you’re prepared for that,” she said, “until you actually walk on set and see what’s happening, or watch the movie and see what’s happening, anything you might have prepared goes out the window and you just have to feed off the energy of the moment.”
Desiree
The character is Desiree, a drag queen who gets possessed midway through the film by one of the pirate ghosts and spends a substantial chunk of screen time fighting herself. “Desiree is kind of a take-charge drag queen who gets possessed and loses her own faculties and is now controlled by a ghost pirate,” Deveraux said. “So there’s this inner struggle with her having to follow orders while still trying to be the fierce queen that she is.”
The scene where Desiree first encounters Anne, the pirate ghost, was filmed at Aqua Nightclub. The bar where Deveraux has performed every week for going on eighteen years. “One of the most exciting scenes was when Desiree first meets Anne. That scene was filmed at the bar that I work at, Aqua Nightclub. So that was really cool to see my home bar become the set.”
The Chaos Was Organized
Deveraux describes the set with real fondness. “You’d have people over here rehearsing stunts, people over here getting their makeup done, people over there shooting an actual scene, while other people were at craft services. But everybody was so professional that it all ran very smoothly.”
There were exceptions. Night shoots in Key West require quiet. Key West is structurally opposed to quiet. “One of the most chaotic moments was when we were trying to film at night and we needed quiet on the set, and you had two different bars in the area playing different songs very loudly.” Two bars. Two songs. Simultaneously. The city did not pause production to cooperate with production.
She also arrived without knowing about hurry-up-and-wait, which is the specific misery of film sets where you spend long stretches fully ready while nothing happens. Deveraux was in full drag during these stretches. “When you’re in full drag in five pairs of tights and wearing a body form, that can become very uncomfortable. But that’s the nature of the beast, and I’ll know what to expect in the future.”
There is also something film does that a stage never does, it withholds the response. “When you perform for a live crowd, you know if they’re enjoying what you’ve done or not enjoying what you’ve done almost instantaneously, and you can feed off of that energy to heighten the experience. In film, you don’t really know. You have to wait months to find out if the audience actually enjoys the performance.”
The Eighteen-Year Overnight
Jessica T Deveraux started performing at 14. A performing arts high school, an LGBT youth center down the road, and a drag pageant that needed entrants. She entered with help from some of the more seasoned queens around her. She won. She kept going.
Fifteen-plus years of pageant competition across multiple states. What do people on the outside not understand about that world? “To be successful in pageants, you need to have discipline, you need to have drive, you need to have desire, and you need to know who you are. It also helps if you have some money.” She laughed. “Pageants can be expensive. But they can be so rewarding, and they truly help you grow not just as an entertainer but as a person.”
The Aqua residency has now run for going on eighteen years. That is an unusual thing in an industry that usually offers neither consistency nor loyalty. “I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity to work at Aqua Nightclub. It is very nice to have a consistent weekly gig for going on eighteen years, and I know that I’m very lucky and grateful for all of the love, work, and family that I have because of it.”
As Queen Mother XXXV, she produced a runway competition benefiting the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of the Florida Keys. “Not only was it one of the most respected titles in Key West, but it also allowed me the chance to give back.”
The Kinship
Drag and horror share a history. Camp, transformation, the performance of something larger and stranger than ordinary life. Both traditions have been running these ideas in parallel for decades. Deveraux came to Key of Bones from the drag side, and while talking about that overlap she surfaced something she had not put together before: one of her all-time favorite movies, a film she has always loved to quote, is The Craft. The horror-drag kinship had been living in her personal canon the whole time.
“There is definitely a kinship between the two worlds,” she said. “However, as someone who is new to the horror scene and not knowing what to expect, I did feel an ease being able to go into it having had the drag experience.”
“Drag queens are some of the strongest people, and we’ve been here since day one and we’re not going anywhere. Drag queens are community leaders. We will be there to help support our community and any community that asks us.”
Both horror audiences and drag audiences built themselves around things the mainstream spent decades looking at sideways. They know each other.
What Comes Next
Deveraux was asked if Key of Bones was a one-time thing or the beginning of something. “I would definitely love to do more film or television. This is definitely not a one and done thing for me. And my inbox is open, casting directors. Please message me.”
She was also asked whether she would take a straight horror role. No camp. No comedy. Just terror. “I would definitely take it. However, I would have to do some research on how to play it straight.” Then: “After the amount of fun I had on set for Key of Bones, I can only imagine what running in terror versus sashaying in terror would be like.”
“I want people to see my range as a performer. That I can act as well as dance. To see someone who loves and has passion in all that they do.”