Behind the Scenes

The production of the wraparound segments for Welcome to the Strange was defined not by a schedule, but by a heartbeat. The shoot took place just two weeks before Daryl’s wife, Kirsten Della, was due to give birth to their second son, Eli. Heavily pregnant and undaunted, Kirsten stepped in to anchor the segments alongside Daryl, transforming the production into a celebration of the studio’s next generation. It also marked the on-screen debut of their first son, Henry, then two years old. The set was a warm, chaotic family affair, with Henry filming his scenes first, playing amidst the props and costumes before being whisked away to spend the night with his grandparents, Hank and Nina.

Once the child was safely off set, the tone shifted to the "adult" portion of the night. The concept was a classic Simpsons Treehouse of Horror homage: a Halloween party hosted by Daryl (dressed as a Gladiator) and Kirsten that spirals into supernatural madness. The Loyalists arrived in full force and costume. Ray Revello appeared as a Wolfman, Becker Von Felsburg as a Skeleton, and Michael Martin arrived as Dracula, flanked by Brian Grima as a Pirate and Sinéad as a gender-swapped Freddy Krueger. In a running gag Chris Ross attempts to enter the party dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog, only to have the door slammed in his face by Daryl. Even the absent Mitch Martin, who was vacationing in Cabo San Lucas, made the final cut; a cell phone clip of him dancing around a stripper pole was ingeniously edited into the film to answer Becker’s query, "Where’s Mitch?"

The narrative arc of the wraparounds was ambitious for a single night’s shoot. Michael, sent to the garage to stash beer, discovers Lorenzo chained up in a gruesome Saw trap. Inside the house, a cursed book demands a soul to replace an ancient spirit. This spirit, played by Lori Carsillo, was the result of movie magic; she was filmed on an entirely different date, alone on a green screen, and composited into the party footage later—a testament to Daryl’s growing prowess in post-production. The night culminated in a sacrifice, with Ray and Becker offering themselves to the book to save Henry, and Lorenzo hacking off his own foot to escape the garage, sending the cast screaming as the credits rolled over the outtakes.

The "August Rush" had successfully banked the footage, but the post-production phase was a marathon. To meet the October premiere deadline, Daryl spent his own birthday on October 21st locked in the editing bay, stitching together the four short films and the complex wraparound narrative. It was a labor of love and exhaustion, driven by the desire to deliver a feature-length experience.

On October 25, 2018, the cast and crew descended on the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. In a show of solidarity, the group coordinated their attire, arriving dressed as Marvel characters—with the hilarious exception of Ray Revello, who inexplicably chose to attend as Snake Plissken from Escape from New York.

The film was dedicated to Henry T. Della ("Pa"), Daryl’s grandfather who had passed earlier that year, but the night was defined by the living ghost of his father, Hank Della. Throughout the screening, Hank made his displeasure vividly known. He scoffed audibly, made faces at the screen, and acted as though he hated the final product—a reaction likely fueled by lingering resentment over the changes to his script for Number Nine and the studio’s pivot toward outside writers.

After the credits rolled, the rejection turned personal. Hank refused to speak to Daryl, refused to take a celebratory photo, and maintained a cold, drunken distance. The night ended with a moment of profound, quiet realization on the sidewalk outside the theater. Daryl offered to help his parents secure a cab, but they refused. He stood there and watched them stumble off into the dark—his mother drunkenly dancing around the corner, his father stumbling after her without a single word of goodbye.

In that moment, Daryl felt a "Season Finale" click into place, but it was not a triumphant one. It was a tragedy. He realized with a heavy heart that the roles had permanently inverted; he was no longer looking at authority figures to emulate, but at two perpetual teenagers he could no longer save. He had built his own family with Kirsten and his sons, and his own creative family with Ray and Becker. He had outgrown the people who raised him, but the realization was devastating. Daryl couldn't have known how final that moment was; this would be the last premiere Hank Della would ever attend.