Drag Race‘s fiercest lip sync assassin, Laganja Estranja, is no stranger to giving an audience a gag, and this Halloween, she’s ready to give them a few screams, too.

The beloved drag queen is heading back out on the road for Night of the Living Drag, a tour with a decidedly campy twist. The show drops queens into an ’80s slasher-movie-inspired world where every camper has a story and, potentially, a gruesome fate. With Violet Chachki serving as camp counselor and a cast that includes Raja, Jaida Essence Hall, Nicole Paige Brooks and Salina EsTitties, Laganja says the eclectic lineup is part of what makes the show so exciting.

For Laganja, Halloween is a natural playground. A lifelong horror fan who spent several childhood Halloweens dressing as Dracula, she’s embracing the opportunity to step outside her usual aesthetic and explore the camp-couture world of Slayaway Camp. But, beneath the blood, camp and comedy is a deeply personal new chapter. Laganja has spent the past two and a half years working on Honoring Her, a documentary that began by following her journey through her first gender-affirming surgery and ultimately grew into something much bigger. The film became a tribute to the women who helped shape her, including her sister and her mother, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. It also brings together the stories of other trans women and explores what it means to honor the divine feminine within all of us.

Ahead of Night of the Living Drag, Laganja talks about surviving Camp Slayaway, working with such an eclectic group of queens, her love of horror, the drag icon she wishes she could resurrect for the show, and why Honoring Her may be the most meaningful artistic project she’s ever created.

You’re heading back out on the road with this Halloween spectacular. What can fans expect from this Camp Slayaway themed show?

I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I definitely think it’s going to be camp-centric, both in the classic sense of drag queen camp, but also in the sense of Jason and all of our favorite horror movies that rely on this camp atmosphere. What I can tell you is that each one of us is portraying a different camper. I don’t want to give away the full plot line of it, but each one of us is a camper. Violet Chachki is the lead counselor of all the campers, and you’re going to find out what happens to each of us through our different camp stories.

The concept is based on ’80s slasher movies and the queens meeting gruesome ends. What was your reaction when you heard the concept, and what drew you to want to perform on this tour?

I loved the concept. I thought it was brilliant and super fun and I immediately knew what I wanted my thing to be. Again, I don’t want to give it away, but I will say that I have an original song of mine, that if you think about it is something you would find often on campgrounds, so I knew immediately what I was going to do and how I was going to tie in my original art to the theme of the Slayaway Camp.

There’s something particularly delicious about putting drag queens into an ’80s slasher movie. If you were the final girl, what kind of character would she be?

I would stick true to my brand and say a stoner. I think stoners are often one of the first to go, but I think something that people don’t recognize about stoners is that we are incredibly intuitive and inventive. We make bongs out of apples. We’re able to be resourceful and work with what we have, and I think this narrative that a stoner is lazy, and high, and not really there, and dies first is so outdated, so I think in my dream world, the stoner would be the final survivor.

You mentioned Violet, and some of the other queens in the show are Jaida, and Raja and Nicole Paige Brooks. What makes this particular group of queens so much fun to perform with?

I think it’s a really unexpected and eclectic group. We’ve got the OG Raja Gemini in there, who I love and admire. And I think, again, bringing in another OG like Nicole Paige Brooks is so cool, and I’m so happy to see her get this opportunity. Then you’ve got, like me, who’s representing the middle seasons…and Violet, I think we’re like middle seasons. And then you’ve got Jaida Essence Hall and Salina EsTitties. I really think what’s cool is that in this cast in particular, we really represent sort of the grand scheme of Drag Race. I think often on these Voss tours it’s a lot of newer girls, which is amazing, and they absolutely deserve that recognition. But I think what’s really cool is we’re mixing some of the more established queens with the newer queens. Obviously, having Violet and Jaida, who won their seasons on this is huge. Having Salina off her Big Brother run is huge. I think it’s really cool because we’re all so different, and I think that’s really going to impact the show in a very meaningful way because you’re not going to see five people doing dips. You’re not going to see five people all singing live music. It’s really going to be so different because what we do is very different from one another.

How do you keep a Halloween production like this together when you’re dealing with costumes, and choreography, and comedy, and all the theatrical elements of the show?

It being Halloween doesn’t really change anything for us. As drag queens, this is what we do every single day of our lives. We have to be on top of costume and choreography, and I am very excited that we’re being joined by Philip and David, so we will have two dancers on the show as well. But this is something that we do on the daily. We have to be a, as what I like to call it, a Jackie of all trades, and be able to work in each one of these different areas as a queen. I think what makes it a bit more fun is that it is Halloween, so it’s going to be darker and spookier, and also because we’re adding the camp vibe. I don’t think you normally see drag queens in sort of Troop Beverly Hills couture, so it’s a different prompt. It’s something a bit out of my personal wheelhouse, but it’s exciting for me because I love to play with different characters, and I think it will be really fun to see how each of us interpret the prompt in our own unique ways.

Are you a fan of Halloween?

I love Halloween. I love horror movies. It’s my favorite genre.

What is your favorite Halloween costume?

I’ll be honest, I was Dracula as a kid for like at least three to four years in a row. In recent times I’ve loved being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. I know that those are quite different but I would say my favorite Halloween costumes, as an onlooker, are those that are creative or unexpected.

Recently I fell in love with this dancer named Raygun, who’s from Australia, and I’ve seen a lot of people recreated her last year for Halloween. I like those costumes that are a bit more obscure, that require you to be in on them, that aren’t so expected, like a Dracula or a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. I just tend to go for those because they are easier and because my whole life is dressing in costume, so by the time Halloween rolls around, I’m usually exhausted, and it’s usually like, “what’s something sexy I can wear that I can throw on a cape and put blood on top of?” That’s how I’ve approached Halloween the last couple of years. But I’m excited this year to have a project that’s really pulling me out of my comfort zone and putting me into something that I wouldn’t normally do for this amazing holiday.

If you could resurrect one legendary drag queen from history for one night to be in Night of the Living Drag, who would you want it to be?

I’m going to go with Tandi Aman Dupree. She is who my entrance from All Stars six was inspired by – her Wonder Woman [routine] where she dropped from the ceiling. I think I would’ve loved to have met her and to have worked with her. She was a fellow dancer and always was willing to give it her all to gag the audience, so I think she and I would’ve gotten along, and I would’ve loved to have learned from her.

What projects are up next for you besides Night of the Living Drag – because I know you have many projects in the works?

I do have many projects in the works, always. I think the one that I’m most passionate about is my documentary, Honoring Her. It’s been in production since, oh gosh 2024, so two and a half years now I’ve been working on this documentary.

And yesterday, I’m so excited, I finally got the first edit of our reel, which we’re going to be pitching to producers and networks. I’m really passionate about this project. It followed me specifically through my first gender-affirming surgery, but throughout the process, it became about so much more. I chose the title Honoring Her in the beginning as honoring her, the female, the divine feminine inside myself. But throughout the filming and process, I realized that it became also about honoring the women in my life who have helped me become the confident trans woman I am today, my sister being one of them, who took care of me after surgery for two weeks. And then eventually, of course, my mother, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year, very unexpectedly. So, as hard as it was, I did have cameras at her celebration of life and I think the film, like I said, has become so much less about me and my transition and more about honoring women in my life, and also this idea of the divine feminine that is in all of us, and honoring the her in all of us – and that’s why I did the documentary.

I knew from the very beginning that it was bigger than me. I like to think any sort of art project that I’m involved in is bigger than me. It’s why I became an artist; because my message is universal and I just want to be sort of the representation on stage that I never got to see as a kid, as a trans woman or as a cannabis activist, or as a drag queen. But I really do think that this documentary has the power to change so many lives, not just those in my community or other trans individuals, but for instance, the parents of trans individuals. My parents, especially when my mom was still here with us, are a huge part of the documentary, and they are so amazing, and I think that their courage and strength could really help a lot of other family members out there who are maybe struggling with a trans child themself or in relation to other families that have a trans child. And I also think it gives voice to so many other trans women. In the film is Gia Gunn. I’ve also got my friend Sydney from the Trans Wellness Center. I really wanted to amplify trans voices and create a project that could change the world. I know that sounds so cheesy, but that is truly my goal as an artist is to change the world, to make it more accepting, to make people feel like it’s okay to be weird and that they belong even if they are weird, much like myself.