In the new horror movie DEVON, Devon's parents never stopped searching for answers after her disappearance from a notorious asylum. Years after the incident, a mysterious website draws five adventurers to the abandoned asylum where she was last seen.
Armed with cameras, they plunge into the darkness, unaware they’re filming their own descent into horror - never meant to return.
Jersey Shore star and reality TV icon Jenni "JWoww" Farley writes, directs, and executive produces the movie which is now available on Digital. A lifelong horror fan, Jenni makes an impressive debut with this found footage horror movie set in an abandoned asylum.
We got to sit down for a conversation with Jenni earlier this week and learned more about what inspired her to make her own horror movie, how The Blair Witch Project inspired DEVON, the challenges of finding the right cast, and how she mastered the art of the jump scare as a filmmaker.
You can check out the full interview with JWoww below.
I know a lot of people will know you from the huge impact you had on reality TV, but what inspired you to join the world of horror as a writer, director, and producer?
I really think it came down to wanting to officially grow up. Since I was a kid, I used to steal my dad’s Betamaxes and watch all my dad’s classic 70s and 80s horror films. They always resonated with me in a way that other genres just couldn’t. I always said, ‘If I ever grow up, I want to make one of my own…’ So I took a tiny budget in 2020 during the height of COVID and I decided to finally make one but with no intention of you guys ever seeing. No intention of selling it, just doing it to do it. Then I went on a podcast and someone said, ‘You really need to sell it.’
I thought about it and I’m still so nervous about tomorrow because I can handle people talking badly about me. I’ve been on reality TV for 15 years. I’ve done it all, you’ve seen it all from me, but there’s something to heart about when you’re putting your art out there into the world to get judged that…it’s very humbling. It’s scary that I’m taking something I created for me and I’m showing it off to the world. It’s something I’ve wanted to do so badly in life.
I think horror fans will love this because found footage movies like The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity always find an audience because of their realism. Why did you take DEVON down that route? Was it budgetary or because it’s part of the genre you really enjoy?
It’s all of the above. For my first one, I didn’t want to do a large budget. I wanted to pay for everything. I wanted to write it and didn’t want to apply for tax credits. I truly wanted to do this as my passion project and because of that, I needed to do something that I know and I know reality TV and I know how to shoot that point of view. Even though found footage isn’t necessarily reality, we shoot the same way. You shoot and you go so I made a very loose script and based a lot of it on the cast’s emotions in real time. You see that with Harley and especially William…he would be an absolutely phenomenal reality TV star because he was so quick with it.
I really wanted to shoot in the most natural way and, in 2011 and 2012, I went to that asylum on Snooki & JWoww and said to myself, ‘If I ever grow up and make a horror film, this would be my first place.’ I thought because of the location, Jersey Shore, and how I knew how to film, I knew that found footage was the way to do it. To tell the story. I’m also obsessed with psychological thrillers. I think that’s what made Blair Witch and Paranormal; there was nothing schticky or slasher or violent about those movies. It was all mentally terrifying. Those are the movies that I resonate the most with and I also actually love the fact it was so low budget because low budget means you have to have all hands on deck to figure out the best way to make something scary without spending the money.
A big part of what makes DEVON feel so real is the cast you have. In terms of finding them and the right people to bring to life the character you created on the page, how challenging was that during the COVID era we were in?
That was the most challenging part, a) because of COVID. I went on a casting website and thought they’d look at me like, ‘Wait, you’re JWoww from Jersey Shore, what do you know about directing?’ For them to trust me…I took a bunch of small scripts and I would send them out and have them do little takes of it and send it back. ‘Play a mom that just lost her child’ or ‘Play someone that was just in recovery.’ We narrowed it down to those five, but you mentioned that, and I went to Pennsylvania and showed up on set like, ‘What if somebody doesn’t show? What if they believe this isn’t real because it’s not JWoww’s film? What if they don’t feel like coming?’ They were coming from Florida, Atlanta, New York, and when they all showed, that was the most jaw-dropping moment. They really trusted me and showed up.
Something I think horror fans will really dig is the great jump scares. I won’t spoil anything, but it’s an edge-of-your-seat film; as a filmmaker here, what was your secret to crafting such effective jump scares? Even experienced horror directors struggle with that.
The natural setting. That is something I really think you can’t fake and that’s where me being in reality TV for 15 years helped. Creating a natural setting. All the jump scares you see were naturally provoked using what we had. The dark lighting or the no light. The fact it was dead silent but then you could hear that noise off into the distance. I didn’t tell them what was to come and didn’t give them the next page of the script. I wanted to keep them in the moment and never told them about how the story unfolds.
Even when they watched it on Friday at the premiere, none of the cast knew except for the ones that needed to know. Even my editors and producers didn’t know because I wanted to keep everything hidden. That’s what reality TV is, right? There’s something about a natural reaction that acting can’t be. That was something which was beautifully done with Blair Witch and how they sprinkled those breadcrumbs along the way and along the trail physically. It was about never giving the cast too much story because they wanted natural reactions and that’s where I find, if you don’t have money, you can get a great natural reaction [Laughs] out of somebody.
DEVON will be Available on Digital on November 12.