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Found footage horror. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you think it is its own genre or do you lump it in with its overarching tone – slasher, supernatural, monster, etc. Love it or hate it, the convention is here to stay, as it offers a realistic, relatable approach to horror that blurs the lines between reality, film, empathy, and voyeurism.
So, when I got an email asking if I wanted to screen the feature DEVON, written and directed by Jenni “JWoww” Farley, I said “of course I do!” My wife is a fan of “Jersey Shore” and has been since day one, so I mostly did it for her, but I was also very curious what the singular star would bring to the horror pantheon. The logline read:
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.
I got the chance to chat with writer/director/producer Jenni “JWoww” Farley about jumping into a feature-length film, the serendipitous location, and her crew.
Eric McClanahan: Hey, Jenni! How are you?
Jenni “JWoww” Farley: Good. Nervous.
EM: Nervous? Why are you nervous?
JJF: I feel like this is [me] kind of starting my career over. It’s a different world, a different element. I am a superfan of horror films; I have been since I was my kid’s age, when I used to steal my dad’s BetaMaxes and watch all the 80s and 70s horror films. But it’s very nerve-racking to know that I’ve turned being a fan into my small piece of art that’s being premiered tomorrow. You know, I’m criticized all day for being on reality TV but I think it’s different when you’re going to be criticized for how you view psychological thrillers. So, yeah, a little nerve-racking.
EM: So, is this your first film ever? Did you do a few short films first or just jump right in and make a feature-length movie?
JJF: You know, the best part is, and it’s on my Instagram so if you have it go look: I woke up February 8th of 2020, and my friend saved the text, when I woke up and texted my best friend “I think I want to make a horror film.” And he goes “You mean like a feature film? Like a full feature?” and I said “Yeah, I guess so, I think.” And I wanted him to say “You’re crazy” or “Let’s not do this” but he was all about it, too. He was like “Hell yes!” and I’m like “Alright, but I have no idea what I’m doing.” This is the first one, no shorts, no idea what to do, I just knew how I wanted the ending to be, I knew I wanted to shoot it very similar to Jersey Shore, kind of on the fly, I wanted a loose script, because I thought there was something beautiful about Pennhurst when I visited before, and natural surroundings can bring out the scariest parts rather than, you know, “mid frame, act, cut, here’s a wide, then over the shoulder…” No, I just wanted it to be on the fly, I wanted to give my crew, my cast, their own cameras to captivate their true feelings, and I loved it. It was the best week of my life.
EM: Well, that kind of answers one of my questions but I’d like to go a little further into it: did the location come first and the script came from that or did you write the script in a vacuum and found the location and knew it was perfect?
JJF: The location came from “Snookie and JWoww” back in 2011 or ‘12. We shot there, and I was a non-believer of the supernatural at that point, but I loved the landscape, the aesthetic of Pennhurst, I loved everything about it. And I said back then, if I was ever to make a horror film, this would be the location. I got the concept of “Okay, it’s an abandoned asylum; what happened in the asylum? Why did kids go missing in true form?” ‘Cause certain things like that happened in real life. And that’s when I started making the script, but the ending, as you saw, that was my starting point, then I needed to work backwards based on location. I decided to do it reality-based, because I know a ton of friends who sign up to bullshit all the time. I did, too! “Jersey Shore”: you signed up for it! It was like a casting call, so I’m like “let me put out a casting of five people looking to find a missing girl.” Because that’s what I did to get on the “Jersey Shore” back in 2007. Like you just sign up for things and you figure out if it’s real or if it’s not. So, I took a lot of elements out of my real life and put it into the film. Then I took a lot of elements of the physical place. I didn’t want it to be a slasher film, I didn’t want it to be schticky, I didn’t want it to be overproduced with a bunch of goblins and ghouls and demons. I wanted that natural area and that natural heart-racing moments based on just the tone of the building, and it worked out, thank God. It could’ve went the other way.
EM: I noticed the script has a lot of meditations on being a parent. Is that also from your personal experience?
JJF: Yes, I relate heavily with Kat, and that actually is heavy on my life shooting “Jersey Shore.” Having to leave for work, having to leave to provide. If I, God forbid, ever was in a situation having that yearning to search for one of my friends or needing to find answers for somebody, that’s just part of what it is like being a parent. And then the other part of me is like Carly – more like air-headed reality, like “I need to capture this! This would be great for SnapChat! Let me get my fans in this!” So I find a lot in [the characters] to be very relatable to people in my life and myself, included.
EM: I think we have time for one more question. When I was watching the film and I watched the credits roll, I saw a lot of names repeated, so I know you had a small crew. Tell me about the relationships on set.
JJF: Those were the best part! I had a show from Awestruck called “Moms with Attitudes: Snookie & JWoww,” and I took that crew and I had them film with me. Because I literally like “Oh, we’re all stuck during Covid.” It was the height of Covid, we had nothing to do. “Let’s go make a film.” I tried to outsource editors but nobody was seeing the vision the way I saw it. Then Tara [Rule], who is Kat in the movie, said “I know how to edit.” And I asked “Can you edit from the point of view of the cast?” Because she was a cast-member, she freaking nailed it. So her and I sat down together and we would Zoom and we edited the film ourselves. That was the point of view that you saw. Are we great editors? No. But do I feel like being there and having a cast member who lived it and breathed it understand the tone that I was trying to convey on screen? Best case scenario!
EM: Excellent. Well, that is our time. Thank you so much for talking to me today.
JJF: Thank you, so much.
Jenni couldn’t have been lovelier, and her passion comes across as genuine. I’m impressed with her gumption to jump into a feature-length film and I appreciate her grounded take on the horror genre, allowing set and tone to suffice over CGI and bombast. However…
DEVON is not a good movie. It’s not even a movie. I was surprised the press release came with stills, because most of the 72 minute runtime is darkness and screaming. The acting is bad, the story is thin, and the pacing is awful. I want to find a silver lining but I struggle to. The screams are good; whatever direction she gave on giving a convincing blood-curdling scream, she nailed that. There is at least one interesting choice in a death scene, but the overall film’s “twist” is predictable and the lack of visual stimuli make this short film seem interminable. I think with her passion and her eye for great locations, Farley has another film in her that will hit closer to the mark she’s aiming for, but this isn’t it.
DEVON is in theaters and available for purchase through all streamers now, and will be streaming on Screambox November 26, 2024. Until next time, take scare!
-McEric, aka Eric McClanahan-