Jersey Shore star Jenni Farley, also known as “JWoww,” is now a writer and director with Devon. Her first horror movie is out today on Screambox, and she spoke with ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese about the spooky filming that took place in an actual asylum.
“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,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: I love that Devon was shot on location at Pennhurst Asylum. It gives such a great feel to the whole film. How was it filming there? I would be on edge the entire time. Did anything creepy happen?
Jenni Farley: The whole freaking time [during Devon]! Listen, so if I could take a minute back in 2011 or ’12, I shot Snooki & JWoww there, and I didn’t have any paranormal experiences, so I kind of was like brushing it off and being like, “This would be the best place to shoot a horror film” because I didn’t believe in it at the time, but the canvas [is perfect], right? The area is so incredible.
Cut to 2020, when we’re trying to film this movie, and so many things happened. We developed at one point a buddy system because the moment somebody would go away, and I’m talking people that I’ve known for 15 years, I would hear screaming, and then they would start crying, and then they would swear that they saw a little boy running in the woods and we need to call 9-1-1. I had my actress Tara [Rule] hysterically crying saying that there was a little boy that ran across, we need to go get help.
We would be shooting, and we would have all our cameras lined up; We’d reboot them, everything’s good to go, and you would just see one by one, just like boom, boom, boom, boom. They would all die like a gust of wind would hit them, and I would just be sitting there. At one point, I was yelling at them like I’m their mom. Like, “We need to get it together. If you want me out of your building, you need to stop.” Because I think they were kids just truly messing with us. They weren’t vicious, they weren’t malicious, they weren’t mean. I really think that these [spirits], based on the manager and the people that work there, there’s children there and they were trying to play with us and mess with us.
At one point, we actually have it in one of the shots, like a ball that just got caught on my security camera, just moving. We played that footage back, and I’m like, “Did anyone move that?” And they’re like,”No. Nobody was even there.”
That wasn’t planned?
No. Then you had Tara, who plays Kat, where someone walks behind her, and she says we have to submit the real footage because nobody was there. I have three angles of that same take; nobody walked behind her, and yet something gusted right by. So there are things, true elements that we have, but that’s the best part of being on set, and your set becomes the horror movie.
The movie’s concept changed a little bit, and the cuts changed a little bit because I wanted that natural element, and I never gave the actors the full script. I would just give them what they needed, very Blair Witch perspective because not only could something change based on that ball or just something organically happening, but if they’re in a real state of fear, which a lot of them were because I freaking locked the door behind them and said, “Adios.” They’re set in there on their own. Those natural elements alone could play a part, and it really did for this film. I think that’s what made it successful if you liked it. I believe that it was just the natural setting that made it likable.
I would not last a single day on your set, but the energy it just brought to the film clearly shows. So you’re a full-on believer after this filming experience?
I am. I had to take a step back and be like, “Is my life gonna change?” Being such a believer and I’m a super fan of Pennhurst. I wanna go there. I wanna sleep there now. I wanna see my kids that I left there. I’m like, “What have you been doing the last four years?” I’m a super believer.
Do you have the bug now? Do you feel like you’re gonna keep directing, writing, and being creative?
I said the worst part of this was how much I fell in love with it because I’m gonna be unstoppable in this genre, in this element. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because I’m going from a super fan to all I wanna do is make horror films, and I’m gonna harass and bother and berate anyone I need to [in order] to make another one as fast as I can because it’s such a beautiful industry and genre to be in.
Thanks to Jenni Farley for taking the time to talk about Devon.
