Interview With ‘Anything For Jackson’ Director Justin G. Dyck And Writer Keith Cooper

Go home right now and watch Anything for Jackson on Shudder. Or better yet, go out and buy the Blu-ray. You will not be disappointed. I chatted with filmmaking duo, Justin G. Dyck and Keith Cooper about making their first horror film, why they love horror, and what’s up next.

PopHorror: Hey guys! Thank you so much for your time. I loved Anything for Jackson. I watched it last year, and I thought it was so much fun, so I’m really excited to speak with both of you. 

Keith Cooper: Thank you so much! 

Justin G. Dyck: We appreciate that.

PopHorror: So Justin, you directed the film, and Keith, you wrote it. How did this project come about? What inspired the story?

Keith Cooper: Lies! That’s all it was. Lies… We were in a meeting for another movie pitch that we were doing for something similar, and they wished that they had something supernatural, so of course, Justin and I said in the pitch meeting that we had something supernatural, but we just didn’t bring it. And so that gave us an hour and 20 minutes on the way home to think of Anything for Jackson.

PopHorror: Wow! I love that. A lot. I was looking at your resumes, and  I saw a lot of Christmas movies for both of you. 

Justin G. Dyck: Define a lot!

PopHorror: Hey, I’m not gonna lie, come Christmas season, I’m all over those, so no judgement here. This is quite a change from that. Were you guys horror fans before?

Justin G. Dyck: Most definitely, yeah. Keith and I met about eight, nine years ago and decided that we both shared similar interests. We decided we really wanted to make a horror movie together. So we went to some of our contacts and said, “Hey, we want to make a horror movie!” and were quickly handed a script about a kid who played soccer with a monkey. That was our first film. Not exactly horror, but hey, we needed a first film so we could get to horror.

PopHorror: Yeah!

Justin G. Dyck: For any young filmmakers out there, the path to horror is not through a monkey soccer movie. It didn’t really help much, but it did lead to 35 other films… Christmas movies, kids’ movies, family movies. It turned into a really weird day job. It certainly made me a better director, and it was tons of fun and absolutely awesome. But we were really making a product. They were repetitive and somewhat predictable, and you don’t really want to venture off from that because that’s what people are expecting when they turn it on. We were constantly wanting and wishing that we could express ourselves and make something more artistic, and finally, we got to Anything for Jackson, which really was the goal from the beginning. 

PopHorror: So what is it that draws you both to horror?

Keith Cooper: I started watching horror movies when I was three or four. And honestly, it was just such a different experience, you know? Most movies try to make you feel good, and horror tries to scare you. It tries to do the exact opposite. But for the most part, I really appreciate somebody saying something like, “I have no interest in making you feel better. I want to scare the crap out of you. And so here’s my shot.”

Justin G. Dyck: I really like the analogy that horror is like a roller coaster. It wants to scare you, but it wants to give you those feelings of fear while you’re still safe at home or safe in a movie theater. You know nothing really bad is gonna happen, so just playing with those emotions and that adrenaline rush in a safe environment is why so many people love horror. I’m definitely a multi-genre person. I love movies in all genres, but horror is, as Keith said, so much different than most genres. It definitely stands out. What a great spot to play and venture away from the Christmas movies. You can’t get much further than that.

PopHorror: Next, you’ll have to do a Christmas horror! I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times so far… I like that you mentioned feel good movies, because I love a good feel good movie. I can watch a ton of them and walk away happy and laughing. But with horror… I’ve watched so many that sometimes it’s hard to scare me, so I’m constantly looking for the one that is just a bit different from all the rest that does scare me. So I really like what you said about that, because it is a lot different than watching a comedy or something that’s geared towards the family. How does it feel then to have your first horror movie be a Shudder exclusive?

Justin G. Dyck: It feels incredible! We’ve been doing this for a long time, as we said. We did like 30+ movies, so we understand how hard this industry is and how hard it is to stand out. So really, this was the dream, but the realistic goal was that we want to make something so we can make another horror movie. Maybe we can transition from Christmas movies to make a few horror movies a year so that we can still put food on the table for our families. So that’s the goal with this movie getting received as well as it has, getting the Shudder exclusive and now coming out on Blu-ray. It’s better than we could have imagined. We’re thrilled with the reaction to it.

PopHorror: Everyone that I know that has watched it has loved it. I’ve heard such great buzz about it, and that really excites me. When I first watched it, I had no one to talk to about it, because it was still on the festival circuit. I’m really glad that it’s been made so widely available to everyone.

Keith Cooper: We’ve still never seen it with an audience because of COVID, so the best we had was a little cast and crew screening in an open film studio with the garage doors open. We had to have a socially distanced screening, and we showed some of the cast and crew. That was the most people we’ve been in a room with for so long. So yeah. Who knows? Maybe with theaters opening up, now we can have a screening with some fresh blood and people that haven’t seen it yet.

PopHorror: Absolutely! So, what’s next for you guys? Are you working on another horror movie?

Keith Cooper: Yeah, tons! This is where we want to be. We’re grateful that Anything For Jackson has opened up a lot of doors for us. Justin and I now have representation, and we’re getting to talk to these big studios that are just as excited about horror as we are. So it’s been really, really great. We’ve got a great team behind us now, so I have more horror movies than I’ll ever get to make in my lifetime. So now, we’re just barreling through and trying to get as much of it made as we can.

PopHorror: That’s really exciting! I’m so happy to hear that. I’m really excited about it. One last question for you both. What is your favorite scary movie?

Justin G. Dyck: Narrowing it down to one… I don’t know if I have one.

PopHorror: Two is good!

Justin G. Dyck: I’ll say The Birds as it was my first real scary movie. When I was a kid, I watched some horror movies with some friends. I got in trouble because I wasn’t allowed to do that at that age and my dad said, “Look, if you want me to scare you, I’ll scare you.” He sat me down, and we watched The Birds. And that was the first time I learned about cinema as opposed to just whatever kids’ movie I was watching. Like, “Oh, wow! That’s what movies can be.” I’ll give it to The Birds. 

Keith Cooper: Clearly you hadn’t seen The Neverending Story at that point.

Justin G. Dyck: No, not yet!

Keith Cooper: For favorite, I’m going to go current. I’m going to say Tigers Are Not Afraid is my new current favorite or The Final Girls. I’m not going to give you one. I’m giving you two.

Thank you so much, Justin and Keith, for taking the time to speak with us. Anything for Jackson is now available on VOD, Digital, DVD, and Blu-ray!