PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s that time of year again, where horror descends upon the Jersey Shore with the Highlands Horror Film Festival. This year, the fest will be held at Kevin Smith’s SModcastle Cinemas nestled in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey and will feature a variety of independent horror features, shorts, student, and homegrown horror to entertain film lovers.
To celebrate the festival’s fifth year, I chatted with Jay Kay, the Assistant Festival Director and Programmer of HHFF about this year’s selections, what to expect from the fest, why he loves horror, and more!
PopHorror: Hey Jay! Thank you for taking the time to discuss the fest. What can you tell us about the Highlands Horror Film Fest? How did you become involved with the festival?
Jay Kay: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to cover the Highlands Horror Film Fest! It’s a great year to find out more about this Jersey Shore based horror film festival happening on October 7th and 8th. We are so happy to partner with Kevin Smith’s SModcastle Cinemas in the awesome town of Atlantic Highlands, NJ.
This year, the festival is five years old and has been supported by some amazing people over that time, but the true credit goes to the Festival Director Rob Kneller who has made this event a joy for horror fans each October. He has dedicated himself to this festival and the Highlands Comedy Film Fest. Not only are we in a new venue as part of the festival’s growth, but we are honored to host a global slate of 21 film projects that span some of the best shorts on the fest trail to three feature films to local films to a range of student filmmakers to homegrown films including a middle school program in New Jersey.
As for me, I have been a fan for a long, long time and involved in the horror industry for over a decade as a journalist, radio host, programmer, moderator, educator, filmmaker, and much more. I am also a HHFF alum with my last two horror films [Within the Frame] and No Good Deed playing the event before I came on to the team. I have been a Jersey boy all my life, so to work with a growing festival like Highlands, it is a blessing to grow horror in the garden state and help to cultivate and present a range of filmmakers creating new nightmares each year!
Having two of my films played as well as films from peers of mine, this shows the care by Rob and those involved each year. Overall, it is a safe and festive environment meant to entertain and yet challenge those involved on each level. I love what they are doing and wanted to join when I had the chance!
PopHorror: What are some of the biggest challenges you face preparing for and executing a film festival?
Jay Kay: Great question Tiff! No matter how you slice it, a film festival is a business. So one of the big challenges is budget and finding sponsors. I am sure this is a standard answer by most. With that aside, we are blessed to have a really great crop of films via FilmFreeway and curation (when needed), so like many festivals, it is how we will shape the lineup and what we will select. Making an impactful film is not easy, each festival has different eyes, themes, and focus, so it may be the greatest film ever, but many times a lot of factors go beyond that and the selections.
As a judge, programmer, filmmaker and co-director for HHFF, I have seen hundreds of films overall and some hit the floor for a variety of reasons. It is perhaps one of the toughest elements of the job for me. That is why I have so much respect for those who are willing to take the opportunity to make a film no matter what level. One other challenge is continuing to attract a crowd, but also growing our audience. It is paramount for a festival to find that balance so we can grow on all levels.
PopHorror: When selecting the films to play, what are you hoping to find within these films? What makes a perfect selection?
Jay Kay: As I mentioned above, it is a challenge, and we are blessed to have great judges and programmers for each year of HHFF. We are looking for films that fit what the vision of this festival is. We want creativity and to see how horror continues to grow and connect. Horror is fluid after all. We are a horror film festival, but horror can come from all types of storytelling, characters, and conflicts whether dramatic, silly, and/or dark. That is why it is the best genre, it is perhaps the most human.
For filmmakers, we want to see your vision, perhaps more importantly we want to hear it. So quality sound is key to even being considered most times. No matter where your film plays – on a laptop or headphones or a hotel room or outside or the SMdocastle – the detail in the sound and the ability to lure us in and lock us is so crucial. We hear more of the film and if sound does not have some care, you will probably lose your viewer.
PopHorror: What was the film you watched that started your love of film?
Jay Kay: Wow, now I feel old… I am assuming we are talking about horror films… I grew up in the era of V/H/S, so it trended more in the late 70s/80s. I grew up in a time of horror that had those films that we whispered about and snuck in when our parents were gone, and our friends were around in the neighborhood. It was friends, food, and horror films! So for me, some of the first films that turned me onto horror were Faces of Death, Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead, Halloween, Aliens, Bloodsport, and such.
So as a horror fan, that really started my love and connection to horror films, but even before that it was the Universal Monsters, Godzilla films, King Kong, and the Saturday afternoon at the movies features like Christine, Carrie, Night of the Living Dead, and Prom Night where I could watch them during viewing hours with no stigma – horror which was allowed in the daylight, but impacted me forever.
However, I have always loved horror, but got away from it as my life changed. It was not until I went through a really bad breakup and during the time when video stores were beginning to close, that I was blessed to discover a therapy in Asian horror and French extreme films which reignited my love for horror and rediscovered ones I had not watched for a long time, films like High Tension, Audition, Infection, Battle Royale, Oldboy, Martyrs, Inside, Dark Water, The Eye series, Ringu, Ju-On, Ab-normal Beauty, and a majority of the Tartan Asian Extreme catalog. It opened me up to more stylish, tense, and extreme content that helped me be a better fan, journalist, and filmmaker later on.
PopHorror: High Tension is one of my favorites! What draws you to the horror genre?
Jay Kay: The fluidity. I love how horror tailors itself to so many topics, themes, and storytelling. You can address real world elements on a foundation of horror and most people will be receptive because of the macabre it was presented with or through it. Not all horror does this, but for me and many of my favorite films like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist 3, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 28 Days Later, Scrooged, Se7en, Audition, Train to Busan, and such, there are core messages and themes that are addressed through terrifying and dark means.
Indie horror and Asian horror do it so well. Of course, I am a fan of popcorn horror, indie horror, and the brutality, but I love horror that has a solid core to challenge me as much as thrill me. It matters as a filmmaker, because I owe the viewer who decides to watch my work that respect. I can’t say that for all filmmakers in the thousands of films I have watched as fan, journalist, programmer, educator, judge, etc over the last decade plus.
PopHorror: What’s your favorite scary movie?
Jay Kay: 28 Days Later. I have a variety of favorites over the years, some are listed above and have changed, but this film has stuck for over two decades. Danny Boyle’s film is such a complete film and brings you there. The acting is stellar, it is the dark side of humanity. The tension is palpable. His ability to create this gritty world of survival and make a virus so easy to attract that you cannot hope to survive. How London is made to look empty and decimated. The insanity of them getting the approval to hold traffic so they can film that opening scene with Cillian Murphy wandering around. It feels real and the catalyst is frightening, because you understand both sides at the beginning within the lab and the monkeys. It’s so brilliant and I cannot tell you how many times I have watched it with and without the commentary.
PopHorror: Finally, can you tell us about some of your favorite film selections this year? Which ones should our readers watch for?
Jay Kay: There are so many. We have three short form blocks that lead into our features with Q&As afterwards. The features are all a nice variety of what quality horror has to offer with the FX creature film, Mind Leech. A well-crafted anthology called Lore that has a storytelling tool that sucks you into the overall narrative and a very stylish home invasion thriller called Model House which may be the most surprising entry this year for me. These along with an 18 short film slate over the blocks that reveals the nightmares and dreamscapes of short form horror including dangerous kids, body horror, monsters, slashers, supernatural, real-world trauma, and a great trio of student films.
We are always so happy to see high school and university shorts submitted! We want to see the younger crop of film minds create. It is one of my favorite elements each year! We love to give them a platform to show their work with the slots available. An example this year, is a “World Premiere” of a short film called Not Your Business from a New Jersey charter school that is about a cursed note unleashed in a study hall. This is a collective from a first-year filmmaking program for middle schoolers! They got their bumps, but it shows what could be with these student films and the collective vision of students from all ages who just want to make films and horror!
Watching all these selections is such a joy and unleashing them on the audience October 7th and 8th is the payoff for Rob and me. We appreciate everyone involved who trusts us with their work, dollars spent, and time. Come join us at the SModcastle Cinemas down the Jersey Shore and get your tickets for any and/or all the film blocks HERE! Thank you so much for the time, Tiff and your support for the Highlands Horror Film Festival!
