Jenni 'JWoww' Farley wrote, directed a horror film with a shocking twist influenced by her mom's schizophrenia

"As much as I wanted to be taken seriously, I think the most important part was trying to be kind and relatable," Farley said

The Jersey Shore icon Jenni "JWoww" Farley made reality TV history when the MTV show saw incredible success, still continuing today with Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. But now she's extended her contribution to entertainment with the release of the horror film Devon (currently on digital and streaming on Screambox), written and directed by Farley.

"It really started during Snooki & JWoww, ... we filmed at Pennhurst Asylum and I've been a super horror fan since I was my daughter's age, and I looked at the surroundings and I said to myself, this place is truly terrifying on its own and if I ever grow up and decide to make a horror movie, this would be the place to do it," Farley told Yahoo Canada.

"I feel like, especially in this day and age, it's so hard to get people to be scared of anything, that I find the most successful movies, in that situation where your blood pressure is rising, your heart rate's rising, you're uncomfortable, really doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a large budget. But you have to have an uncomfortable surrounding. You have to have an uncomfortable stage and Pennhurst was that. It's just so uncomfortable. You give someone a camera, you make the area silent, and you stick five people in a room with no light except for their camera, and you just say, 'Good luck.'"

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 08: Jenni “JWoww” Farley attends the
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 08: Jenni “JWoww” Farley attends the "Devon" New York Premiere at AMC Empire 25 on November 08, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Devon has a similar aesthetic as The Blair Witch Project, centred around five people who go to an asylum where a girl named Devon disappeared years earlier. Each person is trying to get the cash reward offered by Devon's parents for information about what happened to their daughter. As you'll likely expect, a terrifying situation arises.

Without spoiling too much of the film, we'll tease that Farley was bold enough in crafting her first film to include a shocking twist at the end of the story, which is also connected to growing up with a mom who has schizophrenia.

"That was my first idea," she said. "So that twist is the reason why I made the movie, because I'm a superfan of psychological horrors. I am a superfan of not knowing how it's going to play out."

"Growing up in a household where my mom had schizophrenia and there's mental illness there, I wanted to go to school for psychology at one point, I love ... the human brain and how people are in the same environment, but can see things completely differently. ... All of my movies, if I ever get the opportunity to make one in the future, will always have that element, because there's something beautiful about not knowing what's to come, especially in horror."

Rotisha Geter as “Alison Roberts” in the Horror Thriller film DEVON, a Cineverse release (Cineverse)
Rotisha Geter as “Alison Roberts” in the Horror Thriller film DEVON, a Cineverse release (Cineverse)

In terms of stepping behind the camera, especially after being in front of the camera for so many years, Farley said it was a "beautiful" transition, and she really tried to be an "ally" for her cast on set.

"I can appreciate what it's like being in front of the camera, and I understand that, and even being in some movies and television shows outside of the Jersey Shore myself, I know what it's like to be part of the cast," she said. "I wanted to make sure that I could see it through their lens the way that I was part of other projects."

"As much as I wanted to be taken seriously, I think the most important part was trying to be kind and relatable. And because this is a very stressful environment, it's a horror film, I wanted to make sure that they could always come to me, and I would be very approachable, because I put them in a very scary situation."

Farley added that a lot of what you see in the film was "organic," including the jump scares, with the cast working from a "loose" script.

"I did not want to let them know what the next page was going to be. I didn't want them to know how the story was going to unfold," she said. "Nobody knew, except for who needed to know."

"So I knew going in I needed to be their friend and their ally above all, over being a director and a producer, and I think that worked to my advantage, because they were able to deliver these scenes way better than I ever thought."

Jenni
Jenni "JWOWW" Farley and children attend the premiere of Paramount Pictures' "IF" at the SVA Theatre on Monday, May 13, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

As a life-long horror fan, Farley got her kids involved in developing Devon, including her daughter, 10-year-old Meilani, when she was as young as six.

"I was like, 'Did I introduce you a little too early?' And she's like, 'No, mom. I thrive in this,'" Farley said. "She loves horror movies in the same capacity that I do. I don't know if that's a good thing yet or not, and so does my son."

"[Meilani is] judging my movies too, because she's like, 'Wait, people actually thought it was scary?' ... It's Meilani world, I'm just living in it."

But Farley isn't done with her horror movie career, with production company BarBHouse Productions working on developing Farley's script for a film titled NANNYCAM.

"It was based off of, when I first gave birth to my daughter, ... I set up a bunch of nanny cameras in my house [thinking] it would help me watch over her, and instead it made me crazy to the point where I started seeing things in them," Farley shared. "From a mental illness, from a postpartum perspective, I want to play out a movie like, is it real? Is it not real? Is the what the girl's seeing true?"

"Because to me, I would have bet my bottom dollar what I saw on those cameras during sleep deprivation was true. I would have bet during postpartum that was a fact, that it happened, it was real. And I wanted a movie based on the emotions of a mother and a family going through that trying time of newborn stage."