Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Jay Cheel’s career in non-fiction filmmaking has focused mostly on character-based portraits of quirky, passionate obsessives, realized in a highly cinematic style. His debut feature Beauty Day premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their Canadian Front Programming Series. The film was also an official selection at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie Award in 2012. His second feature How to Build a Time Machine premiered at Hot Docs and went on to screen at AFI Docs, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and DOC NYC. His latest is Cursed Films, a five-part documentary series produced for AMC Networks and Shudder. The show focuses on the legends surrounding some of Hollywood’s most troubled horror film productions and has gone on to become the highest-rated documentary series on the platform.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Jay’s short film Twisted
Him being exposed to horror films at a young age
Recognizing the importance of a director in a film production at a young age
What piqued Jay’s original interest in entering film as a career
His podcast Film Junk, which holds a Guinness World Records for the longest-running film podcast
His short film Beauty Day
Creating deep interpersonal connections with crew members on a film set
The need for control as it relates to artistic pursuits
How Jay’s perspective of curses has changed while working on the Cursed Films project
How the film, The Exorcist, negatively impacted the cultural lexicon by reinforcing the existence of the devil
Predatory capitalism
Personal tragedies that happened for Jay while filming Cursed Films
The importance of providing context in a documentary project
The Manson murders
The murders and tragedies that have occurred in Benedict Canyon in LA
Ethical decisions they had to make regarding what scenes to show in Cannibal Holocaust
Naive actors getting involved in Cannibal Holocaust, and Carl Gabriel Yorke signing on without reading the script
People / Artists Mentioned:
John Carpenter (Filmmaker)
Lidia Yuknavitch (Writer)
Gary Oldman (Actor)
Robert Deniro (Actor)
Tim Burton (Director)
Bill Pullman (Actor)
Steve Rash (Director)
Judy Garland (Actor)
Lorna Luft (Actor)
Roman Polanski (Director)
Dianne Lake (Writer / Former Manson Family Member)
Julian Wasser (Photographer)
Ruggero Deodato (Director)
Andrei Tarkovsky (Director)
Cursed Films Episodes Mentioned:
Twilight Zone: The Movie
The Exorcist
The Wizard of Oz (S2 E1)
Rosemary’s Baby (S2 E2)
Stalker (S2 E3)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (S2 E4)
Cannibal Holocaust (S2 E5)
TV Shows + Films Mentioned:
The Day After (1983)
The Thing (1982)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
American Movie (1999)
Ed Wood (1994)
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1977)
Weekend (1967)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
jaycheel.com
instagram.com/jaywesleycheel
twitter.com/JayCheelArtist
Decoded Patreon: patreon.com/artistdecoded
Originally Posted 5.22.2022
Jay Cheel’s career in non-fiction filmmaking has focused mostly on character-based portraits of quirky, passionate obsessives, realized in a highly cinematic style. His debut feature Beauty Day premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their Canadian Front Programming Series. The film was also an official selection at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie Award in 2012. His second feature How to Build a Time Machine premiered at Hot Docs and went on to screen at AFI Docs, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and DOC NYC. His latest is Cursed Films, a five-part documentary series produced for AMC Networks and Shudder. The show focuses on the legends surrounding some of Hollywood’s most troubled horror film productions and has gone on to become the highest-rated documentary series on the platform.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
Jay’s short film Twisted
Him being exposed to horror films at a young age
Recognizing the importance of a director in a film production at a young age
What piqued Jay’s original interest in entering film as a career
His podcast Film Junk, which holds a Guinness World Records for the longest-running film podcast
His short film Beauty Day
Creating deep interpersonal connections with crew members on a film set
The need for control as it relates to artistic pursuits
How Jay’s perspective of curses has changed while working on the Cursed Films project
How the film, The Exorcist, negatively impacted the cultural lexicon by reinforcing the existence of the devil
Predatory capitalism
Personal tragedies that happened for Jay while filming Cursed Films
The importance of providing context in a documentary project
The Manson murders
The murders and tragedies that have occurred in Benedict Canyon in LA
Ethical decisions they had to make regarding what scenes to show in Cannibal Holocaust
Naive actors getting involved in Cannibal Holocaust, and Carl Gabriel Yorke signing on without reading the script
People / Artists Mentioned:
John Carpenter (Filmmaker)
Lidia Yuknavitch (Writer)
Gary Oldman (Actor)
Robert Deniro (Actor)
Tim Burton (Director)
Bill Pullman (Actor)
Steve Rash (Director)
Judy Garland (Actor)
Lorna Luft (Actor)
Roman Polanski (Director)
Dianne Lake (Writer / Former Manson Family Member)
Julian Wasser (Photographer)
Ruggero Deodato (Director)
Andrei Tarkovsky (Director)
Cursed Films Episodes Mentioned:
Twilight Zone: The Movie
The Exorcist
The Wizard of Oz (S2 E1)
Rosemary’s Baby (S2 E2)
Stalker (S2 E3)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (S2 E4)
Cannibal Holocaust (S2 E5)
TV Shows + Films Mentioned:
The Day After (1983)
The Thing (1982)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
American Movie (1999)
Ed Wood (1994)
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1977)
Weekend (1967)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
jaycheel.com
instagram.com/jaywesleycheel
twitter.com/JayCheelArtist
Decoded Patreon: patreon.com/artistdecoded
Originally Posted 5.22.2022
