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Your new movie DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict - in a few words, what's it about?
DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict is the first AI animated feature film and the
first AI anime feature film, meaning 100% of its sound, music, animation,
video, and performances are AI. The
story follows Betty Gray, a college sophomore who uncovers a campus
mystery tied to a banned student club. Her investigation leads her to
Duchamps De Ve, a popular senior facing accusations of vampirism.
The film is part courtroom drama, part campus mystery, part dark fairy tale.
At its heart, however, it explores how we’re drawn to powerful,
sometimes dangerous forces. Whether that’s love, technology, or the
stories we tell ourselves.
What were your sources of inspiration when writing DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict?
The inspiration came mostly from classic gothic romance, 80s and 90s
anime, and courtroom thrillers. I wanted to explore what happens when myth
and modern life collide, when a college student finds herself pulled into
something that feels larger than life but dangerously real. A lot of it
was also inspired by the way we form cult-like attachments: to people, to
ideas, to stories. The vampire myth became a way to talk about obsession,
identity, and the lines between fantasy and accountability.
You made DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict using AI - to put it bluntly, why? And to what
extent did you rely on AI when it came to creative decisions? And did you
always plan for DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict to be an AI movie?
From the beginning, I wanted to explore how far AI could go as a
storytelling tool, but across the entire production pipeline. DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict is unique in that every visual, sound, performance, and piece of music was
created using AI. It’s a fully AI-generated animated feature film,
something that wasn’t technically possible only one year prior.
Gradually, the movie became possible, but not only was it possible, it was
possible to achieve excellence.
Do take us through the whole process, how does one make an AI movie?
There was no studio, no team, just me and the machine tools. I approached the
story like any filmmaker would: developing characters, building tension,
mapping out the emotional beats. But instead of handing those ideas off to
a traditional team of animators, actors, editors, or technicians, I
executed them directly through AI.
That shift changed everything, and it was demanding. Every detail had
to be handled by me, from performance direction to visual composition to
sound. But it was also creatively liberating. There were no gatekeepers,
no compromises, no waiting for approval. If I had a vision for a scene, I
could bring it to life immediately and refine it until it felt right. It
allowed for a level of authorship that’s almost unheard of in
traditional production. You've
worked with AI before on the movie Window
Seat - so how did work on the two movies compare, and how has AI
evolved since the earlier film?
The difference is night and day. Window
Seat was made when AI
video was still raw and unpredictable. With DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict, the tools
had matured, and I was able to use them to create something much more
controlled, stylistic, and visually expressive. My hope is that DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict shows how these tools can be used thoughtfully to tell original,
meaningful stories.
Do talk about DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict's approach to the vampire genre, and is this a
genre especially dear to you?
I’ve always been fascinated by how timeless the vampire myth is and
how it evolves with every era. In DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict, I reimagined the
vampire archetype through a modern lens. The characters are youthful,
tech-savvy, and reflective of our current moment. They’re not
aristocrats in castles, they’re college kids, start-up founders, and
outsiders caught between truth and myth.
The $64-question of course, where can DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict be seen?
DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict will be available later this month on major streaming platforms. I’m
also exploring a Blu-ray release that will include both cuts, the 100 %
machine-only cut as well as the director’s cut with non-machine
elements. I’ll be announcing details soon on my website
hooroojackson.com,
and through my social media channels.
Anything you can tell
us about audience and critical reception of DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict?
I have faced so much opposition from every corner, but in the end, it is
everything I hoped it would be, and I am so honored it is the first fully
AI animated film. I think it is beautiful and timeless. At
the same time, I recognize I am not just early on these AI films but that
I am standing almost entirely alone. The
idea of films made entirely by one person is just so new, the implications
are so staggering, that people often react defensively. They will do
anything and everything except just watch and enjoy the film.
Any future projects you'd
like to share? And based on your work on DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict, could you ever be persuaded to do another AI
movie? Absolutely. I’m already developing several new
projects that build on what I learned from DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict. This
moment in cinema is a rare one. We’re at the edge of something new, and
I plan to keep pushing forward as long as these tools allow for
exploration and expression. That’s what filmmaking is about.
Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?
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Please keep track of me on my website, hooroojackson.com,
and I am also on Instagram. Anything else you're dying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask?
The AI soundtrack for DreadClub:
Vampire's Verdict is one of the most surprising elements of
the movie. AI music is already so good only a few months out the gate.
Other than that, we are filmmakers first, in the end it is worth every bit
of trouble that we go through. Wow. I can hardly even believe that it is
real.
Thanks for the interview!
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