Interview with Jake Myers, Director of 2025’s Kombucha

By: Myriam Akbar

Jake Myers is a filmmaker, animator, and creative director based in Chicago. He’s known for his short films Kombucha!, Emojihead, and Alien Seduction. After its festival run, an expansion of one of his short films was released on streaming services. The plot of this body horror film involves a physically and psychologically transformative beverage, provided by a company for its employees. Kombucha’s world premiere was at DWFLA, where it won the Audience Choice Award. It also won awards at Grimmfest, Vortex, ATL Horror, Samaine, and Chicago Underground. Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Myers about his passion for cinema, how this film came to be, and his personal experiences that influenced it. 

Like many of us cinema lovers, our passion for film stems from childhood. Myers shared that his parents were teachers, athletes, and musicians—so they encouraged him to have eclectic interests. “I played volleyball, sang in an acapella group, and watched as many films at home or at the theater as possible,” he says. He also recalls that in middle school, he was obsessed with Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? He and his friend, Joe Sepka also used to go to the video store and rent the weirdest horror films that they could find. “We would make our own bizarre films with my parent’s camcorder and try to get our friends to laugh or cringe. We never stopped collaborating on things. He actually did half of the score for Kombucha,” Myers says. He has an eclectic taste in terms of genre and enjoys films that blend different ones, making them hard to define but fun to watch. He lists elevated horror, sci-fi action, and lo-fi camp as some of his favorites. 

Screenplay writer Geoff Bakken, was “the original brain behind the concept, says Myers. “I think it grew out of his experiences in a corporate office. I was drawn to the hook of the film, because of the relatability factor regarding the fear of both starting a new job and being replaced in it.” For Myers, his creative process for the first act included drinking lots of kombucha and observing its characteristics. For further inspiration, he used Reddit stories involving the beverage—finding claims of GI issues, skin rashes, and nosebleeds. “I wanted it to feel somewhat grounded in scientific reality and anecdotal experience,” he says. 

Often great filmmakers will tell you that the best stories are ones that we pull from out of ourselves. This is no different for Myers, who explains that his own personal experience with taking ADHD medication helped him make this film. Despite enabling him to get through the work day and accomplish tasks, it had some side effects on his stomach. “I also felt like a shell of the creative person I was before,” he says. “Both Luke (the main character) and I grapple with the slimy version of ourselves that wants to abandon our creative passions, in exchange for financial stability. I think a lot of creative people relate to this existential dilemma,” he says. Myers wanted Mother (the source of infection in the film) to be the physical embodiment of the money machine. In the same way a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) eats sweet tea and ferments it into vinegary kombucha, he wanted Mother to transform creative people into corporate cogs. “I hope Kombucha serves as a reminder that no job is worth dying for and we are more than the value that we create for uncaring corporations,” he says. 

When asked what advice Myers would offer aspiring filmmakers like myself, he says, “Do more in pre-production than you think you need to. If you’re working with finite resources, you don’t have time to troubleshoot major problems on set–so organize everything you think you need to before production starts. Prep yourself for the long haul of thankless work that goes into editing, sound, vfx, and color.” He suggests making visual slideshows for, communicating expectations to, and working collaboratively with every head of department. This ensures that everyone has a shared vision the moment they walk on set. My favorite piece of advice that Myers provides is one that I don’t hear enough and think should be prioritized. He emphasizes the significance of thanking those who go out of their way to improve your film, acknowledging the hard work that goes into turning raw material into cohesive content, and taking initiative to support however you can. 

What’s next for Myers? Initially planning to do a slasher film, he was pushed towards the idea of a Kombucha sequel when his producer said he had a gut feeling it needed to be done. He and Bakken had already tossed around ideas, landing on a concept that gives them the opportunity to invest in the body horror elements and character-driven drama. “Instead of expanding the world like most sequels do, we want to focus on the world and see what happens when a culty holistic treatment center discovers the power of Mother’s Secret Kombucha,” he says. As someone who very much enjoyed Kombucha, I think this idea is brilliant and exciting. I have a good feeling it will not only be executed well, but impress horror fans.