Creator Highlight: Avery Jay

By: Myriam Akbar

Avery Jay (also known as Avery’s Crypt) is a writer, journalist, and event producer from Kentucky. She’s currently based in Brooklyn and has been making content since 2022, even working as a social media manager in her day-to-day life. “I always had an excitement for content creation in various forms. I used to staple pieces of paper together for illustrated stories to add to my first-grade library,” she shares. 

Jay’s love for film and television started with an interest in acting; however, she believes losing her passion for theatre was a blessing in disguise. Instead of trying to be a film star, she went on to study the medium, and that fueled her admiration for it. “I love the grotesque, macabre, and boundary-pushing. That often falls under horror,” she says. Jay also enjoys films that blur genre boundaries, as well as heartfelt and cathartic narratives. She highlights Bones and All, Sinners, and I Saw The TV Glow as films that might spark debates on what constitutes horror. “Those are horror movies to me. Not just because they push boundaries, but because they’re focal to Queer and Black narratives,” she says. 

When asked what she feels is the best part of making content, Jay says it’s the community that comes with it, which she often feels is more fulfilling than the content itself. The horror community, specifically, now exists offline for community events that she is involved with. Comments like, “I didn’t know anyone else knew about this movie,” bring her the most joy because she knows what it feels like to be the only cinephile among her friends. In terms of the challenges that come along with working in the field, Jay emphasizes the negative impact of algorithms, something that most creators can relate to. “Social media often feels like a game that I never want to play. Algorithms are never my friend. I often lose momentum for ideas and posts when the algorithm isn’t treating my content kindly,” she admits. 

While Jay says she can’t pick one specific event in her career that feels supreme, every interview she’s had with film industry professionals is a defining moment for her. For example, her interview with Bomani J., which she says lit a fire beneath her to continue pursuing journalism. “I didn’t realize the impact of my posting about The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster until Bomani told me himself. I’m proud of the influence my content has on independent cinema and the creatives behind it,” she says. She also highlights being a panel moderator at a film festival last year as a special opportunity.

Jay is currently working on her first short, having a few other script concepts in early processes. She is writing both fiction and non-fiction to exercise the way she engages with the genre. Her long-term goal is to become an established critic and scholar of the horror genre. Through that, she plans to challenge the engagement of past, present, and future horror as a way of inspiring more diverse and transgressive media. “I hope my words can be the connective tissue to the opportunities I’m working towards,” she says.