‘Fey’ Filmmaker Madeline Doherty on Her Viral, Found-Footage Hit [Interview]
During my five-year tenure at Dread Central, I’ve always grappled with my role and what, if any, my responsibilities should be. There is an innate privilege in having the opportunity to write for the greatest horror site there is, and with that (thanks, Uncle Ben) comes a responsibility to the fans and community that make horror so great. It’s an ongoing process, but one key value that remains core to the work I do here is championing the underdog. That is, the horror fan who takes risks, dabbles in their favorite genre, and does what we all earnestly want—create something that will be remembered. That’s why I was so excited to connect with filmmaker Madeline Doherty, whose found-footage debut Fey has taken on a viral life of its own.
“I’ve been a horror fan my whole life. One of my first inspirations was Hostel and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” Doherty shares to start. “And from there, I found found-footage. To me, those films felt so uneasy, almost like I shouldn’t be watching them.” Doherty references several heavy, yet low-budget, hitters like Paranormal Activity. Modest films with modest ambitions whose verisimilitude enraptured audiences, convincing them for their time in the movie theater that what they were watching was the real deal.
“There’s kind of an energy to that. And I think that’s a part of why I love horror so much. Just so many found footage films were really the inspiration.” Doherty adds that the full breadth of film, including Sean Baker and, curiously enough, Catfish, aided in the conception of Fey. “When I was first introduced to film footage films, it was such confusion, but also intrigue, and it created this kind of ‘I have to watch it’ attitude.”
Fey, clocking in at just over 50-minutes, is a lean, mean found-footage machine. Doherty plays herself, a woman recording the goings-on (in her real childhood home) as part of a trauma study. It’s taut, evil (affectionately), and liminal, as strange occurrences and eerie shadows creep in from the periphery. “I got to try to create that magic. And I thought, ‘I’ve never acted before, and I’ll probably never be in front of the camera again,’ but I just thought, ‘How cool would it be to throw myself into it?’ And my parents were awesome, and we just created this. We created this universe that I’m really proud of.”
What’s most remarkable is the modest scale. Doherty and I chatted about budget and resources, and how bigger doesn’t always mean better. Especially in a genre as intimate and singular as horror. “I really told myself, and I think any filmmaker or aspiring filmmaker, what I’m going to say right now to you is what I wish someone told me a year ago. I said, ‘If I don’t make a film, I will look back for the rest of my life and go, coulda, shoulda, woulda, because my brain is constantly going.”
There’s an earnestness in Doherty’s plea to aspiring filmmakers, and more broadly, the nature of creative work in general. There’s an innate fear in making something, putting it out into the world, and hoping—nay, praying—the response is positive. Because it’s not just creative work. It’s a part of yourself, all the more so in a project as intimate as Fey. “You can make it happen. You don’t need 50 grand, you don’t need whatever it is that everyone keeps telling you that you need. So, with that said, I hope that this kind of stands as a testament to any filmmaker who was like me a year ago, or even two years ago, that’s just like, ‘Should I? Should I? Should I?’ This is your sign. I did it. It was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life, and it took everything out of me. I mean, everything in this film is me, down to the editing.”
Doherty describes Fey as the best film school there is. The act of creation, the risk and exhaustion—all of it coalesced into the viral hit we’re talking about. It wasn’t easy, though Doherty, echoing sentiments of my own, remains convinced it was worth it in the end. To make something. To feel seen and heard. Here’s a found-footage movie that’s not just terrifying, but a testament to the underdog legacy of creatives like Doherty. They have stories to tell, and they’ll be damned to not get them out there.
“People are into it, or they’re not. And I’ve been so fortunate and so grateful to the fans because every single person that I’ve spoken to, I mean, like I told you, this is such a full circle moment [to be talking to Dread Central].” Doherty expands on what’s next. “I’ve put a lot of hard work into this, but I would love to do horror for the rest of my life. I really enjoy it. And I think part of the reason horror is so cool is that we can geek out on it. This is a beautiful thing.”
It is a beautiful thing. Truly. “I feel like I found such a community with [horror] people. And as crazy as that sounds, at 30 years old, I swear some of these people… I’m going to be friends with them for the rest of my life. And it’s like this beautiful, fun adventure that I feel like I’m just getting started with.”
And Doherty is just getting started. She teased a new project (that I won’t spoil here) and we gushed about the community that shaped us, upheld us—encouraged us to keep moving forward when that going got tough. So take it as a sign from both me and Doherty. Get out there. Make your thing. We’re always looking to be scared, and you might just be the next one to do it.
Fey is now streaming free on Fawsome TV and Tubi.
Categorized: Interviews