Over the airwaves
Jake Horowitz cues up DJ role in sci-fi ‘Vast of Night’
Mysterious radio transmissions in a small New Mexico town?
Any relation to Roswell, “The X-Files” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is intended.
In the 1950s-set “The Vast of Night,” streaming Friday on Amazon Prime, high school radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and teen nighttime switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) find their lives changed forever by very weird radio waves.
“Everett was so fun to play,” said Horowitz, 25. “I’m always looking for characters who change, who have a big moment in their lives and go through something, as opposed to people who live on one note.
“As cool as he looks and acts, Everett certainly has a much softer, caring side, which is why his friendship with Fay takes off. If he was just a callous wannabe guy they’d never get along.
“He goes through a big change from cynicism to wonder. He starts out where he thinks he’s got the answer to everything and gets to a point where he has to admit he doesn’t know what’s going on. That door opening is why I wanted to play him.”
For authenticity’s sake, Horowitz found archival real-life references. “There’s this great YouTube footage of these radio DJs from the
’50s. The way they talked! They had a cadence and a swagger about them. I used all that stuff.
“And the look!” he added. “Doing your hair with a lot of product and wearing these big glasses — there really is a character who emerges just from doing that.
“Then he calls himself
Everett the Maverick. There’s so much information in that.
“I was really sad when this was done. We shot the whole thing in three weeks in two small towns in Texas. It was so quick but because of it we had great friendships. We’re all still very close, a little movie family.”
Next up for Horowitz, a double horror whammy: “Agnes,” which finds demonic possession in a nunnery, and a remake of the 1995 cult classic “Castle Freak.”
“Believe it or not,” the Brooklyn native joked, “I’m not a nun in ‘Agnes.’ I’m a young vegan who comes to the nunnery with a priest. We stay for a few days and then I become a priest.”
As for his reboot, “I feel honored to be part of the H.P. Lovecraft universe. A lot of it has been reworked, so it’s different. I don’t want to give everything away but I am (starring in) the Jeffrey Combs part.”