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DOOM SCROLLHayley Zalkin
Sarah, a twenty-something, perfectionist, workaholic finds herself laid off from her job. Suddenly facing the void of her purposeless existence, she copes with this the way many do when they're looking for an escape: Endless scrolling through the social media video app, TubeTop. Despite concerns from her partner, Ben, Sarah's social media addiction spirals until she is fully consumed.
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Doom Scroll feels incredibly personal—can you talk about how your own experience with social media addiction shaped the tone or structure of the film?
Doom Scroll did come about at a time where I was going through a very slow period of work. I had just been laid off from a TV show I’d been working on at the height of the Omicron variant of COVID, and found myself, as so many others do, just mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.
Doom Scroll did come about at a time where I was going through a very slow period of work. I had just been laid off from a TV show I’d been working on at the height of the Omicron variant of COVID, and found myself, as so many others do, just mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.
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I feel like when I was stuck in that scrolling spiral, I felt like I was rotting from the inside out or something.
I toyed with writing a social media–related script a couple of years ago, and I knew I wanted to make a horror, and I love a possession film and am super inspired by films like Evil Dead, so I sort of wanted to combine this idea of losing yourself to this very common thing our generation goes through and literally getting possessed by an entity. |
The visuals do such a great job of showing Sarah’s descent—can you talk about your approach to editing those sequences and how you used rhythm or pacing to reflect her spiral?
I’ve made a career as an editor, and it’s definitely my favorite process in filmmaking. Writing and directing with an editor’s brain was a fun new process because I wanted to give myself materials to play with and experiment with.
I’ve made a career as an editor, and it’s definitely my favorite process in filmmaking. Writing and directing with an editor’s brain was a fun new process because I wanted to give myself materials to play with and experiment with.
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The opening scene is cut like a real GRWM video you’d see, followed by her getting laid off and scrolling. I wanted to find a balance of not just showing someone on their phone in their apartment, which has the potential to be very boring—by breaking it up with quick flashes of the demon during those slower scenes, or just going crazy with the editing during the possession scene, and just making sure that there are some compelling visuals throughout.
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The relationship between Sarah and Ben grounds the story emotionally. How did you approach writing their dynamic, and what role did you want that relationship to play in the narrative?
I wanted Sarah to have the “perfect” life—a good job, a nice boyfriend, a morning routine curated by the many influencers she follows, telling her the “right” things to do to lead a healthy and productive life. And seeing how it so easily crumbles when her job, her sense of purpose, gets suddenly ripped from her. I feel like this is shown through how Ben interacts with Sarah. She is so disconnected from him; she is annoyed by his presence because she’s just trying to numb herself.
I wanted Sarah to have the “perfect” life—a good job, a nice boyfriend, a morning routine curated by the many influencers she follows, telling her the “right” things to do to lead a healthy and productive life. And seeing how it so easily crumbles when her job, her sense of purpose, gets suddenly ripped from her. I feel like this is shown through how Ben interacts with Sarah. She is so disconnected from him; she is annoyed by his presence because she’s just trying to numb herself.
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And he also unknowingly puts this pressure on her by reminding her of her failures, by constantly asking her how her job search is going—even though his intentions are good. It’s like his existence reminds her that she’s living this awful half-life and that what she’s going through isn’t normal, but she can’t get out of it, so it makes her angry.
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Now that you’ve directed Doom Scroll, has your relationship with social media changed at all?
I have deleted TikTok lol, but I’m still on Instagram. It’s tough because it’s like—social media is an incredible way to stay connected and informed on important issues, but I still have these tendencies to scroll. I try to do the time limit and be more conscious of it. |
What kind of reactions have surprised you the most when showing this film to others?
I feel like it’s just how much people related to it. It can be very isolating when you’re in your phone, and I kind of think that’s by design, despite the “social” aspect. So that’s been cool!
I feel like it’s just how much people related to it. It can be very isolating when you’re in your phone, and I kind of think that’s by design, despite the “social” aspect. So that’s been cool!
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Are you working on any new projects you'd like to share?
Yes! My first feature, which I co-edited with my producer Aimee Kuge, who also directed it, is out now on VOD. Cannibal Mukbang is Aimee’s first feature that she wrote and directed, and working on that film was extremely empowering. Aimee built an incredible filmmaking community, many of whom also worked on Doom Scroll, so I definitely want to shout that out! |
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Hayley is a freelance video editor most known for her work co-editing Aimee Kuge's feature horror-romance Cannibal Mukbang. Doom Scroll is her directorial debut. Inspired by her own struggles with social media addiction, she wrote Doom scroll during a slow period where she wasn't getting any work. During this time, she questioned her own purpose while mindlessly scrolling meaningless content, and one day started to write.
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