Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Beyond the Night’s Jason Noto

When soldier Ray Marrow is called back from war, he’s faced with burying the love of his life, while also becoming a single parent. His situation goes from bad to worse when his young son begins revealing information he shouldn’t know about the coal mining town and the local gangster’s missing daughter. Beyond the Night is a thrilling journey that reveals some secrets don’t die.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with director Jason Noto about the film.

PC: What was the inspiration behind Beyond the Night?
Jason: It’s slightly morbid, but I have been surrounded by death for most of my life, from the age of six or seven-years-old. My first job was as a very small newspaper boy and my neighbor’s father killed himself while I was outside the house. It obviously affected me and has stuck with me my whole life. I developed a fascination with the afterlife and how people respond to death, whether it’s suicide, natural causes, or an accident.

Throughout my life, that’s been sadly very common. I’ve known at least one person a year who’s died. In fact, while making this movie, three of my family members died. It’s very common in my life to be surrounded by death for some reason. I also have a natural fascination with it, and I knew that I wanted to do a story working with these themes. While I was doing research, I came across this idea surrounding port-wine stains and birthmarks, and how in certain cultures, they feel like it’s the death blow from which the individual died in a previous life. It was a fascinating idea to me and I knew I wanted to something with that.

Simultaneously, I grew up in this small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. The people there are very tight-knit and the truth isn’t relevant as long as everyone believes it. I wanted to marry those two ideas and bring them into one place: that’s how Beyond the Night came to be.

PC: How early on in the process did you decide that you were also going to direct the film?
Jason: It’s always been a goal of mine to write and direct my own content. I wasn’t against the idea of someone else directing this, but I was pretty dead set on feeling like I knew what it needed to be and how it needed to feel. I’m very happy that it all worked out.

PC: How did your experience directing short films prepare you for Beyond the Night?
Jason: Actually, I think it was my long history working in production in various departments. All of that experience helped me tremendously as far as temperament and understanding how a set works and the pace of everything.


The short film work that I did primarily helped me with the balance of working with actors, timing, and understanding what individuals need in order to offer their best performance.


PC: It’s your directorial debut. What was the most surprising part about the experience?
Jason: That’s a tricky question! The most surprising part may have been casting. I come from a blue-collar background, and I consider myself a very honest person. I think that I was challenged by some of the interactions I had throughout the process.

I definitely learned a lot. I learned how to navigate casting with large agencies and everything of that nature. That was a big learning lesson for me.

PC: How challenging was it for you to have dual roles?
Jason: It was actually a lot easier! At this point, I’ve had about five features that have been produced. I’m a visual writer and pretty detail-oriented, so for all of the projects that I was contracted to write, I would end up on set and sometimes become frustrated that it wasn’t visually coming together the way that I had written.


So, this project was so much less challenging. It was more freeing because I was at the helm to take the visual ideas I had when writing it and really just try to execute them through my direction.

PC: With the film out now, what do you hope audiences take away?
Jason: This circles back to my answer about my experiences with death, and it being so common in my life. I think I’ve almost gained a sense of acceptance; it doesn’t exist in quite as much of a fearful way in my life as it did before. I know from my experiences with friends and family that for many people, death exists as this really scary, unknown place.


I hope audiences walk away and start a conversation about what death and the afterlife are, what they could be, and what they might not be.

Beyond the Night is playing in select theaters now.

Photo Credit: David White