Terry Jarrell

I'm Terry Jarrell, a writer and director based in Central Florida and the founder of Black Dog Filmz. My horror feature Harlow's Haunt earned more than 100 awards, laurels and official selections across the 2022-2023 festival circuit. It's distributed internationally by BayView Entertainment and streams on Prime Video, Tubi, Plex, Fandango at Home and Screambox, among others, in ten countries. I grew up in West Virginia, where my love of horror started in the balcony of an old classic movie theater. My father was the projectionist, and I spent my childhood watching Hammer double features and the horror of the 70s and 80s, with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and the classics, and that's where my taste took shape. My sensibilities run classic and story-driven: Hitchcock, Hammer, Lynch and Spielberg, cerebral tales with a Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow spirit. Black Laurel brings all of that together.

I’ve spent years writing short stories, collections of tales and pieces of larger storylines that never fit inside a single feature. When I first learned about the vertical format, I realized it was the home those stories had been waiting for. The universe I’d been building all that time finally had the right shape: short, haunting episodes that add up to something bigger.

Short vertical stories also suit horror better than almost anything. Fear works in small doses: a held shot, a sound that doesn’t belong, a door that shouldn’t be open. Ninety seconds is enough to build dread and end on a cliffhanger, and on a phone the viewer is right inside the frame. It’s close to the way I grew up watching horror, one unsettling story at a time, in the spirit of The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt.

Black Laurel is a vertical horror anthology set in Laurel County, West Virginia, where Appalachian folklore, haunted Americana and impossible places collide. Season One follows a group of strangers through a violent storm, a carnival gone wrong and an abandoned old church. Step through its doors and you're in another world: vast, alien and far bigger than any building should be.

Season One is the first chapter of a larger universe: a multi-season, ongoing roadmap, each unique season with its own characters and era, all tied together by Laurel County and loaded with Easter eggs and callbacks that reward viewers who watch closely.

Each episode runs about a minute and a half and ends on a hook that pulls you straight into the next, and together they build one larger story. I want viewers to feel unnerved, compelled, and unable to stop at just one. Sound is as important as the story and the image, so Black Laurel is best experienced with headphones, where the deep, low sound design can do its work.

Story comes first. I write the beats, then build character and location reference sheets so every episode looks consistent. I design the key frame for each shot, approve it, and then animate it with AI-assisted tools. Editing, pacing, sound design and final polish are done in Final Cut Pro, with room tone and silence doing as much of the work as any score. AI is the production infrastructure, not the subject of the story. My rule is the Black Dog Filmz S.E.T. Method: Story first. Emotion second. Technology third.

Consistency. Keeping a character's face, wardrobe and world the same from shot to shot takes real discipline, and so does knowing when a shot is good enough to keep. I learned to lock key frames before spending effort on animation, to test on a phone early, and to protect the edit. The other hard part is finishing: it's easy to keep tinkering, and shipping episodes matters more than perfecting one.

A strong hook in the first seconds, one clear moment of dread or surprise, and an ending that makes you need the next episode. I plan each episode as five short beats: hook, discovery, escalation, danger, and a cliffhanger. Silence and room tone do more work than a score. Restraint keeps people watching.

Start smaller than you think. Write one scene you can finish. Use what you have: a phone, free tools, a story only you can tell. Build a small system you can repeat, then ship one episode, then the next. You learn more from finishing a rough episode than from planning a perfect one.

Making the series was the easier part. Getting it in front of people is its own full-time job, and distribution matters a great deal for independent creators. I keep my rights, stay non-exclusive, and put Black Laurel on several platforms alongside my own social channels.

Align yourself with popular horror or appropriate online groups and be active in those communities. Seek out podcasts, panels or anything relevant to your film or vertical to give it a public voice and build awareness. The old saying holds true: the best advertisement is word of mouth.

I'm just getting started with HeyRuby, and what stands out so far is how thorough and professional the creator system is. Everything is in one place: a public creator page, a clear way to submit and manage a series, a transparent royalty structure, and tools for tracking how episodes perform. It's well put together for presenting vertical series, and it also gives creators a way to connect with producers for collaboration and to build their brand in different ways. I'm looking forward to seeing how it works once Black Laurel is live.

Season One continues through the carnival, the church and what waits inside it. Beyond that, a larger Black Laurel universe: a multi-season roadmap with unique seasons and storylines, companion books including a novel adaptation of Harlow's Haunt, a fan community, and many more stories set across Laurel County. Follow along at @CovenOfLaurel on X and on YouTube at @BlackLaurelOfficial, as well as on our Facebook and Instagram accounts.