A stellar team at the creative head of the Netherlands-based genre outfit Bloodrave Films, David-Jan Bronsgeest and Tim Koomen are behind some of the most promising films to come from the country. Now, in honor of the upcoming release of their film "Jimmy" at the 2025 edition of the Screamfest LA Film Festival, I talk with them about their early interest in the genre, the early life of the film, and getting it filmed.
Me: Hello, and thank you for taking the time to do this! When did you get into horror in general? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
Tim Koomen: I got into horror when I was about thirteen. I rented Scream 2 from the local video store, not really knowing what I was in for - and that was it. I was hooked. Horror had already been on my radar, though. When I was little, my parents were never particularly happy together, but they shared one thing: a love for horror movies. One day at a market, they bought Hell Night with Linda Blair and handed me the VHS. The cover fascinated me: Linda Blair hanging from a gate, reaching toward the camera while something chased her.
When no one was around, I slid the tape into the player and fast-forwarded to a scene that matched one of the little pictures on the back - her being grabbed by hands coming out of the walls. I burst into tears. My mom was furious that I’d watched something I wasn’t supposed to, but that’s when I knew: if it scared me and I wasn’t supposed to see it, then I wanted to.
From then on, it became an obsession. I’d go to the weekly sneak previews at our local cinema and always guess which film was the horror one. The Sixth Sense, Halloween H20, Freddy vs. Jason - whenever a scary movie came on, half the audience would walk out, but not me. I even travelled to see an early screening of Paranormal Activity before anyone knew what it was. I collected bootlegs, imported Japanese DVDs like Ringu, and anything I could get my hands on.
If I had to pick the film that truly sealed it, though, it’s Scream. But if you go back even further, there was also The Great Mouse Detective. The villain terrified me as a kid, and I think that’s when I first realized fear could be thrilling. Anything that scared me made my blood run faster.
Me: When did you first discover a passion for filmmaking? Were you always interested in the creative arts growing up?
TK: My love for storytelling really started with language, not a camera. I was obsessed with how words could pull you into another world. As a kid, I read constantly - libraries were sort of my safe place - and I used to write horror stories for my classmates. Whenever we had a school trip, I’d prepare a story where every kid in my class was a character, and I’d kill them off one by one. It was probably half therapy, half entertainment. I was a bullied kid, so writing gave me power and attention in a way I didn’t have in real life.
Video games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill fed that same imagination. They were interactive nightmares, and I think that sense of atmosphere and dread has stayed with me ever since.
Filmmaking itself came later, when I got into the film academy in Amsterdam. I actually applied for screenwriting first and didn’t get in - but they encouraged me to reapply for Creative Producing, which I did. That’s where I met David-Jan, and where it all really started to take shape. The love for physically making movies grew from there, and the writing naturally came along with it.
Me: Growing up in the Netherlands, did that hinder your interest in the genre or force you to turn to the local cinema for inspiration?
TK: In the Netherlands, we don’t have a big genre history. When we made Jimmy, it was probably only the twentieth horror film ever produced here. Horror just isn’t embedded in our culture the way it is in the U.S., Asia, or even parts of Europe. We have a few older titles that are considered “classics,” but the quality and ambition were never on the same level as what was happening abroad.
So growing up, my inspiration never came from Dutch cinema. The local theaters mostly showed American hits, and even then, it wasn’t easy to find what I wanted. When The Blair Witch Project came out, it was huge internationally, but it didn’t play anywhere near my town. I had to hunt down screenings, and for Donnie Darko, I even travelled all the way to Amsterdam. I grew up about forty-five minutes outside the city, so every viewing felt like a small mission.
It never discouraged me - it just made the chase part of the fun. I grew up as the internet started to take off, and I’d spend hours on sites like JoBlo.com and Arrow in the Head, looking for obscure recommendations. That’s how I discovered so many great horror films. So no, growing up in the Netherlands didn’t hinder my interest; it probably just made me more stubborn about finding what I loved.
Me: Having worked on various aspects of film production, do you have any particular preference for working on any?
TK: As a writer, I’m obviously most invested in the creative process leading up to production, but I’ve always had a special fascination with editing. I’m not an editor myself, but I see writers and editors as the creative bookends of filmmaking - the ones who build the story from nothing and the ones who shape it into its final form. I always encourage writers to sit down with editors early on, even before shooting, to get their take on how the story could breathe on screen.
Music plays a huge role for me as well. Outside of film, it’s one of my biggest passions. The tone of a movie often starts with the music for me - it’s where the emotion and rhythm of the story live, and it directly feeds back into my writing.
As a producer, I learned early on that you have to know when to zoom in and when to pull back. My background in commercials taught me how to move fast and make decisions under pressure, but film producing requires pacing yourself - spreading your energy and focus across multiple projects.
Working with David-Jan makes that balance easier. He’s incredibly strong in the visual and stylistic side - casting, look, tone - while I lean more toward structure, storytelling, and strategy. Together, we cover the full spectrum. And beyond the creative side, what I love most about producing is the challenge of getting the film out into the world: building the financing, finding the right partners, and making sure it actually reaches an audience.
Me: When working on a new project, do you prefer to be involved from the beginning or work later on once it’s been started?
TK: I’m always involved from the very beginning. With Bloodrave, everything starts and ends with us. The ideas, the structure, the tone - it all comes from the conversations between David-Jan and me. We develop our concepts together, build the act structure, and shape the world before I move into the actual writing. That’s where I add my own rhythm and suggestions, and we keep bouncing it back and forth until it feels alive.
Because I also produce, I stay close to the project all the way through. It’s not a case of writing something and handing it off - I’m there for development, production, and the bigger creative decisions. Sometimes, I collaborate with other teams outside of Bloodrave, but that’s usually in a script-coaching capacity. Writing with David-Jan has a unique flow, and that’s really where I feel most at home.
Me: That brings us to your latest film, “Jimmy.” What can you tell us about the project?
TK: Jimmy is our debut feature, a supernatural slasher about a young woman who returns to her hometown for the wake of a friend who has just died. As she reconnects with her old group, she discovers that they’re all obsessed with the same true-crime podcast - one that’s connected to their shared past in ways they don’t yet realize. What they don’t know is that listening to it will bring Jimmy back.
Stylistically, the film draws a lot of inspiration from the Italian giallo genre - movies like Deep Red and Tenebrae. We wanted that same heightened sense of color, sensuality, and mystery, combined with a modern psychological edge. It’s a story about obsession, guilt, and the way trauma mutates when it’s retold too many times.
The film originated from our short Meet Jimmy, which was optioned by Paramount in 2019. We developed it for a while with The Picture Company and Platinum Dunes, and it got quite far. But after a series of external circumstances—COVID being one of them - the rights eventually came back to us. That turned out to be a blessing. It allowed us to reimagine Jimmy in the Netherlands on our own terms, with full creative control and a more personal vision.
Me: Where did the inspiration for the film come from? Were there any unique stories about its conception? What was the early life of the film like?
TK: The inspiration for Jimmy goes back to 2018. At that point, David-Jan and I had just finished film school and had gone our own ways for a couple of years, but we were already talking about what still drove us - the kind of story we really wanted to tell. One evening, I left my old office building while listening to a true-crime podcast, and I suddenly thought: What if the killer could hear me listening to him?
That moment stuck with me. There’s something both fascinating and disturbing about how we consume true crime - the way we treat real tragedy as entertainment. It’s a strange kind of safety, this idea that as long as we’re the ones listening, we’re protected. That mix of attraction and guilt became the seed for Meet Jimmy, the short film where a girl’s obsession with a podcast literally comes back to haunt her.
From there, Jimmy went through many incarnations. After we won the pitch competition at Imagine Film Festival, we were invited to the Frontières Co-Production Market in Montreal. Someone there told us, “Make sure you have a feature script ready.” So I wrote one in a few weeks - rough, but riveting. That first version was set in Atlanta, about a journalist investigating a killer targeting homeless people.
Then came later drafts: one set in the UK about a single mother who realizes the killer from the podcast lives in her building, and finally the version that became the film we made - a supernatural slasher about a group of friends and a mystery that unfolds across different timelines. It carries elements of I Know What You Did Last Summer but told with the fractured, puzzle-like storytelling I’ve always loved in films like Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Me: How did you become involved with the film? What specifically drew you to want to help produce it?
TK: My involvement goes all the way back to the short film that Jimmy originated from. It’s something David-Jan and I came up with together, and over the years, it became this little horror baby we couldn’t let go of. We’ve been nurturing it for seven years, watching it evolve, stall, grow again, and eventually become what it is now.
We always knew this was a story we had to get out of our system. Making the feature felt like a form of catharsis - taking everything we’d learned, all the heartbreaks and false starts, and channeling that into one film that finally reflected our own vision. There were long stretches where it was hard to stay motivated, but somehow we kept circling back to Jimmy. Every meeting, every new project, people would bring up the short. It just refused to die, in the best possible way.
Looking back, I understand why it had to take that time. The setbacks shaped us into better filmmakers. And while I’m sure there will be bigger and bolder projects ahead, Jimmy will always hold a special place for us. It’s the film that taught us perseverance and the value of making something on our own terms.
Me: With a cast of experienced and talented indie actors, how did you settle on the cast getting involved in the film? What characteristics did you look for with each performer that helped bring the production to life?
TK: Because we only had fifteen shooting days, we knew we needed experienced actors - people who could drop straight into character. On Binary, we’d worked with a non-actor, which was beautiful but time-consuming, so this time we went for performers who were already seasoned but still hungry to try something new.
Rick Paul van Mulligen, who plays Jimmy, is a mime actor with a fascinating physicality. We wanted him for his ability to convey emotion and menace through movement rather than dialogue. Isa Hoes, who plays Jimmy’s sister, was a household name from her soap-opera days, and it was a long-held wish of David-Jan’s to cast her in a completely different light - as a more unsettling, ambiguous presence.
The younger cast all came from the Dutch indie and TV scene. Richelle Plantinga (Sharon) and Sonia Eijken (Dilara) both grew up in children’s films and TV, so this gave them a chance to explore something darker. Sara Luna Zoric (Bowie) came from the arthouse world, and we wanted to draw out her intensity for a character with a subtle, haunting undertone. And Charlie-Chan Dagelet, who plays our lead, comes from a famous acting family and has been part of nearly every film we’ve made so far - from Binary to Sexorcism. This was the first time we gave her the full spotlight, and that collaboration is one we’ll keep returning to.
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
David-Jan Bronsgeest: We had a pretty intense shooting schedule—just 15 days—so everything was really tight. The cast was incredibly dedicated and gave it their all, but for me, it was the first time juggling the timing of action set pieces and dramatic arcs in a feature-length film. Even with all the night shoots and long hours, everyone stayed super focused because they were passionate about the horror genre and the story we were telling. The atmosphere was definitely intense and serious—not a lot of room for jokes—because we were dealing with some heavy scenes. But in the end, I’m really proud of how unique and focused it all felt.
Me: Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
DJB: Oh, definitely. One of the funniest moments happened during a pretty intense basement scene. Our villain, Jimmy (Rick Paul Van Mulligen), is up there collecting his victims and basically trying to turn our main character, Eva (Charlie-Chan Dagelet), into a replacement for his deceased sister, Edith (Isa Hoes). At one point, he puts a wig on her, and she ended up looking hilariously like Dolly Parton. We all just lost it laughing, which was such a needed comic relief after a couple of days in this really dark, closed-off space.
We also had a lot of fun moments with the prosthetics—like one of the actresses casually sitting at lunch with her “insides” still hanging out from a scene. It was such a funny contrast, and it just shows how working on horror can be both super intense and unexpectedly fun when you step out of the scary mindset for a bit and move into daylight with the crazy prosthetics people still wearing.
Me: How did moving from shorts to full-length films challenge your skills?
DJB: The shift from shorts to features was definitely a challenge. With a short, you’re basically telling an anecdote: you build a world quickly, you introduce a boogeyman, and then you have one big scare, and you’re out. But with a feature, you’re running a marathon. You have to keep the audience engaged for the long haul, really develop those characters, and layer in the scares so that people are fully invested.
For me, making my first feature meant figuring out how to move from those quick, punchy short film rhythms to something that could hold up for 80 or 90 minutes. It was about learning to weave in those podcast elements at the start, then gradually letting the story evolve into a full-blown physical slasher. I didn’t want people to watch actors listen all the time, so I kind of deluded myself that only for the first act. The movie gets more physical from there, and also more intense and serious. Looking back on it, I think we did great by combining these tech horror elements with the vulnerable emotional stakes of our characters trying to beat Jimmy. Understanding what kind of genre tropes you are using and how you apply them is something you want to master as a director sooner rather than later. Who do I want to tell this story to and why? It is something I always try to get my hands around, and it’s an endless rollercoaster where the fun lies in the loopings and crazy turns, not the outcome or the answers to that question. It’s like your first marathon as a filmmaker: you do some things wrong, you do some things brilliantly by accident, and you figure out how to really connect with your characters and your audience over a longer journey.
In the end, that first feature just sets the stage for where you go next. And now I feel like my journey’s really started, because I can see how much more personal and deep I want my films to be. In shorts, you really want to end the anecdote saying “Tada, I got you!” And you move on. Now creating hopefully more feature narratives, I want to stick around with my characters in a world where we both try to understand why we connect to the darkness and understand it.
Me: What did you want to accomplish with the film to set it apart from the other genre films that have recently come out?
TK: I never approached Jimmy with the goal of standing out from other genre films. It was more about staying true to my own taste, to the movies that shaped me, and to the feeling they gave me when I first watched them. Growing up, The Faculty was a huge influence. I remember sitting there, completely electrified by the mystery, the monster design, the tension of not knowing who to trust - and realizing at the end that the film was smarter than me. I love it when a story can still surprise me like that. The same goes for films like Mulholland Drive and Donnie Darko; they taught me that cinema can be emotional, strange, and layered all at once.
With Jimmy, the goal wasn’t to reinvent the wheel, but to create a slasher that feels alive in its own skin - a neon-drenched, rhythmic, unpredictable ride. We wanted it to have a pulse, a European edge, something raw and ravey that reflected our world rather than copying what’s already out there.
More than anything, I just wanted people to be entertained - to have that same rush I felt watching horror films as a teenager. If they’re scared, intrigued, and genuinely invested in the characters, then we’ve done our job.
And in a broader sense, that’s what we aim for with all our projects. Binary explored identity and the haunting of the self. Tina Town dives into addiction and intimacy. Another project deals with demonology and a clash between cultures. They’re all very different, but they come from the same place: a need to tell stories that only we can tell. Because when it comes from a genuine place, it will always be original.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you’d like to share with our readers?
TK: Right now, we’re developing several new projects through our company, Bloodrave. One of them is Tina Town, a psychological horror-drama about addiction, intimacy, and identity. It’s our most personal story so far, blending social realism with genre in a way that feels both grounded and disturbing.
We’re also working on Alles Wat Er Was, a TV series based on the novel by Hanna Bervoets. It’s about eight people trapped inside a school after a mysterious event outside. The story unfolds through the diary of a woman writing to her unborn child, mixing psychological tension with existential dread.
On top of that, we produced two short films this year that are screening at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, which we’re really proud of. They represent the kind of fresh, daring voices we love to support - filmmakers who push the boundaries of genre the same way we try to do ourselves.
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