We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Hayes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, David thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
I think there is a genre bias that really doesn’t allow for the tried and true use of metaphor in the modern age. My work tends to learn to the dark and, sometimes, icky, but the social commentary that underlies each of the works is often ignored because of those presentation choices. As a social scientist and a speculative genre practitioner, I recognize that many of our social ills are addressed through extreme fiction (although, lately, much of that has been ‘banned’ in some form or another). For example, dismissing the horror genre as grime and gore without substance is ill-advised and just wrong. I can tell a socially conscious story set in a terrible world filled with monsters and mayhem because those are an allegory for our real-life monsters and mayhem. The bias or dismissiveness effectively destroys messages. That has been disconcerting.
David, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been a practitioner in the horror and thriller genre, segueing to the world of forensic psychology and cold case investigation (in real life) for the past quarter of a decade or so. I started as a performer on stage and playwright in Chicago moving into the film world in the late 1990s. I largely retired from performing filmed entertainment by 2010-ish, but actively still write for stage and screen (Rottentail was in theatres in 2019 and Ouija Slumber Party begins filming in 2025). To date, I’ve had a hand in over 100 films. I have written graphic novels (The Rot, Dial P for Peanutes, Kringle, etc.), novels (Cannibal Fat Camp, Cherub, etc.), poetry, stage (an off-Broadway run for Swamp Ho was a highlight), and many other areas. I’ve dabbled in other areas, too, like professional wrestling (as Joe Broni) and in music (as Dr. Cujo, my debut album will be out in mid-2025). All of this kind of orbits the day job as a professor of communications and forensic psychology. In that world, I am an advocate for prison education and actively work cold case files in Michigan for various organizations. You can visit www.davidchayes.com or www.hayescriminology.com for up-to-date information.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was that I didn’t need to pay attention to societal expectations. I grew up in a VERY rural town in Michigan. This was the type of place that routinely wore their bed linens on Friday nights, if you know what I mean. Growing up I was given a very specific set of rules of what it meant to be male and what was considered the “right” thing to do. As one can imagine, these were very specific. In addition, I was told in no uncertain terms what success meant. It meant working in prescribed industries and was measured by type of car you had. As a youth, I found fulfillment in things that were not on those prescribed lists so suppressed my inclination to art and performance. I had to leave and see the wider world to realize that I determined what success was… and no one else. In my estimation, that included a large body of work that many people would find distasteful.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2011, a family emergency necessitated I move from the west coast, where I had built the foundation for a solid film career, back to Michigan, where film projects were pretty much shelved by the Republican governor. I still had a burning need to tell stories so needed to pivot. This is when I switched my focus to graphic novels and prose. A fortuitous move that, ultimately, brought me back into the film world when my graphic novel Rottentail was optioned, I wrote the screenplay, and it debuted in theaters in 2019. Since then I’ve managed to keep my toe in the proverbial water.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidchayes.com
- Instagram: instragram.com/abnormalent
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/abnormalent
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hayes-phd-mfa-a7b33b5/
- Twitter: @abnormalent
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@abnormalent
- Other: www.hayescriminology.com
www.splattertheatre.com
www.joebronitalks.com
Image Credits
All images are property of David C. Hayes.