Christian TotoTyler Smith takes movies as seriously as any film critic. So when he rewatched the 2012 thriller “Entrance” with a friend, he couldn’t believe a commercial break appeared seconds before a killer jump scare.
“The very least you can do is watch [a movie] without any interruption,” says Smith, a veteran critic, podcaster, professor, and filmmaker (“Reel Redemption: The Rise of Christian Cinema”). That memory stuck with him, one of several reasons he helped create Jitters, a new streaming service for genre film fans — think horror, science fiction, thrillers, and more.
Jitters is a reasonably priced alternative ($3.99/month) to major players in the space. The twist? The platform’s catalog is specifically curated to bring the very best of cinema, or films that influenced film art over time, to consumers.
The service is currently available on Roku devices, but it will be expanding to other platforms soon. It’s one of several projects Smith has tackled following a devastating 2022 illness that left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Smith contracted COVID-19 for the second time that summer but recovered quickly. He suddenly felt sick again, assuming he hadn’t shaken the virus after all.
“This felt different,” he recalls. He slept for 12 hours at a time and battled a pounding headache and other symptoms.
He went to the emergency room and woke up almost a month later. His kidneys had shut down, his nervous system stopped working, and he wasn’t able to breathe on his own. He slipped into a coma for several weeks.
When he finally woke up, he couldn’t move or talk. His doctors finally determined he had contracted West Nile Virus. The virus often goes undetected in 80% of cases, but some suffer flu-like symptoms that persist for weeks.
Fewer than 1% of patients endure what Smith has for the past four years. In that time, he has experienced some minor muscle control, improved speaking ability, and can breathe on his own for several hours.
He currently lives in a long-term care home next to his church, but apart from his wife and their twin six-year-old sons, he is alone.
“I can get onto the church property from the backyard of my house. And that has helped a lot. It’s helped keep me sociable,” he says. “My church has been a tremendous support for me and for my family. And so that’s really been a blessing.”
He hopes to make more progress with his breathing and speech in the months to come. Meanwhile, he’s resumed work as a script consultant, revived his “Battleship Pretension” podcast with co-host David Bax and poured his film-loving heart into Jitters.
Higher-priced platforms like Shudder and Screambox offer more titles, but Smith still saw an opening in the marketplace. Jitters’s hand-picked selection includes revered titles “Poltergeist” (1982), “Halloween” (1978), and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934), skipping past the slop other streamers serve up.
“I just thought, if someone was not able to afford Shudder anymore, and they flipped over to us, I think they would be very happy with what they had access to, and they’d be happy that they wouldn’t have to watch ads … that’s the opening that I saw.
“It’s the curation that makes it unique,” he adds.
The catalog doesn’t always reflect Smith’s personal tastes, but he includes culturally significant films or those that captured the zeitgeist in a given era.
One example: “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” considered one of the worst movies ever made.
“So why on earth would we have it? It’s precisely because it was considered the worst movie of all time,” he says. “It was a movie that people said, ‘You have to see it.’”
Smith admits he has his share of dark days given his condition. Some might turn to film comedies or musicals to process those feelings, which he occasionally does. But for Smith, thrillers can offer a unique solace.
“Art, in general, is sort of a conversation between the artist and the audience, and sometimes an audience member is comforted by even the most depressing works of art because in that moment, they realize, ‘Oh, I’m not alone.’ I’m not alone in my feelings. Someone else has clearly had them as well … and this person was able to channel that into this film,” he says. “It sounds counterintuitive, but it can really make you feel connected with other people.”
“It’s that pain and illness and all of that can be extremely isolating,” he continues. “When people come and try to cheer you up, that’s even more isolating. But if you have a person, or in this case, a movie that is just willing to sit with you in the sadness and the depression, you feel less alone. And I feel that these movies can help a lot of people, not just me, but I think it makes a lot of people feel less alone.”
He hopes Jitters will someday expand to include original programming and give aspiring filmmakers a place to share their craft.
“That’s the good thing about living in Los Angeles for as long as I have. You get to know writers and directors, people who put out good stuff, but they just need resources, and it’d be cool if one day we could be that resource,” he says.
Please consider supporting Tyler and his family through prayer and, if so inclined, a donation through his GoFundMe page here. You can also read more about Tyler’s story at his Caring Bridge page here.
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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. He’s also the host of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto.
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