What do The Amityville Horror, Coyote Ugly, Desperately Seeking Susan, A Complete Unknown, and Deliver Me from Nowhere have in common? More than you might think. Each has a connection to the Jersey Shore, part of a filmmaking history that stretches back more than a century.
It’s a history that Marci Mazzarotto, MFA, PhD, associate professor of communication at Georgian Court University, has spent years uncovering. Since joining Georgian Court in 2018, Dr. Mazzarotto has focused much of her scholarship on film, television, and mass media. That expertise, combined with her curiosity about New Jersey’s filmmaking history, ultimately led to her first book, The Jersey Shore on Film, published by The History Press.
One of the connections she uncovered is especially close to home. The 1979 horror classic The Amityville Horror was partially filmed on Georgian Court’s campus, a detail that even many accounts of the movie’s filming locations leave out. “I’m surprised at how many people don’t realize that it was filmed on our campus, and even most sources online don’t say anything about our campus,” Dr. Mazzarotto said.
It is exactly the kind of overlooked piece of film history she set out to document in The Jersey Shore on Film. The book profiles more than 140 films spanning 110 years, taking readers from South Amboy to Cape May and exploring the television shows and music videos that have also contributed to the region’s film history. Atlantic City alone has appeared in dozens of films, including The King of Marvin Gardens, Atlantic City, and Desperately Seeking Susan, while Asbury Park has been featured in productions such as The Wrestler, I Saw the TV Glow, and Deliver Me from Nowhere.
For Dr. Mazzarotto, the surprising part wasn’t how much filmmaking had taken place along the Shore. It was that no one had ever pulled the full story together. “There’s no literature. There was nothing about it in existence,” she said. “As an academic, you’re searching for questions that are not answered, spaces that still need that discourse.”
Finding a Story That Hadn’t Been Told
The idea for the book began not long after Dr. Mazzarotto moved from California to New Jersey in 2018 to join Georgian Court. By the following summer, she was considering a research project focused on New Jersey filmmaking. Her original idea was to explore filmmaking throughout the state beyond Fort Lee, which played a significant role in the early American film industry, but the subject quickly proved too broad. She then considered focusing exclusively on Asbury Park, but that scope felt too narrow. When she began conversations with The History Press in 2023, the publisher suggested focusing on the Jersey Shore.
Filling that gap in the region’s documented film history required extensive research. After signing a book contract in 2024, Dr. Mazzarotto spent about two years watching films, documenting locations, reading end credits, and reviewing sources, including newspaper coverage dating back to the time of production. The volume of material ultimately shaped the book’s structure, with dedicated sections on Atlantic City and Asbury Park, a broader look at productions throughout the Shore, and a section on Red Bank native Kevin Smith and eight of his films shot in the region.
What Keeps Bringing Filmmakers to the Shore?
As Dr. Mazzarotto researched more than a century of filmmaking, she began to see what has repeatedly drawn filmmakers to the area. “There was a grittiness to the Shore, like Asbury Park was very gritty,” she said. “There was a beauty to it.” Beyond the beaches and iconic boardwalks, the region offers filmmakers a wide variety of settings within relatively short distances.
Georgian Court itself is an example. The university’s Lakewood campus includes its Japanese Garden, contemporary facilities, and spaces that can take on a much more historic appearance. “I think people might be surprised at how much diversity there actually is here,” Dr. Mazzarotto said. “It’s just kind of that one-stop shop, as filmmakers call it, to be able to come to a location and get so many different types of feels and not have to move.”
That same variety can be found throughout the Shore. For Which Brings Me to You, filmmakers used dozens of locations, most along the Jersey Shore. Dr. Mazzarotto interviewed the film’s director, Peter Hutchings, who pointed to the ability to work within a small footprint while accessing diverse locations as one of the area’s advantages. And the Shore’s role in filmmaking may continue to grow. Dr. Mazzarotto pointed to New Jersey’s more robust tax incentives since 2018 and growing infrastructure as factors likely to bring even more production to the region.
From Film Scholar to First-Time Author
Film has long been central to Dr. Mazzarotto’s academic work at Georgian Court. She has written numerous peer-reviewed articles on film and focuses much of her scholarship on film, television, and mass media. The Jersey Shore on Film gave her an opportunity to bring that expertise to an audience beyond academia, with a book she wanted to be accessible and interesting to people who love the Jersey Shore, people who love film, and academics alike.
She also sought out the people who helped create the history she was documenting, interviewing filmmakers whose work appears in the book. Among them was Susan Seidelman, director of Desperately Seeking Susan and Cookie. As a longtime admirer of Seidelman’s work, Dr. Mazzarotto described having the opportunity to sit down with her as “such an honor.” She said those conversations ultimately added another dimension to the book: “Having those other voices in there definitely, for me, makes my book stronger, makes it more interesting.”
After years spent researching, watching films, tracking down locations, conducting interviews, writing, and revising, Dr. Mazzarotto celebrated the book’s launch on July 18 at Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, fittingly bringing the project to one of the cities featured prominently in its pages. Since then, one of the most rewarding parts of the experience has been seeing readers engage with the history and discover films they may not have otherwise watched.
“One of the things that I kind of promise with the book is that whoever picks up this book will learn something they just didn’t know,” Dr. Mazzarotto said. Readers can approach the book almost like an encyclopedia, moving from movie to movie, or read it cover to cover and discover connections and “Easter eggs” along the way. Ultimately, she hopes readers come away with a greater appreciation for the two subjects at the heart of the book. “I just want people to be able to read something and feel like it’s a fun and informational read and walk away with a deeper appreciation of not only film, but also the Jersey Shore and those two things combined,” she said.
And perhaps a few more movies to add to their watch list.
The Jersey Shore on Film is available for purchase through The History Press/Arcadia Publishing and other major book retailers.
