Editorials
‘Freddy’s Dead’ Shattered a Glass Ceiling for Female Filmmakers in Hollywood
Freddy’s Dead was released on this day in ’91. We look back at its historical importance.
When Wonder Woman was released to critical acclaim and incredible box office success earlier this year, it was nothing if not a big deal in Hollywood. Not only did the big-budget film make a female superhero the star of the show, but it was also the first major superhero movie to be directed by a woman (Patty Jenkins).
To say the very least, Wonder Woman shattered a number of glass ceilings. But so too, many years prior, did a horror movie that rarely gets credit for being so groundbreaking.
September 13, 1991 saw the release of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, the planned end of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise that began just seven years prior. Freddy Krueger slashed up a new group of youngsters in the series’ sixth installment, which introduced us to Freddy’s long-lost daughter.
Freddy’s Dead marked the directorial debut of a then-unknown Rachel Talalay, making it the very first major franchise sequel to be helmed by a woman.
But it wasn’t Talalay’s first trip to Elm Street.
Rachel Talalay quickly rose up the ladder at New Line Cinema in the 1980s, starting off as an accountant who soon became an assistant production manager on Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Talalay was subsequently a production manager on Freddy’s Revenge, a line producer on Dream Warriors, and producer of Dream Master.
Simply put, by the time Freddy’s Dead came around, New Line’s Bob Shaye couldn’t think of anyone who was more fit to kill off Freddy Krueger than Talalay.
“I was happy to do 6 because of Rachel – Rachel getting to direct,” Robert Englund recalled in the documentary Never Sleep Again.
Being the first woman to direct such a major franchise movie was no cake walk for Talalay, as she explained to The New York Times in an article published in 1991. Within the article, titled Are Women Directors an Endangered Species?, Talalay noted that she would occasionally get internal memos on the Freddy’s Dead set that instructed her to not be “too girly” or “too sensitive.” That article, which points out how uncommon it was at the time for a female filmmaker like Talalay to find herself in such a position, sadly reads like it could’ve been written today.
“As Ms. Talalay’s experience indicates, female directors still face preconceptions growing out of the longstanding Hollywood mystique of the director as tough and omniscient figure,” wrote Larry Rohter in the aforementioned article. “And to hear many of her colleagues tell it, they must also confront barriers and discrimination in forms ranging from the blatant, including the much lower salaries that women members of the Directors Guild of America routinely earn, to the subtle.”
Looking back on her career in a chat with Entertainment Weekly last summer, Talalay laid out that things weren’t easy for her even after Freddy’s Dead grossed $35 million in theaters (it was #1 on the charts two weeks in a row); and the subsequent box office failure of Tank Girl, she says, tanked her Hollywood career completely.
“Coming off the Nightmare on Elm Street films, the three directors before me all went on to huge action films,” she explained. “I wasn’t afforded the same opportunity, and I feel that was absolutely to do with my gender.”
“So many men fail and then get their next opportunity,” she added. “I didn’t.”
Here in 2017, female directors are very much still an endangered species in Hollywood, which is why it was such a big deal when the Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman was such a massive hit. Looking back, it’s pretty remarkable to think that 26 years prior, New Line afforded Talalay the opportunity to shatter a similar glass ceiling for the horror genre. And it’s pretty sad, at the same time, to realize how little things have changed.
Rachel Talalay is to date still the *only* woman to helm any film in any major slasher movie franchise, which reminds that we’ve still got a long way to go.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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