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Leigh Janiak

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Leigh Janiak
Born
Leigh Anne Janiak[1]

(1980-02-01) February 1, 1980 (age 44)
Ohio, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
New York University
Occupations
  • Director
  • screenwriter
Years active2005–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2015)​

Leigh Anne Janiak (born February 1, 1980) is an American filmmaker. She is best known for directing the horror films Honeymoon (2014) and the Fear Street Trilogy (2021).

Early life and education

Janiak was born on February 1, 1980, in Ohio.[2] She graduated from Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio,[3] where she was heavily involved in theater. She did an undergraduate course in comparative religion at New York University, before studying at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study and then at a graduate school at the University of Chicago, where she was studying for a PhD in Modern Jewish Literature but left without earning the degree.[4][5]

Career

Janiak moved to Los Angeles in 2005, where she worked for two production companies.[4] Her first industry job was at Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, as a producer's assistant. Prior to directing Honeymoon, Janiak turned down an opportunity to direct a network television show as one of the conditions of the directing job required her to shadow a veteran director.[6] Janiak was afraid that shadowing a veteran director would affect her career as a female filmmaker as she did not want to be stigmatized.[6] Janiak made her directorial debut with the horror film Honeymoon, starring Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway, debuting the film at the South by Southwest in 2014. The film's development started in 2010,[7] and Janiak began writing the script together with Phil Graziadei in 2012.[4] The film shot in 2013 in North Carolina on a limited budget. It received positive reviews from critics, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes' critics' consensus stating that it "packs more slow-building horror than many bigger-budget productions."[8]

In May 2015, Sony Pictures announced that Janiak would be writing and directing a remake of the 1996 horror film The Craft.[9] In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Janiak was no longer attached to the project.[10] Janiak also directed some episodes of the horror TV shows Scream and Outcast.[10][11] She directed season 1, episode 7, "In the Trenches" and season 2, episode 9, "The Orphange" for Scream. For Outcast, she directed season 1, episode 7, "The Damage Done". She also directed season 1, episode 1 of Amazon Studios' 2021 teen drama series Panic. All of her entries in television were received well by fans.

In July 2017, a trilogy of films adapting R. L. Stine's Fear Street series of novels was announced by 20th Century Fox, with Janiak set to direct and rewrite the scripts with Graziadei.[10] The first film began filming at Atlanta and East Point, Georgia, in March 2019,[12][13] and filming wrapped in September 2019.[14] The three films were shot in succession throughout a 106 day shoot.[15] The trilogy was released in July 2021 on Netflix.[16] Natalia Winkelman described the trilogy as "Scream meets Stranger Things built on a supernatural premise sturdy enough to sustain interest and suspense over nearly six hours", in a review for The New York Times.[17] Fear Street includes three films, and Janiak plans to continue with the franchise and create a larger Fear Street Universe.[18]

On July 19, 2021, it was announced that Janiak was set to direct two episodes of the upcoming crime drama miniseries The Staircase.[11] Antonio Campos began developing the project in 2008, and it was announced in 2019 that Annapurna Television was bringing it into development. The series shot in 2021 in Atlanta, GA, and Janiak was brought on to direct two episodes. She directed episode 5, "The Beating Heart", and episode 6, "Red in Tooth and Claw". On May 5, 2022, the series premiered on HBO Max. The series was well received by audiences and critics, earning nominations from the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards, and Television Critics Association Awards.

Style and tone

Janiak's directing style differs from film to film. In Honeymoon, the film is steeped in sepia tones and all colors are desaturated. The idea and tone for the film were inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers.[19] The film heavily relies on body horror and subverts traditional horror gender roles.

Fear Street: Part One - 1994 paid homage to 90s slasher films like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.[20] The film mirrors the tone of these films with its sense of humor and cinematography as the film is shot in a studio style similar to 90s slasher films. The murder of Maya Hawke as the character of Heather in Fear Street: Part One - 1994 is a nod to Drew Barrymore's death as Casey in the original Scream Film. There is also a recreation of a scene in Scream where students make jokes about the murder that in Fear Street: Part One - 1994 where a student dons a skull-mask killer mask rather than a ghost-face killer mask. The film also employs some of the graphic violence that is portrayed in 90s slasher films. The film also adopts a 90s aesthetic in its settings through the use of the soft glow of neon lights in the Shadyside mall as well as in its soundtrack.

Janiak used Kate's death in the first film as a way of lulling the audience into a false sense of safety as she dies late in the film and has the most violent death in the entire trilogy.[21] Kate and Simon's death allow the audience to experience "real loss" that allows the series to propel forward.[21]

Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 pays homage slashers of the 70s, such as Friday the 13th (franchise), changing the setting from a mall to summer camp.[20] Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 filmed the camp sections at Camp Rutlege, which was across from Camp Daniel Morgan, a shooting location for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. [22] The camp setting is a direct homage to Friday the 13th. Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 takes on a voyeuristic tone similarly to 70s slashers in its cinematography as the viewer often watches how the events of the film unfold from outside of a window or hidden in the trees through a handheld camera.

Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 was the last movie to be filmed in the entire trilogy, which is why the tone varies so much from the first film and the second half of the last film. Because of this, Janiak decided to up the violence and blood.[21]

Unlike the first two installments, Fear Street: Part Three - 1666 does not pay homage to horror icons, but to The New World.[20] The first half of the film shows the dissolution and decay of a settlement. The scenes are shot in a desaturated color palette and are shot on a handheld camera to emulate the time period. The film also uses a lot of natural lighting to help set the tone. The film then jumps back to 1994, assuming the 90s aesthetic once again.

Themes

Honeymoon discusses the concept of identity throughout the film.[19] It relates to human fears by focusing on themes of losing loved ones, breaking trust, isolation, and losing one's identity.[23]

The Fear Street Trilogy allowed Janiak to create a horror film that told the stories of outsiders.[24] The film's main characters are a lesbian couple, allowing the film to discuss homophobia in a horror film as the queer characters are typically killed off early in horror films.[24] With discussing homophobia, the Fear Street Trilogy also discusses things like police brutality and the planting of evidence through the interactions between Martin and Sheriff Goode. We also see Sheriff Goode abuse his power as police chief in order to achieve his goals. This end reveal is Janiak's commentary about oppression by the powerful to maintain their status, rather than taking accountability for their own shortcomings. The characters who prevail in the end symbolize uniqueness and greatness being triumphant.

The divide of Shadyside and Sunnyvale allows the film to also discuss classism in how the townspeople interact with one another. There is a lot of commentary engrained into how townspeople describe the other town and how the towns are presented. Shadyside is considered lower-class and earns the moniker of "murder capital of the United States". Meanwhile, its sister but polar opposite town, Sunnyvale, is the safe home to the privileged upper-class. We also see themes of love struggling to overcome these divisions with two of the main characters, Deena and Sam, and again with Ziggy and Nick in Fear Street Part 2.[25]

Personal life

Janiak married fellow filmmaker Ross Duffer in Palm Springs, California, in December 2015. The couple met in 2006 at a production company in Los Angeles, where Janiak was an assistant to the producer and Duffer was an intern.[2]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Distributor
2014 Honeymoon Yes Yes Magnolia Pictures
2021 Fear Street Part One: 1994 Yes Yes Netflix
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 Yes Yes Netflix
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 Yes Yes Netflix

Television

Year Title Notes Distributor
2015–16 Scream Episodes "In the Trenches" and "The Orphanage" The Weinstein Company
2016 Outcast Episode "The Damage Done" 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
2018 Panic Episode "Pilot" (executive producer) Amazon Studios
2022 The Staircase 2 episodes Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment

References

  1. ^ "Leigh Janiak, Ross Duffer". The New York Times. December 27, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Leigh Janiak, Ross Duffer". The New York Times. December 27, 2015. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 6, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  3. ^ "Northeast Ohio native Leigh Janiak directs her first Hollywood movie, a horror flick". News-Herald. September 10, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Barone, Matt (March 9, 2014). "SXSW: The Festival's Creepiest Movie About (Doomed) Love is Also Its Most Inconspicuous". Complex. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  5. ^ "USC Cinematic Arts | School of Cinematic Arts Events". cinema.usc.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Dowd, Maureen (November 20, 2015). "The Women of Hollywood Speak Out". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  7. ^ Lurie, Danielle (March 7, 2014). "The Women of SXSW: Honeymoon Writer/Director Leigh Janiak". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  8. ^ "Honeymoon (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. September 12, 2014. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  9. ^ Kit, Borys (May 13, 2015). "Cult Horror Movie The Craft to Get Remake by Sony (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Kit, Borys (July 13, 2017). "Fox Developing R.L. Stine's Fear Street as Theatrical Movie Series Released Months Apart". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Petski, Denise (July 19, 2021). "Leigh Janiak To Direct Two Episodes Of HBO Max's True-Crime Series 'The Staircase'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  12. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (March 12, 2019). "Fear Street: Benjamin Flores, Jr. Joins Fox and Chernin Entertainment's R.L. Stine Adaptation". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
  13. ^ Williams, Dorjan (March 13, 2019). "East Point has nothing to fear but 'Fear' itself". WXIA-TV. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  14. ^ Ho, Rodney (October 10, 2019). "Active Georgia TV/film productions drop to 35 vs. 42 in October 2018". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on January 11, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  15. ^ "Fear Street star on how Netflix movies were filmed "back to back to back"". Newsweek. July 14, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  16. ^ Santer, Kristen (May 19, 2021). "First Fear Street Trailer Reveals Netflix's Ambitious Horror Trilogy, Which Will Be Released This Summer". Collider. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  17. ^ Winkelman, Natalia (July 16, 2021). "Fear Street Trilogy Review: Carnage and Close Calls". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 18, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  18. ^ Moore, Camille (July 24, 2021). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Leigh Janiak". TVOvermind. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  19. ^ a b Sigler, Gabriel (January 7, 2015). "Interview: Honeymoon director Leigh Janiak on her terrifying horror debut". Bad Feeling Magazine. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  20. ^ a b c Wong, Stevie (July 6, 2021). "Leigh Janiak Redefines 'Netflix And Chill' With Horror Trilogy Fear Street: It's "A Hybrid Of Traditional Television Content And Movies"". Deadline. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  21. ^ a b c Erbland, Kate (July 4, 2021). "Fear Street: Why Filmmaker Leigh Janiak Fought for Lots of Gore, Especially Her 'Shocking' Favorite Kill". IndieWire. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  22. ^ "Where Was Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Filmed?". Decider. July 9, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  23. ^ "Permanent Midnight: Love Is Hell for "Game of Thrones" Star Rose Leslie in the Super-Creepy "Honeymoon"". Complex. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  24. ^ a b "Leigh Janiak Interview: Fear Street Director Discusses the Horror Trilogy". ComingSoon.net. July 9, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  25. ^ Nemiroff, Perri (July 18, 2021). "'Fear Street' Star Ashley Zukerman Breaks Down The Themes of '1666' and Why Nick Was So Drawn to Ziggy and Deena". Collider. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
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