Todays guest, Rachel Kerry, is an award-winning filmmaker & theatre director who specializes in horror comedy, musical theatre, and interactive storytelling. Her work has been hailed as "unabashed extravagance" by Time Out, "triumphantly weird" by io9, and "uncompromising parody" by The Scotsman. She received her MFA in directing from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Southern California. In 2024 she was selected to be one of 10 fellows as part of Filmshop’s Breakthrough Series. And Just last summer, her film “Strangers on the A Train” took the prize for best slasher/stalker film at the Screaming Room Film Festival at Midsummer Scream.

I met Rachel last year at the Queer Fear film festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and we had a great conversation on stage about our filmmaking that I was excited to expand on for our listeners.

Chapters:(00:00) Introduction to Rachel Kerry(01:15) From Theater Director to Horror Filmmaker(04:00) Directing Actors: Theater vs Film Performance(08:15) Immersive Theater, Interactive Storytelling & Horror(12:30) Studying Directing in Australia at NIDA(16:20) Why Horror Comedy Is Rachel Kerry's Creative Home(20:10) Musical Theater Meets Horror Filmmaking(24:15) Building a Career in Independent Film(28:30) Film Festivals, Networking & Finding Your Community(32:00) Strangers on the A Train: Award-Winning Horror Short(36:10) Writing Horror Comedy That Actually Works(40:15) Practical Directing Lessons for Independent Filmmakers(44:20) Creating Memorable Horror Characters & Performances(48:10) Developing New Projects & The Making of Iron Teeth(52:15) Producing Horror Shorts on a Budget(56:00) Good, Fast, Cheap: The Reality of Indie Filmmaking(59:25) Advice for Emerging Horror Filmmakers(1:00:00) Where to Follow Rachel Kerry & Upcoming Projects

Follow Rachel on instagram @rfkerry

Our theme music is by ‪@nick_ferreri‬ | Insta: @nick_ferreri

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