Every first feature is a massive challenge and monumental achievement, but a feature directorial debut doesn’t get much bigger than making a newThe Omenmovie with a company like 20th Century Studios at your back. After directing episodes ofChannel Zero,Legion,BriarpatchandBrand New Cherry Flavor, that’s the opportunity first-time feature filmmakerArkasha Stevensonscored.
The First Omenis a prequel to the 1976Richard Donner-directed classic. It introducesNell Tiger Freeas Margaret, a young American novitiate who goes to Rome to work at an orphanage before taking the veil. She’s thrilled to start heading down this new path, convinced it’s her destiny, but soon comes to realize she’s right smack in the middle of an extremely dark and sinister conspiracy, one that causes her to question her faith.
In celebration ofThe First Omen’s April 5th release, Stevenson joined me for an extended interview to recap her journey from studying photojournalism to contributing to one of the most legendary horror film franchises of all time.
The One Thing Film School Can’t Teach You
Initially, Stevenson planned to pursue a career in photojournalism, but after making the pivot to directing, film school became an invaluable experience, one that helped her shake the solo nature of photography and embrace the collaboration of filmmaking. She explained:
“I think that I’m so grateful for going to film school because I think it really taught me how to collaborate. I think coming from the world of photojournalism, you’re very much a lone wolf and you’re doing everything yourself, and sometimes you won’t ever work with another person, and so then all of a sudden you’re a director and you’re working with all these different department heads and you’re collaborating with, sometimes, hundreds of people.It was so nice getting to learn about the other disciplines, and learn how to speak creatively with other people, which sometimes I think is harder than I intuited, but also not as hard as I thought it would be at the same time.”
While Stevenson clearly had a lot to gain from studying her craft in a school setting, there’s one thing she’s convinced no program can teach an aspiring filmmaker.
“you may get all those skills, but if you don’t have something to say, they won’t help you at all.So I think also, a lot of film school was understanding, what do I want to contribute to this bigger conversation? And that’s not an answer you come up with right away. I’m still trying to figure it out, but knowing that there is something that you want to speak to somewhere was important.”
One of the Best TV Shows of All Time: ‘Channel Zero’
The First Omenofficially marks Stevenson’s feature directorial debut, but in a sense, she’s already made three films' worth of television via Season 3 of one of my favorite shows of all time,Channel Zero.
Channel Zerois a Syfy horror anthology series created byNick Antosca. The show ran for four seasons with each season’s story based on a different creepypasta.Craig William Macneilldirected all six episodes of Season 1,Candle Cove, thenSteven Piethelmed Season 2,No-End House, and then in came Stevenson who directed the entirety of Season 3,Butcher’s Block.
After I took a moment to share my enthusiasm for the series, Stevenson replied, “Thank you for being aChannel Zerofan. I am obsessed withChannel Zeromyself. I know I’m biased, but I just think it’s a fantastic show, and it’s like our era’sTwilight Zone.” A big comparison to make, but one I wholeheartedly agree with.
So what exactly is it like going from directing shorts to an entire season of television? Stevenson recalled:
“It was a little bit of a jump. It was a little bit of a leap. Nick, the showrunner and creator, had seen a short that me and my creative partner, Tim Smith, had done called Pineapple, and this short is like 20 minutes, but because it’s a little longer than a short film, people were calling it a pilot. And so I think everybody had thought that I had shot television before and I was just like, ‘Yeah! Yes. Trust me with your season of television.’ [Laughs]”
Antosca’s trust was not misplaced. Not only did Stevenson deliver a stellar season ofChannel Zero, but then she went on to direct an episode of yet another phenomenal Antosca-created show, Netflix’sBrand New Cherry Flavor.
“Getting to do Brand New Cherry Flavor I think prepared me for doing [The First Omen] and starting to understand the world that you’re in and how your character fits into it visually. It was a really great exercise, and then any time I can make somebody vomit a kitten over and over again, I will gladly do it. It was one of the highlights of my life.”
“Disney Has a Vagina Now!”
‘The First Omen’s Demon Phallus Didn’t Warrant an NC-17, But the Female Body Did
“It wasn’t what was happening to the body that was offensive, it was the body, the image of the vagina that was offensive," said Arkasha Stevenson.
A highlight of her life that paved the way to yet another — directing her very first feature film. Wondering how someone scores the opportunity to have their first feature be a newOmenmovie backed by a major studio? Stevenson walked me through the process:
“I thought I was getting punk’d when our agent called and said, ‘Yes, you! You’re directing it!’ I’m like, ‘What?’ It was a really pleasant, dreamy experience. I know that sounds really Mister Rogers-y, but it was actually very smooth and almost felt spoken, you know? Spoken in in a weird way because I had just met Gracie Wheelan, who works at Phantom Four, and she was really kind and sent me the script and let me read it. I was already such a big Omen fan, and so was Tim, and it had a very special place in our hearts, so I think we really approached the script as skeptics and Omen lovers. And then we opened it and the lead character’s this novitiate, andwe were just really, I think, surprised that the lead would be a young woman, and that felt like a really great reentrance into the franchise.”
Not only was it a promising reentrance into the franchise in general, but the storyline was especially well suited to Stevenson given the themes she was most eager to explore. She continued:
“Then it’s really all about answering the question of,how did Damien come to be? And to talk about that, we’re gonna be talking about birth themes.We’re gonna be talking about the female body, and autonomy over the female body, and that’s something I was really wanting to speak about. And also, doing that through body horror set pieces, I really love to explore body horror, and so that was the pitch that we went forward with. And I think one of the scenes that we really pitched was the birthing clinic scene, andwe talked about what we wanted to shoot and how we wanted to shoot it and expecting Disney to laugh and shut their laptop. We were with our producers, Keith Levine and David Goyer, and they were so supportive that I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m just gonna pitch this.’ And everybody was in! It was very cool.”
After mentioning my delight at seeing Disney of all studios serve as the home to such bold and thoughtful horror, Stevenson replied, “Isn’t it nice? Disney has a vagina now!”
‘The First Omen’ Reveals How and Why Damien Was Born
In addition to using anOmenstory to address autonomy over the female body, Stevenson andTim Smithwere also able to explore cultural anxieties in the 70s to answer a very importantOmenquestion — not just how, butwhyDamien was born. Stevenson explained:
“A lot of what Tim and I tried to do is really personalize the horror and really bring it into the body and bring out these themes of birth and what happens to women’s relationships with each other, but also what happens to the female form physically when you’re in this very oppressive, male dominated institution, and also trying to connect that to a lot of the political turmoil that was happening at the time in Italy in the 1970s because I think thatwhile the script gave us a real anchor at the end for how Damien was born, we really wanted to try and answer a little bit more of why. And I think that that’s something that’s so special about the films that came out of the 70s was that you’re very focused on talking about what the cultural anxieties were and what was happening to the family unit and the human psyche during the counterculture and the effects of the Vietnam War and people just mistrusting institutions, and I think that there is a huge parallel between the 70s and right now.”
Looking for even more on Stevenson’s journey to makingThe First Omen, and her experience expanding one of the most iconic horror franchises out there? You can catch the full non-spoiler portion of our conversation in the video at the top of this article.
The First Omen
A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.
The First Omenhits theaters on April 5th. Click below for showtimes.
