FEAR FACTOR

Be afraid: Singer and actress Jami Ross, of Mentor, stars in the horror thriller Madness, by Bill Johns.Horror Filmmaking in Northeast Ohio Emerges from Under the Radar
By Elizabeth Weinstein
Photos Courtesy of Cinvid Productions

Scary movies have always held a certain fascination for local filmmaker David Litz, of Litz Films. “I grew up with these movies. My parents took me to the drive-in, and I’d be cowering in the back seat while we were watching one of these movies,” he says.

Litz is currently finishing a documentary film, Grindhouse Glory (www.grindhouseglory.com), about “grindhouse” pictures from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, which later became cult classics of exploitation cinema.

“Horror is like an evergreen genre that never really goes away,” he explains.“It’s always going to be a pretty strong genre … The concept sells it. The shock sells it. The horror sells it. The violence sells it.”

Litz says he has witnessed a recent movement in northeast Ohio of more and more people trying to make their own, mostly low-budget, horror films. Many hope to follow in the footsteps of one of Hollywood’s most revered horror filmmakers, Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and the Scream trilogy), who hails from Cleveland.

Horror films, as a genre, date back to the birth of film itself as a medium, in the 1890s. A two-minute-long 1896 French vampire film, Le Manoir du Diable (The Devil’s Castle) is often credited with being the first horror film. The genre flourished in Germany in the 1910s and 1920s, which saw the production of German Expressionist classics, such as The Golem (1915), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). Hollywood popularized the horror film genre in the 1930s with Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), King Kong (1932) and The Mummy (1932).

Over the years,multiple sub-genres emerged, including psychological horror, supernatural horror, science fiction thrillers, psycho-slasher films, exploitation, and B-grade, low-budget horror movies (which appeared in the 1970s with the popularity of videotape and cable television).

“As far as grassroots filmmaking goes, ”Litz says, “[horror] is really great for people just starting out, because it’s one of the only genres left that you don’t really need any star power. It’s like the genre is its own star … As a first-time filmmaker that’s very attractive, because, for not a lot of resources, you can produce something that may get noticed.”

Horror picture June 9
by T. Michael Conway, is set in Boston Mills, or “Helltown,” Ohio.It helps that northeast Ohio, filmmakers say, is rife with material for such films. Cleveland, after all, “is not sunny Los Angeles,” notes Bill Johns, of Cinevid Productions (www.cinevidproductions.com), a film and video production company that recently produced a horror film, Madness (about a group of young women terrorized by a madman), starring local pop singer and actress Jami Ross.

“We have a lot of urban legends – a lot of areas that are either in decay, or just look cool,” Johns says. Abandoned buildings, suburban homes, heavily wooded areas, barns and snow-covered streets (which can be effectively accented with drops of fake blood), all make for prime shooting locations.

“We have old buildings. We have history. Every community probably has access to that, but just the way Cleveland embraces you is impressive,” says Tammy Beckwith, producer and chief executive officer of 5•2•9 Films (www.529films.com), which was founded in 2004. Beckwith and a team of filmmakers are putting the finishing touches on a movie called Hellementary, filmed in Russell Township, about a classroom of children who are murdered.

As a bonus, horror films, she says, hold a strong appeal for any filmmaker’s dream audience: 16-to-22-year-olds.

“We’ve pretty much been under the radar,” she says.“We’re new, and we wanted to stay there until we got this finished. I don’t think it’s going to take long. People are already starting to see us and realize what we are.”

T. Michael Conway, a director and videographer with Cuyahoga Falls-based Legion Filmworks (www.legionfilmworks.com), was inspired to create a horror film, June 9, after learning about the urban legends associated with purportedly haunted Boston Mills, or “Helltown,” Ohio. The movie, about a group of teens who learn firsthand about the tales of the town, was filmed mostly in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, using a local cast and crew.

“There’s a large horror fan base that’s hungry for anything,” he says. “People are looking for stuff that’s a little more unusual.”

Lucas Campbell, who co-founded Compound Pictures (www.compoundpictures.com) with his brother Andrew Campbell, concurs. “Northeast Ohio is probably one of the best spots for low-budget horror moviemaking,” he says. “The fan base around here is really large.” The brothers have created six horror films since 2002. Their latest feature-length film, Cordoba Nights – about a pizza deliveryman whose life is turned upside down when he crosses paths with a mysterious girl – will screen at Kent State University’s Kiva Center on April 7.

“Fans of the genre support it whether the movie costs $50 million to make or $50 to make. If you make an interesting enough movie or deliver the goods, horror fans will support it,” says Joe Ostrica, of Old School Sinema (www.oldschoolsinema.com). Ostrica is known around northeast Ohio for his sometimes controversial, “microbudget,” slasher horror flicks (think lots of blood and large-breasted women). Slasher/exploitation films are coming back into mainstream popularity, he adds, thanks to Quentin Tarantino, whose latest film, Grindhouse – a double-feature, big-budget homage to B-movie thrillers – is scheduled to hit theaters this month.

Ostrica has made two films to date – his latest, a horror film entitled The Horror Convention Massacre, was filmed largely at Cinema Wasteland (www.cinemawasteland.com), a Cleveland-based movie and memorabilia expo that travels the country and recently stopped in Cleveland. “You could say that the slasher/exploitation [film] has a limited audience, but that audience is very faithful and very supportive,” Ostrica says. “There’s also a retro-sentimental thing, too. A lot of people grew up on horror films in the ’80s. Movies you grew up on, they just don’t leave you, and you want to keep seeing stuff like that.”

Peter John Ross, of Sonnyboo Productions (www.sonnyboo.com) a Columbus-based independent film-maker, came to the realization that he too could make a horror film, a decade ago, while traveling by train from France to Germany. He looked out the window and thought, “This looks just like Ohio.” He decided then that he would one day make a horror film, The Horrors of War, set in World War II, but shot in Ohio. The movie, which came out in 2006, was filmed all over the state, including locations in Mansfield and Youngstown.

Great characters, Ross says, make for great horror films: “As long as you care even a little bit about the characters, then whatever you put them through makes it worthwhile.”

With all the horror films being produced, filmmakers often express concern about their overall quality.

“Horror movies kind of get a bad name … because there is a lot of lowbrow … stuff out there,” Conway explains.

“Filmmakers, if they really want to make a difference – if they really want to get Cleveland on the map,” Johns adds, “they have to start thinking in terms of raising the bar on quality – raising the bar in terms of story and all kinds of things to make a film the best it can be. You can’t just pick up a camcorder, shoot something, and think that you’re a filmmaker.”

Nicholas J.Villa II, of Mentor-based Old School Horror Pictures (www.oldschoolhorror. com), says he and other local horror filmmakers are working hard “to create a link from here to Hollywood.”

Top-notch special effects are a vital part of the horror film industry, and Villa notes that there are “a lot of great special effects artists here in northeast Ohio that we should be really proud of. ”One such artist, Robert Kurtzman, spent more than 15 years working in the make-up effects business in Los Angeles, as a founding partner of Academy Award-winning KNB EFX Group. Recently, he moved back to his hometown, Crestline (near Mansfield), and founded Precinct 13 Entertainment (www.p13entertainment.com), a media production company.

“Sam Raimi [The Evil Dead (1981), Army of Darkness (1992), Spider-Man (2002)], once told me that the key to making any film resonate with an audience is never to bore them,” Kurtzman says.

“They will forgive budget and quality if they are entertained … Most of the best horror films were made on shoestring budgets and in very little time, and yet, they’ve connected with a huge fan base and have been enjoyed by generation after generation.”

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