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Showing posts from 2015

Cleveland filmmakers take on Torso murders in 'The Kingsbury Run'

The Kingsbury Run, based on the Cleveland Torso murders The Cleveland Torso murders is a true crime tale at its gruesomest. The city is scarred by its dark legacy. Only the Sam Sheppard mystery (which was reimagined as The Fugitive ) and the more recent escape of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight from kidnapper Ariel Castro possibly top it. The Torso murders occurred primarily in the 1930s, though recent evidence suggests the serial killer - who was never captured or identified - took victims through the 1950s. Victims were drifters, often Depression-era working class folks who lived in shanty towns in Cleveland’s Flats. As the name implies, only the torsos of many victims were discovered. Now a group of Cleveland filmmakers are retelling the story, set in modern day Cleveland. With a copycat killer on the loose, a private investigator ( Deanna Sherman ) teams up with a retired detective ( B.R. Tatalovic ) to stop the madness. We caught up with filmmakers Kurt

Film fans check in to Horror Hotel Convention

Kristina Michelle, co-founder of the Horror Hotel Convention, on the set of Horror Hotel Autumn is the favorite season for most horror movie fans. As Halloween approaches - fittingly, you might say, at the end of October’s life - scary movies debut and horror film festivals open their dungeon doors. That’s changing. Summer is giving Halloween a run for its money. That’s when independent thriller lovers and devotees of bone-chilling ghost stories check in to Northeast Ohio’s Horror Hotel Convention . The festival, now in its fourth year, takes place the first weekend of June. This year's festival comes to town June 5 to June 7 at the Clarion Inn & Conference Center in Hudson, Ohio . We took a few minutes to speak with Kristina Michelle , one of the convention founders, to learn more about the show: Midwest Movie Maker (MMM) : Tell us about the Horror Hotel Convention. What’s it all about and what does it celebrate? Kristina Michelle (KM) : Horror Hotel is an

Dog days of storytelling: A chat with filmmaker Nathan Deming

Joran and Clayton Backes in 'Dog Days' You can almost see the movie version of Nathan Deming becoming a filmmaker. Picture it. Young man growing up in small town Tomah, Wisconsin, digging into his studies as an English major at Webster University outside St. Louis. He’s drawn to the clergy, considering a life devoted to serving God. But then there’s another call. One a little bit stronger. The movies. Really storytelling, you might say. After all, story is what ties those three passions together - literature, religion and the power of the moving picture. And the story Deming tells of producing the short Dog Days , which premiered in April in the Wisconsin Film Festival - and how he got there - fills in all the plot points along the way. We recently chatted with Deming about the making of Dog Days . Midwest Movie Maker (MMM): Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into filmmaking? Nathan Deming (ND):  I was always making movies with my brothers