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Showing posts from October, 2014

Five Horrific Questions with J.R. Bookwalter, Akron’s Mayhem Master

Volunteer zombies from 'The Dead Next Door' Our final five horrific questions feature - our Halloween edition - features one of my favorite horror directors, J.R. Bookwalter . And not just because I was an extra in his most notable film, the cult classic The Dead Next Door . In many ways, Bookwalter helped pave the way for independent filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. The Akron-native dove into independent filmmaking in the late 1980s, shoring up funding, securing locations and writing his own personal guerilla filmmaking manual because, for the most part, no one else had done it yet. (Well, except maybe for Pittsburgh’s George Romero, an icon in independent horror filmmaking and one of Bookwalter’s idols. Oh, and Detroit’s Sam Raimi, who was coming off a hit with his independent horror movie The Evil Dead II and was instrumental in getting The Dead Next Door up off the ground.) After The Dead Next Door became a cult hit across the globe, Bookwal...

Five Horrific Questions with ‘The Zombinator’s Sergio Myers

Sergio Myers' 'The Zombinator,' shot in Youngstown in 2012. We don’t have quite as many entries into our five horrific questions feature as we did last year - but our final two are zombie greats. The first is director Sergio Myers . Myers is set to director his second zombie feature, Zombie Priest , in Youngstown, Ohio, this December. This follows Myers successful horror venture The Zombinator , which he shot in Youngstown in 2012. The film stars Patrick Kilpatrick and Joseph Aviel. The film begins as a fashion documentary and quickly descends into madness. College students must trust a former soldier turned zombie killer (Aviel) while battling the evil Colonel (Kilpatrick), a mercenary working for the corporation who designed the chemical turning people into zombies. Myers’ credits include 10 Things Every Guy Should Know and Jordan Saffron: Taste This! . He has also won the EBE Award for Best Documentary for his film about the Heaven's Gate Cult. The film w...

Five Horrific Questions with ‘Closed for the Season’s Jay Woelfel

Menacing clown in Jay Woelfel's 'Closed for the Season' It’s that time of year again! Time to ask another horde of hungry horror filmmakers five horrific questions about the genre and why we like to have our pants scared off. Kicking off our second annual fearful feature is Jay Woelfel . The writer, director, producer and Columbus , Ohio , native is well known for his creature features, including the scary tale mentioned in our headline, Closed for the Season . The film was shot on location at an abandoned amusement park in Chippewa Lake , Ohio , and based on folklore about the spooky setting. While Woelfel has produced his fair share of horror films – Season of Darkness, Live Evil, Ghost Lake and Unseen Evil – he has also produced and directed crime dramas, war films and a SF convention fan-favorite, Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming . He won the Interactive Academy Award for Best Documentary for his Titanic , narrated by Patrick Stewart. The O...

LeBron's Springhill Productions unveiling 'Survivor's Remorse,' 'Becoming' this fall

The cast of 'Survivor's Remorse,' LeBron James and Maverick Carter's new Starz Network sit-com We had a little fun this summer after NBA superstar and Akron , Ohio , native and resident LeBron James announced his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. We thought it would be fun to cast the film version of his return to Northeast Ohio . We had no idea James was already deeply involved in film projects of his own. In late September, James, along with Springhill Productions partner Maverick Carter, one of James’ childhood friends, debut Survivor’s Remorse on the Starz network. The comedy deals with a young basketball phenom as he makes his way in the big leagues. The show is less a reflection of James’ real life than it is of his and Carter’s survivor’s guilt for becoming incredibly successful. “I explained to Tom how I have it sometimes, because of my family and my neighborhood where I come from,” Carter told The New York Times recently. Tom is Tom Werner, produ...