Midwest Movie Maker

Hana Huggins as Cara Evans in the horror film, It's a Wonderful Knife . Photo courtesy of RLJE Films and Shudder. >>> In the late '90s, 16-year-old Michael Kennedy ventured into a theater with his friends to watch Scream , a movie he never expected to enjoy. Little did he know that this irreverent horror film would become a life-changing experience, sparking his fascination with filmmaking, horror movies, and the endless story possibilities available through the genre. Then, in 2020, Kennedy captivated audiences with his feature debut, Freaky , co-written with Christopher Landon. The darkly humorous and thrilling twist on Freaky Friday brought together horror, humor, and heart in a unique cinematic blend. The film garnered attention for its unconventional mix of laughs, jump scares, and, of course, buckets of blood. Now the North Olmsted, Ohio, native is sending up another classic with It’s a Wonderful Knife . Kennedy’s new film finds main character Winnie Carruthers’...

A test scene from the upcoming 'Fetish of Flesh' by Demented Media >>> Newark, Ohio’s, own Freddie Meade was 11 years old when he became a horror movie fan and we all have Andrew Copp to thank for it. Copp was an ultra-low-budget indie filmmaker from Dayton, Ohio, known for The Mutilation Man and Church of the Eyes . Copp died in 2013. “I met Andrew Copp and Tom 'Woodstock' Lee [Copp’s colleague], and I thought it was incredible that I actually got to meet someone who did that,” Meade says. That chance encounter set him on his filmmaking path. Meade's latest project, A Fetish of Flesh , is a spine-tingling endeavor that blurs the line between reality and fiction. Drawing inspiration from their own experiences, Meade and his friends ventured into the woods to create their first movie. However, what transpires in A Fetish of Flesh is a chilling tale of a group of students embarking on a thesis project, stumbling upon a modern-day Manson family reminiscen...

The idea for Obstacle Corpse , Hope Madden’s directorial debut, came almost fully formed - and much of it had to do with death waivers. “A few years ago, I was set to run one of those Tough Mudder-style obstacle course races with my husband, George,” the Tiffin, Ohio, native explains. When foot surgery kept Madden from competing, she went along to support her husband. “The race handed out T-shirts that read ‘Remember, you signed a death waiver.’ Because you do, in fact, sign a death waiver,” Madden says, “and I saw how easy it would be to kill someone on these obstacles. “By the time we were home, I had the plot just about figured out.” That plot? A young woman, trying to prove herself to her father, accepts an invitation to run in an exclusive obstacle course race. To buoy her confidence, she enlists her best friend to run alongside her. Little do either know that one of the obstacles the race’s elite athletes must complete is the murder of a fellow racer. While steeped in horror, the...

Here comes 'Peter Rottentail' Every year, the entire staff of Midwest Movie Maker scours the landscape for horror movie filmmakers who are willing to submit to five of the most horrific questions we can come up with. We torture them with our Jigsaw journalism. We confuse them into convulsions with our Kubrick questions. We spook the Stranger Things out of them. This year, we found five horror maestros willing to submit to our survey: John Oak Dalton (JD) : A Midwest screenwriter who has penned late night B-movie goodness as Peter Rottentail , Haunted House on Sorority Row and Jurassic Prey . Dalton was born in Muncie, Ind., attended Ball State University, and, in 1987, was the first scriptwriter to win a David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship. Bryan Geary (BG) : An actor based in Northeast Ohio, who recently appeared in the Netflix original Little Evil . Geary studied Entertainment Business at Full Sail University. James Travers (JT): The ...

Winners of the 2015 International Horror Hotel screenplay contest, including Doug Kaufman, third from the left. (That's Skippy the Clown in the front row.)   As with any horror film, there’s a lot of tragedy in screenwriter Doug Kaufman’s scripts. But there’s a lot of life, too. You wouldn’t expect it any less from an artist who experienced more life than most of us in his first 14 years. “I was born and raised by my mom in Chicago,” Kaufman says. He now lives in Detroit. After his mom remarried a railroad professional, Kaufman began what became a series of moves across the country. “We bounced back and forth between Chicago and Boston at least eight times. And when we found a place to live, we moved [in the city] several times. There was a period of 11 years where we moved a total of 19 times.” The moves made it difficult for Kaufman to establish long-term friendships. And he was always the new kid in school. As he entered his teens, Kaufman ran into alcohol and drugs. ...

Are you ready for the Nightmares Film Festival? There’s nothing horrific about the Nightmares Film Festival , a new horror fest concocted by award-winning filmmaker Jason Tostevin and his business partner Chris Hamel. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Nightmares promises to deliver the scares while uniting and elevating horror around the world. The inaugural event takes place October 20 to 23, 2016. Screenings will be held at the Gateway Film Center, named one of the 20 best art houses on the continent by Sundance. “We’re lifelong horror fans who’ve been part of hundreds of festivals,” said Tostevin. “We’re using that experience and those connections to bring the very best horror and genre films from across the globe to one easy-to- reach, welcoming festival that really celebrates horror and genre.” Tostevin, born in New York, calls New Albany, Ohio, home these days. A graduate of The Ohio State University, Tostevin, a writer, fell in love with filmmaking after taking part...