Shocking Case of Art Imitates Life

With HBO’s Final Season of the Sopranos

Atlanta, GA [April 18, 2007] In HBO’s sixth and final season of its hit “The Sopranos”, Christopher Soprano (Michael Imperioli) fulfills his life-long dream of producing a movie. In the episode, “STAGE 5”, which aired Sunday, April 15th at 9 p.m., Christopher premieres his mafia horror film “Cleaver” about a mob boss who returns from the dead with a meat cleaver for a hand.

In a shocking case of art imitating life, the soon to be released film “Lynch Mob” mixes the horror and mafia genres and in an even more bizarre twist of events it stars cast members from “The Sopranos”. “From what I’ve seen, Christopher Soprano’s movie, ‘Cleaver’, is just like ours”, says Byron Erwin, the director of “Lynch Mob”.

“It’s Shocking to me!” says John J. Cornetta, a co-producer and actor. “Because when life imitates art it’s fun, but when art imitates life and then art again and you throw in the Sopranos’, man eating zombies and the mafia WOW Shock.”

When producers Scott Stamper, John J. Cornetta, and Frank Koretsky put the project together two years ago, they had no idea that how closely it would parallel the hit mob series. “Our film was a horror film with mob elements, so we desperately wanted a cast member from the show.” says Scott Stamper, the writer and co-producer. “We were very fortunate that John Cornetta has known Paul Borghese, one of the series regulars since his childhood and is golf buddies with many other cast members.”

Paul Borghese came onboard the film as an executive producer and an actor. He is also a series regular on “Law and Order” and “Third Watch”. He most recently co-starred opposite of Vin Diesel in the mob genre film “Find Me Guilty”.

Tony Darrow (Larry Boy Barese on “The Sopranos”) was cast as the mob boss in “Lynch Mob”
who sends his minions down to the small town of Lynchburg, Georgia in pursuit of a snitch. His thugs encounter more than expected when they meet the locals – flesh eating rednecks – immortals since a Civil War era curse condemned them all to cannibalism.

Darrow is well known for roles in hit mob films such as “GoodFellas” and “Analyze This”. A small cult following has been building for Darrow among horror film fans since The New York Post released a story about an accident he suffered while filming a stunt on the set of “Lynch Mob” which the film crew decided to keep in – using his real blood in the film. The story made headlines from New York to India’s The Bollywood Reporter.

Horror and mob fans can see the premiere of “Cleaver” on “The Sopranos”, this Sunday, April 15th, but will have to wait until Fall 2007 for the debut of the eerily similar “Lynch Mob”.

Eager fans of both projects can check out HBO OnDemand’s 7 minute mockumentary entitled “The Sopranos: Making Cleaver” or the trailer for “Lynch Mob” by visitingwww.lynchmobmovie.com.
“Lynch Mob” is a feature production of First Cinema (www.firstcinema.com) and “The Sopranos” is an HBO Original Series. Any similarities between the two are incidental, but a little disturbing.

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Lynch Mobby Foywonder October 7, 2009 Dread Central

“The Sopranos” meet 2000 Maniacs… That’s the best way of describingLynch Mob, a grisly, quirky horror comedy that pits Mafia mamalukes vs. Confederate cannibals.

A “truth extractor” known only as Weasel on the payroll of some New York gangsters, the torturer the mobsters brings in as a last resort when they absolutely need to make a guy squeal, has been pinched by the cops. Weasel is a true sicko. As if his pleasure inflicting pain and penitent for keeping body parts of those he questions as souvenirs wasn’t warped enough, Weasel is also a murdering pedophile to boot. That’s how Weasel got popped, attempting to abduct a girl at the playground. As disgusted as the feds are by this scum of the earth, Weasel is willing to rat on the mob boss (Tony Darrow, best known as Larry Boy Barese on “The Sopranos”) they’ve been after for years. The feds are repulsed by Weasel so much they only agree to keep him in protective custody if they can find someplace to stash him with no children. Such a place is the barely there town of Lynchburg, Georgia. Population: 12.

Whether or not you enjoy Lynch Mob will hinge greatly on your reaction to Michael H. Cole’s strange performance as Weasel. The moment he opens his mouth and out comes a voice mimicking Peter Lorre… Weird to say the least. I was completely taken aback at first by this guy that looks like a seedier Andy Richter talking with a voice more suitable to Igor from an old Frankenstein flick. No explanation for his accent – or for why he’s named Weasel, for that matter. It took a bit but his performance began to grow on me once the film made it be known it was shooting more for black comedy than straightforward horror. You know you’re watching a black comedy when one of the main characters is a creep with a taste for little girls that speaks in a Peter Lorre accent and the film actually makes this total creep into a somewhat likeable comic foil. It’s a bit more palpable knowing this guy will get his just desserts in the end, possibly by becoming someone’s dessert.

There are plenty of good ol’ boys and goodfellas but there really are no good guys in Lynch Mob per se. One wiseguy named Mike is perhaps the only character that could be construed as a good guy and that’s if you’re willing to overlook the fact that he’s an organized crime foot soldier. Mike has a soft spot for damsels in distress and such a damsel is the pregnant wife of the abusive sheriff of Lynchburg, a man best described as a louder, meaner, angrier Roscoe P. Coltrane.

The feds put Weasel up in a house so dilapidated I suspect even Leatherface would have complained about the squalid living conditions. Now you would think a child rapist-murderer being hunted by the mafia is someone the FBI would have armed guards watching over at all times. Instead they merely slap an ankle bracelet on him and that’s the last we ever see or hear of the feds. That’s some mighty fine protective custody they got going there.

If the mob doesn’t get Weasel the locals might. They may not be too friendly to this Yankee interloper but they sure would love to have him over for dinner. If you go into a diner in Lynchburg and see the special of the day listed as “CHUCK ROAST”, “FRANK AND BEANS”, or “ROADKILL STU”, rest assured the main ingredient was named Chuck, Frank, or Stu.

And if you come across a local seductress named Tammy, the one constantly flashing her boobs, she’s a maneater and not just in a sexual way.

This Southern hick town has been cursed since the Civil War; its dozen denizens damned to an eternity trapped within the town limits with an insatiable appetite for human flesh. But times are tough. Ever since the new interstate opened tourists, hitchhikers, and stragglers don’t make their way down the back road anymore that leads to the barely there berg and that has led to a food shortage. Weasel again saves his own skin striking a deal with the starving locals by agreeing to supply them with all the Italian food they can eat.

Screenwriters Rachel and Scott Stamper and director Byron Erwin have cooked up a horror comedy that constantly walks the razor’s edge between being good – quirky humor, brevity, almost a gruesome charm about it – and bad – uneven performances, unnecessary flashbacks and dream sequences, a clunky climax that feels rushed – but does enough right to warrant consideration. Somehow it all comes together like a rusty old pick-up, the paint chipping and the bumper partially hanging off.

To Read  A French Review, Click HERE

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