The rural town of Lynchburg, Georgia holds a dark secret. A century old curse has condemned the citizens to a diet of human flesh. Unable to leave the city limits the town folks must lure unsuspecting travelers to their quaint town where they soon become the menu item of choice. Problems arise when the Federal Government releases a street savvy criminal into their community under the witness relocation program.
All hell breaks loose
when a street savvy criminal is placed in a small southern town under the witness protection program, and the mobsters seeking to silence him arrive to discover that this particular town suffers from a gruesome, century-old curse. Passing through, one would assume that Lynchburg, Georgia is just a typical rural town. But the citizens of Lynchburg have been condemned to a diet of human flesh, and in order to feed they lure in unsuspecting travelers. When the mafia arrives intending to ice a key witness in a case against them, the fight is on to get out of Lynchburg and avoid becoming the main course at the next town gathering.
The Art Of Crushing Spirits
I was approached by First Cinema in 2005 to cut their short film Just Asking For It. They were impressed with my work and after numerous meetings, they brought me on to direct their first feature film Lynch Mob. Splatter horror was a piece of cake to me and I thought I could do this film with my eyes closed. I was very wrong. Two days before we began production, I was hospitalized after being struck by a car. The film was postponed for one week.
Ready with a bottle of painkillers in my pocket, I went to the set. I have never worked on a film with so many problems in my life. Many of the locations were not locked down before we started shooting, which caused more delays. Actors refused to do the lines in the script, crew members scoffed at my directions, and producers told me to stop trying so hard ”It’s just a stupid horror movie!”
Because we were on a super low budget, I had to storyboard every shot in the film. I knew that all I had to do was get these sequences and I would have an awesome movie. So, on set, I would get the actors and crew together, show them the storyboard and get the shot. For example: the actor would stand next to the window, I would tell them to raise their gun and say the line like this, they would do it. I would yell cut and move on, and they did not get it. They did not understand how that was filmmaking. Understandably, they were used to blocking out a shot, performing the whole scene in a wide, then covering it in close ups. That was a waste of time and money and I knew I did not need all of that for this kind of movie. So shooting the film in small bursts was confusing to them and they thought that I did not know what I was doing.
I could go on and on about the injuries to the actors, the fights on the sets, the screaming matches, the guns pulled out in arguments, the ridicule and the frustration. Lets just say that making this film was a nightmare. Only about 50% of my original vision and storyboards made it onto the screen. The rest of it I call “salvaging a disaster”.
Still, we finished the movie and held a screening for cast and crew. When the film was over, many of them came up to me and said that they were surprised how professional and awesome it was. “If I had known you were any good, I would have learned my lines!”
UGH!
So when you sit down with a bucket of popcorn to watch this movie, be prepared to laugh and giggle at the silliness and don’t expect an academy award winning picture. You will probably have a gory good time.
