Take the mob, throw in some flesh eating zombies

Lynch Mob

Now here is something that Ive never heard of…again. It never ceases to amaze me that people outside of the Hollywood area are coming up with original ideas and concepts for movies, and still no one takes the seriously. Case in point. Here is Lynch Mob – A horror movie with a twist.

Take the mob, throw in some flesh eating zombies, a small town with some secrets to it, and you got yourself a good, original movie. From the trailer it looks like this one is not just shot on a handy cam (although there is nothing wrong with that…see Dead Ted). Good idea and some actors that know what there doing could someday make Hollywood think about something other than remakes.



Anyway, read below for the synopsis and links to the trailer and websites…

Synopsis:

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.

Starring Tony Darrow from HBO's "The Sopranos".

Official Website
MySpace Page
Lynch Mob | Horror Society (3 September 2009)
http://www.horrorsociety.com/2006/12/12/lynch-mob/

John J. Cornetta

Born in Nyack New York, John moved to Boca Raton Florida at 13 years of age. For the next few years he traveled back and forth from Boca Raton to Piermont New York. The son of an Italian Father and an Irish Mother, John began his acting career at a play house in Piermont New York. In South Florida he worked with Burt Reynoldsand studied with Boca Talent. In 1990 John moved to Atlanta Georgia where he started many successful businesses. He became a self made millionaire by age 28.

The acting bug bit John again and he began renewing his career in 2001 by training, training and training. He got a hold of any script he could to dissect it and hone his craft. He went back to school taking workshop after workshop. A business pro, networking and the business of acting was second nature to John. And since he already had all the money he would ever need, he was in a much better place to renew his career.

“Not having to worry about where my next meal was coming from or how I was going to pay my rent was huge. I could relax and just concentrate on acting. If I get the part, great, if I don’t, I’m still going to eat lobster and I’m not going to lose my Mercedes! It’s not being cocky; it just has put things in a better perspective. I do this now out of the love for the art, not for the money!”

Click here to go to John Cornetta's Acting site

INTERVIEW: Bryon Erwin, Director Lynch Mob

CinemATL: How were you brought onto Lynch Mob?

BE: I was working as an editor and the film company, First Cinema, was shooting a short film with an inexperienced AD who didn’t slate the shoots, so when I went back to edit I had to revamp and log all of the footage. And as I was editing it, I was working with the producers and talking to them about what they did right and what they did wrong, what I would have done and so forth. I built a trust with them with what kind of artist I am. They saw what I did to turn the footage into a nice piece of work, so when they got their next project, they wanted me to direct it.

CinemATL: What is your past experience as a director?

BE: I directed a couple of no-budget horror films in high school and one in film school. Since these were shot on VHS the format quality was too low to get distribution. After film school I spent several years directing commercials for Comcast.

CinemATL: How did the decision to shoot on HD come about?

BE: I was really lucky with that. We had 3 Panasonic 24 P cameras, so we knew we could get fight scenes with lots of coverage, car chases and what not. At one point the producer came up to me and said that the new thing was HD and for now on everything that was not shot in HD was going to get left behind as far as distribution and airing on cable channels. So he pushed really hard to make sure the movie was going to be shot in HD.
That meant the crew; especially the DP had to be familiar with the HD. The DP was totally good with the 24 p, but had little experience with HD, so he actually backed out of the project. But after talking to him and working with him a little bit he became really excited about the possibility of what HD can do and he has really shined and become our saving grace for this movie. He has turned o ur production from a regular Atlanta - filmed movie into one of Hollywood caliber.

CinemATL: From the dailies, what difference have you noticed between the HD quality and that of 24 P?

BE: What I have noticed the most is that you have a lot of clarity with your image, to the point that you can see the cells on people’s skin. It’s so clear and sharp of an image that it gives you the freedom to manipulate the image with filters, coloring, and color correction. Like a negative when you shoot film, you have a lot more play when you transfer it to digital with how much contrast you can add or take away and colors you can enhance and so forth. When you’re shooting with video you lose those options, but when you’re shooting HD you get them all that back. I worked with an editor on cutting together a trailer and he showed me how it is possible to crop or zoom in on an image and retain the quality.

CinemATL: Tell me about casting?

BE: The hardest role to cast was the lead role, the character Weasel. We had two of what I consider the best actors in Atlanta try out for the role they both did it in different ways, but they both did it excellent, they gave 200% and it was fascinating just watching them do their screen tests. One of them did it in a way that was outside of the box, but after a long debate, we decided to go with the original way and that gave us that actor, Michael Cole.

CinemATL: How has your experience on set been?

BE: We’ve had the best luck of any film I’ve ever worked on. Whatever technical problems have challenged us in a day, we have creatively worked around them to turn the scenes into something better than we originally imaged. For example, suddenly we have cloud coverage and we have to shoot it differently but that turns out to be better for the script and better for the story. Locations fall through but we get backup locations on the spur of the moment. And the backup locations have ended up better than the locations we lost. We’ve just had the best luck the way things turn out every time we have shot.

CinemATL: How do you feel about the cast?

BE: I’m the luckiest guy in the world, as far as being a director. Even though we held rigorous auditions for each of these roles, I knew that each person we hired didn’t need a lot of direction to play his or her part well. Thus, my job has been minimal as far as how I’ve had to direct the actors. I just have to tell them to speed up or slow down. I don’t have to go in there and say now you have to be sadder or angrier; these guys are just nailing it. They’re perfect at their parts.
CinemATL: What do you think about the script?

BE: I’ve done a lot of movies where the crew and I have put in 14-hour-plus days, giving everything we’ve got and then go home exhausted and just pass out. I’ve done this over and over again and I’m 40 years old now. I’m not a big Hollywood director. All of the past movies have had the same problem and that is the story is not there. If you start off with a good story, it doesn’t matter how it’s executed, you can’t fail if the people like the story. We’re just lucky that we had a good story to begin with and that motivates everyone who’s working on the movie. We know in the end all of this hard work is going to pay off because we have a good story.

CinemATL: What are you working on next?

BE: I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you it’s going to be a horror movie.


Dave R. Watkins is a actor, writer & filmmaker living in North Georgia.