Sunday, May 25, 2014
AUSTINTOWN
Mohnster Con, a new film, memorabilia and pop culture festival organized by Eerie Frequency Entertainment (EFE), a local independent film company, winds up from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at Best Western Meander Inn, 870 Canfield-Niles Road (state Route 46).
Admission is $5 and free for children 12 and under. Profits benefit EFE.
Aspiring actors can audition for upcoming EFE movies, such as “Midnight Massacre,” as did Sarah Whitlatch of Liberty Saturday, the first day of the festival.
Guests can also meet EFE filmmakers, writers, directors, including Joey Mohn of Girard, director of “Night of the Cannibals,” and Travis Bowen of Howland, director of “Midnight Massacre” coming out in fall 2015, along with others involved in independent filmmaking in the area.
Special festival guests include Chris Hahn (WWE wrestler Johnny Paradise), who is a stunt man and actor in independent films; and Joe Glenn of Youngstown, who invented, manufactures and distributes a product called Zombie Skin, an ammonia-free polymer latex.
Glenn, a 1987 graduate of Chaney High School, is a full-time special-effects creator in the film business. He worked on “Miss Meadows” starring Katie Holmes and “Criminal Activities,” starring John Travolta, being shot in Cleveland.
Whitlatch, a 2012 graduate of Mathews High School and the Trumbull County Career and Technical Center who was an extra in Mohn’s “Chronicles of a Serial Killer,” said she is passionate about acting.
Mohn, a 2006 graduate of McDonald High School, admits his interest in making independent horror films goes beyond being passionate.
He and Bowen, his partner in EFE, produce, write, direct, act in and market their films, and have a crew of volunteers who help with all facets of the business, including casting.
“I have 3,000 horror films that I watch and think how I might have done something differently. When I was filming “Night of the Cannibals” I was working two full-time jobs,” said Mohn, who now just works full-time at BRT Extrusions in Niles.
“It’s an obsession to make these movies,” he said.