Ghost Town serves as backdrop for new feature film

Ghost Town's renown is expanding to the silver screen. "The Curse of Bryerstone," a new full feature film by Matt Erman of Capture 1 Studios, was shot on location at the replica 1880s-era western frontier town south of Findlay. It premieres at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Virginia Motion Pictures theater, North Baltimore. The 140-minute film mixes western flavor with adventure and fantasy. Writer and director Matt Erman said it's one of his most exciting projects to date. "I guess probably for the first time in my career, I really felt like we were making a big budget film although we weren't," he said. "We spent about $8,000 on this, and that's just pennies to what is spent on films." Ghost Town also helped out with wardrobe and props, he added, "so they were a huge part of it." An Arcadia High School graduate, Erman earned a business management degree with a minor in TV production at Hocking College in Nelsonville. He spent 20 years as a graphic designer. "Then about six years ago, I just kind of got tired of working for somebody else and wanted to start my own company," he said. The result was a media production company called Capture 1 Studios. Erman said the studio near Fostoria has also produced several documentaries, short films and numerous commercial works since 2013. His films have screened worldwide at over 30 different festivals while taking home awards for special effects and cinematography. To date, Erman may be most known for "The Legend of Holcomb Road," a narrative short film based on stories about a real road in Wood County that has elicited stories about a hanging, glowing pair of red eyes in the woods and an ill-fated school bus full of children. The film and and its accompanying documentary debuted in 2018 and can now be seen through Amazon. "So our commercial work helps fund our narrative work, and that's kind of how we're able to make and pay for our own films," he explained. Erman grew up in the area and had visited Ghost Town as a child. "I envied everybody that worked there back when I was a kid. I was like, I would love to work here. I would love to do that," he said. "And then here I was. I was making a movie in the place. It was sort of like a mini dream come true." Ghost Town's history dates back to the late 1950s when Ed Galitza bought an old log cabin in Marseilles for $50. His father, Louis, helped reconstruct the building on an acre of land off Hancock County 40. By 1994, when he was interviewed for an article in The Courier, Galitza said the family was "still putting the west in the Midwest." One cabin on one acre of land had grown to include 28 buildings scattered over 13 acres. Once he had a building in place, Galitza would fill it with antiques and memorabilia from the time. The attraction closed in 2008 but was later sold and reopened in 2016 as a haunted attraction during the Halloween season, and a site for festivals, craft shows and western shows in the spring and summer. Erman said he reconnected with Ghost Town a few years ago. "Holcomb Road, we were showing that in 2018 all over northwest Ohio. We had one night the entire month of October free. It was a Friday night, so we thought, let's get away from filmmaking. Let's get away from all this stuff and let's go have some fun," he said. That involved a visit to Haunted Ghost Town. "I was inside there for about 30 seconds, and my brain went right back to filmmaking," he said. "It was like, let's make a movie here." Erman and his girlfriend spent the rest of the night talking about the idea. He later met with the owners and pitched the suggestion to include a movie with the haunt. "They were already kind of thinking about doing something like that, more of like a theatrical haunt, so we just started working together," he said. "Six hundred days later, we're releasing the full feature film." Erman was the writer, director and cinematographer, along with a cast and crew of about 50. "What we wanted to do was tell how Ghost Town came to be a ghost town. It's really a fictitious town. There wasn't really a town there, but some of the buildings were brought in from out west and different places in Ohio so there's definitely some cool history," he said. "So we had this wild west town, and we wanted to mix it with Halloween." Erman said sci-fi/fantasy is one of his favorite film genres. "I love making this type of stuff. I mean dramas are great and real life movies are great, but when I go to a theater I don't want to watch those kinds," he said. "I live reality every day. There's enough social unrest in our world. When I watch a movie, I like it to be as unbelievable as possible and as far away from reality." Erman came up with a story about a mysterious witch doctor who comes to town and entices the townspeople to try his strange elixir. "It's like a curse. It turns the person into a monster, so there's your movie," he said. "It starts as a western, it's a pure western. And then about halfway through once everything kind of goes crazy with this potion, then everything kind of turns and it becomes sort of a supernatural adventure film." Erman said about 60 people from throughout Ohio answered the casting call. "I'm a big believer in supporting local business because I run a small business. So I kind of feel that way about my actors, and I try to use all northwest Ohio folks in all my films," he said. Three leads are from Findlay, he said, including S. Airon Ramsey who portrays Black Swamp; Michelle Cortez, as Hilda Doyals; and her husband, Dameion Cortez, as Niles Digsby. "We were blessed and got this wonderful cast. Then we threw them in costumes, brought horses out, threw them inside that ghost town, and they just became their parts," said Erman. "It was really neat." The film was shot over the summers of 2019 and 2020. Erman said the resulting film is really a team effort. "Without that wonderful cast and crew, and the help of Ghost Town, it just wouldn't have happened," he said. The film is scheduled to be shown at the theater in North Baltimore at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14; and at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11. Wolf: 419-427-8419 jeanniewolf@thecourier.com