Free screenings of homegrown horror film part of Culture Days
A made-in-Thunder Bay horror film is set to spook local audiences, starting Thursday night.
Written by Tina Petrick and directed by her filmmaking sibling Laura Lynn Petrick, Lempo is a Nordic-style folk horror film based on Finnish mythology, but set on the outskirts of Thunder Bay.
“Lempo started as the God of fertility and love and then when Christianity took over the country, he was transformed into the Devil himself,” says Tina about the real Finnish mythology that inspired the film. “I thought that served as such a beautiful metaphor for relationships and love. Sometimes a relationship can start in a really beautiful place and then end up turning out to be quite haunting.”
Filmed around the Thunder Bay area with the help of local cast and crew that Tina describes as “heavensent,” Lempo will screen for free Thursday through Sunday at the Co. Lab Gallery in Goods and Company Market on Red River Road as part of Culture Days, the three week-long series of free, or pay-what-you-can, activities and performances hosted by artists, cultural organizations and Thunder Bay.
For the Petrick sisters, it was a great opportunity to showcase not only their homegrown short-film to local audiences, but it was also a chance to present the filmmaking duo’s calling card.
“I think that’s always the dream for filmmakers who make a short, that it becomes a calling card and leads to bigger productions with bigger budgets,” says Tina. “It would be amazing to turn it into a feature or work on another feature-length production together and ideally, set it again in Thunder Bay.”
