As the story goes, a farmer wouldn’t let his daughter date the son of a school bus driver. One day, the driver, transporting a bus full of kids down Wood County’s Holcomb Road, saw the farmer and snapped, driving the bus into him and causing the deaths of several young passengers.
But wait. Maybe the story is that the bus driver was just insane and caused an accident. Or maybe that the farmer was insane and killed his daughter’s suitor. There are many of versions of the story, as there often are with local legends. In this circumstance, a few basic tenants remain constant—a ghostly light, an abandoned bus, and Holcomb Road.
Everybody thinks it’s haunted
“It’s a local hotspot for cheap thrills for teenagers and young adults,” said filmmaker Matt Erman. “Everybody in the area thinks it’s haunted. It has been featured in websites like Haunted Ohio. I started going there when I was a kid, in ‘91, ‘92, and knew of the legend.”
Erman has become an acclaimed area filmmaker, founding Capture1 Studios in 2012. A suggestion from his nephew that he should direct a movie about Holcomb Woods and its famous path grew into The Legend of Holcomb Road, a short film that premieres at the Maumee Indoor Theater on Friday, October 12.
“When I mentioned (in an online post) that we were gonna do Holcomb Road, the post went completely viral.” Erman said with a laugh. “When this post went out, it got 150 shares, the post itself had over 150,000 views.”
More of a challenge
After coming up with the basic concept—a group of kids venture on to Holcomb Road to experience the thrills for themselves—Erman enlisted area screenwriter Virginia Shine to pen the script. The filmmakers decided to cast area teens in the film, people who knew the legend and would be thrilled to make a film about it.
“It’s more of a challenge, because you have to teach them where to stand, things like ‘don’t look at the camera’—just basic filmmaking things that they might not be familiar with,” said Michael DeSanto of Bad Atom Studios, who assisted with the filming. “But they were all excited about it.”
In addition to the making of the short film, Erman also has created a short documentary about the legend called Holcomb Woods: Stories from Beyond the Road, which will also be featured at the initial screening.
“I got a bunch of people who just wanted to tell their story and so I decided to make a documentary, too.”
$6 | 6pm and 8pm | Friday, October 12
The Maumee Indoor Theater | 601 Conant St, Maumee
419-701-7177 | capture1online.com
