Synapse Films presents LEMORA: A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL

“The dead travel fast,” wrote Bram Stoker, who probably knew that the opposite is true of legends, which spread slowly by word of mouth. For all the volume sales of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft or Stephen King, it is fables, folktales and urban legends of the oral tradition that are the most enduring at lights out. Thirty years have passed since UCLA graduates Richard Blackburn and Robert Fern shot their first (and only) feature film, LEMORA – A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL, an amateurish yet crudely poetic and not infrequently eerie vampire story set in the American South (albeit filmed in the wilds of Pomona, California). Writer-director Blackburn and producer Fern had hoped to cash in on the vogue for low budget horror pictures sparked by the success of Bob Kelljan’s COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (1970) and quickly assembled a cast and crew comprised of friends, lovers, first-timers and the odd industry professional. Although the troubled production did yield a finished film, the partners were soon discouraged by a disastrous first screening and difficulties with securing a distributor. In an interview conducted in 2003, Richard Blackburn recalled the film’s dismal reception...


To read the rest of the liner notes by Richard Harland Smith & Chris Poggiali, buy LEMORA on DVD from Synapse Films!