Hometown horror

A creative spark can be found anywhere. However, it's up to each person what they do with that spark. For Calvert graduate Hope Madden, writing was the initial spark. And now she is a writer, director, filmmaker, podcaster, founder, film critic and journalist. And she's about to begin directing her first full-length feature film, a horror-comedy called "Obstacle Corpse." After high school, Madden attended Ohio State University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in creative writing. Following graduation, she stayed in Columbus where she began her path toward her current career. To start, she worked at Pearson, the textbook and publishing giant. Madden started the job in 1998, working as a development editor. Throughout the 18 years she spent at Pearson, Madden rose to Director of Development before leaving the company in 2016. During her career at Pearson, Madden worked as a freelance writer for different publications. She also started working at The Other Paper where she reviewed films, wrote features and published a blog. Madden also met her husband, a fellow film critic named George Wolf, at The Other Paper. She worked there until the paper shut down in 2013. She is also a Rotten Tomato certified critic. "Doing film reviews is awesome. I enjoy getting to tell people what I think," Madden said. She also spent a year as a co-host for TV Talk where she discussed shows like The Following, American Horror Story and The Newsroom. Madden spent time working as a LinkedIn Specialist. She currently hosts two podcasts, Fright Club and The Screening Room Podcast, and has been hosting them since 2016 and 2017, respectively. Madden and her husband founded MaddWolf.com in 2013, a website with a team of writers reviewing films for radio, websites and television. Madden and Wolf both write for the website. In 2017, they also founded MaddWolf, LLC., which provides editorial and writing services. So how did Madden's love for writing take her from development to film reviewing to writing and directing her own feature film? "I have always written poetry and short stories," she said. "I have sent out countless writings over the years. "About 6 or 7 years ago, I started writing screenplays as a new way to tell stories. That's how I started (in filmmaking and directing). I started submitting the screenplays to festivals and they did really well," she said. "My screenplays were accepted to 12 festivals and won one. So, I started making short films. The first month into COVID, I did a short film featuring one character in a car. Godspeed (the short film) got accepted to festivals and won awards." Madden then went on to create a proof of concept short called "Obstacle Corpse," which has since blossomed into Madden's current writing/directing project — a feature-length film of the same name, based off of the short. A proof of concept short is a project to see if the concept is good before going on to create a longer film, Madden said. The film is in the horror-comedy genre. She has also made another short film that has not yet been released. "We will start filming in May and show it to investors," she said. "We will also submit it to big genre festivals. "The film is women-led. It wasn't something I set out to do, but it is exciting. People kept recommending different women to me, not because they're female, but because they're good." Madden is also releasing her first book "Roost" on Tuesday, March 15. She describes the book as a horror coming-of-age. According to a press release, the book follows twin sisters in rural Ohio and mysterious events that happen on their Easter birthday. "Roost" will be published by Off Limits Press, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.