ST. LOUIS — People in St. Louis seem to love a good scare, and local filmmaker Frank Cambeletta is one of those people.
“Love watching horror films,” he told 5 On Your Side.
He describes his latest film as “creepy.” It is about a St. Louis family famous for brewing and infamous for death.
“It’s just a weird reality of the Lemp family,” he said.
The film tries to get to the real story behind how heiress Elsa Lemp really died in 1920.
“Elsa’s death was the one that just didn’t add up,” said Cambeletta.
While three members of the family took their own lives in the mansion, Elsa Lemp died at her home in the Central West End on Hortense Place. Newspapers reported that she took her life.
“She was shot in the heart, left-handed. She was right-handed,” Cambeletta said.
He has questions about the reports.
“Nope, doesn't make sense that she would commit suicide,” he said.
He searched for answers.
“I think that everything can be solved, and I know that sounds really naïve,” he said.
He researched his film for years.
“I had to know why she would do that, what would drive her to do that,” he said.
Cambeletta admitted that getting at the truth became an obsession. He even visited her final resting place in Bellefontaine Cemetery seeking spiritual guidance.
“It was like, let’s just say a prayer and make sure she is leading us,” he said.
He believes he may have heard from her one day while visiting the Lemp mansion.
“I hear this disembodied voice, ‘you’re going the wrong way,’ and it was a female voice. And that was it for me. That’s when we knew we had to kick it in gear. What were we missing? That’s when a lot of the discoveries started happening,” he said.
The discoveries turned his creepy movie into something more.
“Doing a 6-part episodic because it deserves that much,” he revealed.
The film “Lemp’s Last Wright” will debut in 2022. He calls the story an “outstanding paranormal tale” that he believes will be a bombshell.
“What we are about to show the audience next year is something that will blow them away. It’s something that has been hidden for 100 years,” he said.
Cambeletta is hosting a Horror Film Festival on Oct. 22 and 23 at the Gaslight Theater in the Central West End. Click here for more information.