A Memphian, a Monkee and a Horse walk into a horror movie...

A years-in-the-stewing ghoulash — emphasis on ghoul — of personal obsessions, real-world horrors, never-say-die determination and Memphis-Connecticut connections, Sam Bahre's debut feature, "I Filmed Your Death," is a labor of love that the moviemaker hopes will become a landmark of terror.

Although its cast is made up largely of relatively unknown human beings, the movie contains a notable Horse — actor Michael Horse, a resident of David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" — and a famous Monkee — Peter Tork, the floppy-haired blond member of the so-called Prefab Four. In addition, Bahre recruited a unique subset of subcultural cult heroes to augment what he calls the "midnight movie vibe" of the film, which screens at 10 p.m. April 20 and 21 at the Studio on the Square, in a pair of hometown sneak previews with Horse in attendance.

"'Eraserhead,' 'Pink Flamingos,' 'Evil Dead,' 'Clerks' — these are the movies that me and the cast and crew watched throughout the making of our movie," said Bahre (pronounced "bear"). "It has 'Cannibal Holocaust' in its DNA, but it also tells a very personable and relatable story."

Bahre originally conceived that story in 2007, which means the 28-year-old writer-director has been chewing over "I Filmed Your Death" for his entire adult life.

"One of the themes is about mass shootings in our society right now," Bahre said. "It's not the main plot line. It essentially functions in the same way as the murder of Laura Palmer in 'Twin Peaks' — it's the tragedy that we watch all the characters react to."

The idea for "I Filmed Your Death" came to Bahre when he was in a movie theater and imagined what might happen if a gunman entered the auditorium. (This was five years before the 2012 "Dark Knight" shooting in Aurora, Colorado.)

In 2008, Bahre shot most of a first version of the film, but that proved to be, essentially, a learning experience: He scrapped the footage and scrapped the script and started over, eventually shooting the movie that screens next week in September and October of 2012, partly in Memphis but mostly in Connecticut. (This method has something of a local precedent: Craig Brewer, too, shot much of a first feature that he abandoned as unworthy before starting over with the entirely different project what would prove to be the foundation of his career, 2000's "The Poor & Hungry.")

Bahre was born and raised in Connecticut, where his father, James Bahre, and stepmother, Amy Bahre, still live. He began spending time in Memphis as a young teenager with his remarried mother, Pam O'Brien, who had moved here with her husband, Rick O'Brien, both major supporters of the arts.

Sam Bahre got an unofficial movie education at the old Black Lodge Video location in Cooper-Young; later, he supplemented that immersive experience with an actual degree from the College of Communication at the University of Memphis. In addition to working on various film projects, last year he had a job with the Sundance Film Festival.

"I was at the very first public screening of 'Get Out,'" Bahre said. "It was the first time (Jordan Peele) ever saw it with an audience, so there was some pretty crazy energy in there."

Meanwhile, both sets of Bahre's parents were supportive of his ambitions, so when he began shooting "I Filmed Your Death" in earnest, he did so in Bolton, Connecticut, where his father had connections.

Sadly more relevant now than when first conceived, thanks to public shootings in such locations as Orlando, Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, "I Filmed Your Death" takes place in a town still reeling from the "movie theater massacre" of a year earlier.

The film's main character, Pierce (Michael W. Bruce), has made a short film about the tragedy that has angered much of the town, which considers the film tasteless and exploitative. Meanwhile, a new killer is stalking Pierce and his friends. Is there a connection between the old and new killings? Did Jason Voorhees punch a hole through Ron "Arnold Horshack" Palillo in "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives?"

Bahre said the timeliness of his film's shooting-related storyline places the film in the long tradition of horror movies that have commented, if sometimes obliquely, on social issues. (For example, "Night of the Living Dead" tackles racism and Vietnam.) Said Bahre: "One of the true powers of horror movies is that they do a good job of contextualizing what's going on in society. They can create an experience where people can deal with their feelings about this issue (mass shootings) in a fictional setting and know they're safe."

Nevertheless, Bahre characterized his film as, essentially, "an amusement park thrill-ride experience," inspired by "the desire to make something like 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' mixed with 'Clerks,' where there's a lot of talking but then something bad happens. The characters are funny, and what they're saying is funny, but it never bleeds over into the horror. So when something horrifying happens, it isn't a joke."

The cast includes several Memphis actors in major roles, including veteran indie stalwart Nathan Ross Murphy; Charlie Metz III, of the local Piano Man Pictures production company; and Brett Trail, who fronts The Conspiracy Theory, a rock band. But if "I Filmed Your Death" is able to attract much attention in the crowded horror market, it may be because of the cult appeal of its guest stars, who function as totems of authenticity and living good luck charms in the context of this hopeful first feature film.

"I wrote the script so at least four of the characters could be celebrities," Bahre said. "Basically, I went down my list of my favorite movies and TV shows and figured out who from those casts could actually be those characters. I got obsessed with them and made it my mission to track them down."

Using social media and Internet sleuthing methods, Bahre was able to recruit New York's Lloyd Kaufman, the founder of Troma Entertainment, the company responsible for such cult readymades as "The Toxic Avenger"; Horse, a stunt man and artist whose career playing Native Americans in the movies began when he was cast as Tonto in the ill-fated 1981 "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"; and Tork, ex-member of the still beloved Monkees, who lives in Connecticut, not too far from where Barhe's film was shot. (Horse plays a sort of "Bill O'Reilly of cable access TV," Bahre said, while Tork is a "fatherly" former state trooper.)

Meanwhile, more marginal cult figures have incidental or voice-only cameos. These include musician Merle Allin, brother of the late GG Allin, the shock-punk rocker whose feces-flinging 1991 performance at Memphis' Antenna Club remains infamous; British mime Lindsay Kemp, an actor in the 1973 masterpiece "The Wicker Man" who taught mime to David Bowie and choreographed the original "Ziggy Stardust" tour; Marc Sheffler, one of the killers in Wes Craven's disturbing "The Last House on the Left" (1972); and exploitation star Robert Kerman, whose credits include the notorious Italian stomach-turner "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980).

Bahre's Nick Fury-goes-grindhouse recruiting didn't end with the cast. He also managed to get longtime Lou Reed associate Fernando Saunders to contribute to the movie's score; and for his cinematographer, he lured Brian Pryzpek, who has worked on such prestige projects as Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet."

For Bahre, these choices were highly personal. For example, "Ever since I was about 17 years old, I've had a button with his (Robert Kerman's) face on it, because I love 'Cannibal Holocaust' so much," he said.

Similarly, "The Last House on the Left," which Bahre first watched on DVD, was "one of the most impactful movies I've ever seen," Bahre said.

"I first saw it when I was 12, and after we saw it, my best friend, my brother and I went out and broke it apart with an ax. We were so disturbed by it we had to destroy it."

As for Horse and Saunders, "As far as my favorite artists, it definitely goes David Lynch and Lou Reed."

He said the "celebrities" responded to his enthusiasm as well as to his script. "Peter Tork hadn't acted in anything for almost a decade, so he was so game — he even came back to do re-shoots. And I feel like Michael Horse loved us. By the time he came on set, we were a family."

Most of the shooting took place in a Connecticut farmhouse, while cast and crew shared a nearby cabin for close to 30 days. (For recreation at night, they watched movies projected onto a shower curtain tacked to the outside wall.) An exception was Pryzpek: "He lived in a tent," Bahre said.

Similarly, composer David Joseph Virone, a lifelong friend of Bahre's, drove to Memphis from San Diego in an RV and lived in the O'Brien family's driveway for about six months, to write the score.

Bahre was able to make "I Filmed Your Death" on a budget he said was $10,000, plus about another $10,000 in post-production: The editing, sound design and painstaking fine-tuning that has taken the director and his collaborators six years to complete, thanks to their other responsbilities. (The digital tuning didn't extend to the gore effects: They were created on set by the late Howard "Buddy" Gray of Memphis, who used the name "H.G. Ray" on his film credits.)

"It's been pretty much a community of me and my family and my friends," Bahre said.

After the Studio on the Square screenings, "I Filmed Your Death" will be submitted to film festivals and, eventually, shopped around to distributors. Whatever happens, it won't be his only feature film, Bahre said.

"All I've wanted to do since I was ten years old was make films" he said.

'I FILMED YOUR DEATH'

10 p.m. Friday, April 20, and 10 p.m. Saturday, April 21

Malco Studio on the Square, 2105 Court

Introduction and post-movie question-and-answer session with director Sam Bahre and actor Michael Horse

Tickets: $12

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