'The Darkest Place': Slasher film, set in Winter Haven, debuts Saturday at The Ritz

WINTER HAVEN — Over the past 40 years, there have been dozens of Hollywood horror-crime “slasher” movies churned out that have gone on to make millions – “Friday the 13th," "Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” to name a few.

Saturday night, a homegrown flick of the popular horror movie sub-genre makes its premier in the city where it was spawned: Winter Haven.

At 8 p.m. in downtown Winter Haven’s historic Ritz Theatre, “The Darkest Place” makes its big-screen debut.

The 60-minute, low-to-no budget thriller was written and directed by Stephen Styles and produced by Nate Schaller, also a Winter Haven native.

Basically, “The Darkest Place” involves a teenage girl whose disappearance leads her friends and family into disarray. The killer, called “The Shadow,” lurks across the small town of “West Haven,” where everyone is a potential victim.

Styles, 36, said getting into filmmaking has been a fun diversion from his regular job as a barber. A native of Statesville, North Carolina, who’s lived in Winter Haven since 2018, he said he’s a self-taught photographer who began shooting models in Tampa and Orlando before working as a traveling photographer for the ESPN network from 2016 to 2017.

Schaller, 37, met Styles as one of his customers and the two started discussing making movies during haircuts. Schaller works as the media specialist for Haven magazine and got his start in filmmaking working in sales and marketing for Dolphin Image Studios film production company, Winter Haven. He now owns and operates El Oso Films.

“I kind of fell in love with filmmaking and thought, well, ‘I see what they’re doing; I think I can make one’,” said Schaller, a 2004 graduate of Lakeland High School.

Top 5 things to do in Polk: 2 stage plays and a joke for teachers

Full events calendar: Adrienne Richards at Cherry Pocket

For the movie, Styles formed Clear Moon Films production company, and “The Darkest Place” is its first sponsored movie.

Styles suggested putting their efforts into producing their own movie and with little to no budget, the men began rolling “The Darkest Place.”

The screenplay was started in September 2021. By November, the men began scouting locations, and filming commenced in January 2022. By September, editing for the movie was finished in Styles’ living room.

“Nate said, ‘If you can come up with something, let’s give it a shot.’ I wrote the 120-page screenplay, the first one. We went over it and next thing you know, it’s ‘Ok, let’s do this,’” said Styles.

The end result was Styles’ own version of a Halloween slasher-type movie, filmed across Winter Haven – renamed “West Haven” to take advantage of signs already up around the city.

“The Darkest Place” was filmed across Polk County, but mostly in downtown Winter Haven, Lake Alfred, Lake Hamilton and Haines City. About a dozen people were involved as actors and film crew, mostly friends and family – including a cameo by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

Since Styles and Schaller already had some filmmaking equipment and the production and acting were done voluntarily, Styles said the film ended up costing about $1,200. Styles found how-to's online for certain special effects, like blood, that were used in movies of the 1980s.

“It was very DYI (do it yourself), but at the end of the day it was just me and Steve,” Styles said. “We really wanted to keep our budget on the lower side. Our budget was $0; our biggest expense was paying out of pocket for tacos.”

As for the end result, Schaller said the effort was “near and dear” to their hearts.

“It’s a classic slasher movie; we’re not reinventing the genre with this movie. But it’s fun, it’s entertaining, everyone had a dope time making it, so we’re really proud of it,” said Schaller, who added the movie would probably carry an “R” rating if released nationally.

And Styles said the aim is to have The Ritz audience be scared and have fun at the same time.

“The Shadow is inspired from all the classic slasher characters. I think the audience will be able to really bond with that character because they’ve seen qualities in that character in other slasher movies. This is just a good, old-fashioned slasher movie right before Halloween,” he said.

If you go

WHAT: Premier of “The Darkest Place.”

WHEN: Cocktails, 7 p.m.; movie, 8 p.m., Saturday.

WHERE: The Ritz Theatre, 263 W. Central Ave., Winter Haven.

COST: General admission, upper balcony, $5; VIP, lower mezzanine, $10. Tickets available at www.centralfloridatix.com and at the door.

INFO: Seats are first come, first served. Q&A session after the movie. 704-682-9688; www.thedarkestplacemovie.com; www.ritzwinterhaven.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven friends to release classic slasher film set in Polk County