Horror movie filmed in Wichita to get a digital upgrade and rerelease

In the spring of 1986, a group of filmmakers and actors gathered in Wichita. Over 18 days, they shot “Night Screams,” one of the kookiest horror movies ever made.

Now the slasher flick is enjoying a second life. Thanks to a digital restoration and rerelease, it will be preserved for future generations of horror fans. And this October it will have its first-ever public screening in Wichita, at the Orpheum Theater during the 21st annual Tallgrass Film Festival.

A kid from Wichita

Dillis Hart II got an education in the movies as a clerk in the accounting department at Universal Studios. He’d dropped out of film school after he and his wife had a baby, but the Wichita native still dreamed of becoming a producer.

“I saw the numbers and I talked to the execs,” he said. Their advice: If Hart wanted to make a profitable, low-budget film, consider the horror genre.

Budget in hand, Hart returned to Wichita to raise a few hundred thousand dollars — and cast some locals. A few months later, filming began.

“It says something for being naive, because you don’t know how hard it is,” Hart said. “I did not have a clue.”

He pulled it off anyway.

“For a kid from Wichita, to say, ‘I’m going to make a movie in Wichita. I’m going to cast (people in Wichita),’ and then it not only got made, (but) his was the first to be released” on video, said Leif Jonker, who filmed his own horror film in Wichita in the early 1990s.

The ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ of horror movies

On its surface, “Night Screams” doesn’t seem out of the ordinary for a slasher picture: during a high-school party, a group of teens are picked off, one by one. In a hallmark of the genre, many of the kills are both gruesome and creative.

But there’s also a manhunt subplot that yields a shootout, an exploding police car, and an escaped convict who recites lines from “Paradise Lost.” Later, a disco scene features a performance from The Sweetheart Dancers, a leotard-clad dance troupe.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the film is the additional footage from completely different productions: “Night Screams” begins with a couple watching the end of the 1981 slasher “Graduation Day.” Later, two teenagers watch a pornographic movie starring John Holmes.

The additional scenes weren’t part of the original plan. When the first rough cut came in at 64 minutes, Hart realized he needed to somehow pad the film to secure a distribution. (He later inked a deal with Prism Entertainment, which put “Night Screams” on video rental store shelves nationwide.)

Hart has always had mixed feelings about the end result. “Over the years, I’ve been very critical of it, but it is unique, it’s hilarious,” he said.

The re-release gave Hart an opportunity to realize his original vision: the box set will include both the “padded” longer version as well as a shorter cut without the additional scenes.

To his surprise, a younger cousin and his horror-fan friends were already familiar with “Night Screams.”

“They say it’s like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” of horror movies,” Hart said. “It’s just so out there.”

A ‘who’s who’ of Wichita theater

One thing Hart has always been proud of is having cast multiple members of the local theater community along with the LA actors, including Rob Thomas (“The Karate Kid,” “Cobra Kai”).

Wichita theatergoers will recognize many of the locals, including Barbara Schoenhofer, Susan Lyles, Ed Baker, Dennis Arnold and Mike Roark.

All five relive their experience in “Blood and Chopsticks: Echoes of Night Screams,” the 80-minute documentary included with the rerelease.

“We were all young and having fun and getting to do a movie,” said Schoenhofer, who was, at age 18, the youngest cast member.

Baker, who played a rookie cop, was only on set one day.

“I thought I didn’t have any stories,” he said. “And I got there and sat down, and we started talking, and I remembered so much more than I expected.”

Although he was in his early 30’s at the time, Arnold played the father of the star football player. He still has the snakeskin boots he wore for the role.

The theater-trained Wichita actors all enjoyed their experience, despite the “hurry up and wait” nature of a film set.

One day, Roark was asked to show up to set early, but wound up waiting through lunch and dinner. He left to catch a production of “A Chorus Line” at WSU and returned well before his scene shot after midnight.

That scene was filmed inside a Spanish-revival-style house at Second and Crestway in College Hill. Hart used his father’s house near Crestview Country Club for the exteriors. The production also shot a football scene at Heights High School and a club scene at Pogo’s, among other Wichita-area locations.

Most of the Wichita cast hadn’t seen or thought about “Night Screams” in years, unaware of its modest cult-film status.

The re-release “made me look at (“Night Screams”) in a different way, through the eyes of people who are fascinated by these films,” Schoenhofer said.

She’s old enough to look at herself in a different way, too. “I was always very self-critical,” she said. Now she can feel proud of the performance she delivered as an 18-year-old.

“A lot of people aren’t going to like this movie” given its disjointed plot and wacky elements, Jonker said. “But I think it’s a special part of cinema history, and it deserves to be recognized.”

How to watch “Night Screams”

The rerelease of “Night Screams” will be available for purchase from vinegarsyndrome.com beginning July 1. It includes 4K and Blu-ray discs with the original film plus a new “original” edit, a documentary and a commentary track.

The original, shorter version of the film will screen during a Retrospective Showcase at the Orpheum Theater during the 21st annual Tallgrass Film Festival, Oct. 5-8. Individual tickets will go on sale at the end of August at tallgrassfilm.org.