South Dakota Horror Movie Premieres Thursday

A new horror film, shot exclusively in South Dakota using all area actors, will premiere this Thursday (September 12) with two shows at the West Mall 7 theatres in Sioux Falls.

The premise of the movie is about a heavy metal band who has been together for awhile. As they're on tour, their bus breaks down. While seeking help for their bus, the people they find aren't so nice, and have other plans for them instead.

The principle players in the movie are Lena Howe (Lily), Jason Yapp (Corpsey), Snip Jackson (Hank Truman), and Kevin Kunkel (Earl Truman) The script was written by Dominic Wieneke. Ari Show serves as one of the film's producers and provided the information for this article and background on the movie. Wieneke submitted the script to a screen writing contest and it placed as a quarter-finalist. After it placed, and being the first script he submitted that's placed in any competition, he decided to go through and make the movie.

While filming "Death Rot", the actors and crew helped out on set or off set for some other local films which will be releasing shortly after theirs. "The Worst Kind of People" is releasing in Brookings the week after "Death Rot" premieres, and "Dust of War" is releasing the week after that.

The movie showcases a clip from "Eternal Beauty" which was intended to be submitted in a You Tube contest, but missed the submission date. So, they decided to make lemonade out of lemons, and incorporated it into "Death Rot".

Locations for the film include a farm outside of Parker, SD. The Starlite Drive-In in Mitchell, SD, which actually just shut down entirely at the end of this summer. The State Theater here in Sioux Falls. A gas station in Dell Rapids. Some woods outside of Baltic, and other random places around South Dakota like friends garages, parking lots, and gravel roads.

One of the best stories about the production of the film, is that the farm they were shooting at was also up for sale at the same time. The owner of the farm said they could make the movie on his property. He had briefly taken it off the market during filming.

The landowner was informed of the weeks that the crew would be out there on his property shooting. He said that it would be OK to leave things there if needed, just as long as it was all cleaned up when shooting was completed.

The crew all work 9-5 jobs during the week, so they weren't there when he was walking around. He stopped by his property a week before shooting was finished, and saw that one of the rooms in his barn was set up like a butcher room. Not only that, but there was blood everywhere, along with knives, tools, etc. He called the local police, contacted a few of his neighbors to make sure their cows were all accounted for. The officer shows up, and as they're investigating the barn, one of them kicks over a bucket containing a few used bottles of fake blood. He then remembered they were still out there using his property, and explained to the police what was going on. No charges were pressed, thankfully! The filmmakers were more impressed with themselves for making a believable butcher's room!

In addition to the cast and crew all being local talent, the soundtrack is provided by Sioux Falls death metal band Tennessee Murder Club.

Death Rot will premiere this Thursday (September 12) at West Mall 7 at 8:30pm and 11:30pm. Get out and support local filmmakers!