Northpinellas: Friends film horror flick in junkyard

TARPON SPRINGS -- Andy Lalino moved to St. Petersburg in 1970 and grew up loving horror movies. He spent his Saturday afternoons watching the low-budget monster films and cornball humor of Creature Feature with Dr. Paul Bearer.

When he graduated from the University of Miami with a major in film production, he dreamed of someday producing a horror film.

Now Lalino's dream of filming someone else's nightmare is about to come true.

Lalino, 36, and his friend and co-executive producer/director, John Karliss, 35, of Orlando, are about to wrap production on their first short horror movie, Filthy.

"I owe it all to Dr. Paul Bearer," said Lalino, who lives in Clearwater.

Bearer was played by the late radio advertising sales manager Ernest R. "Dick" Bennick, whose trademark signoff was "I'll be lurking for you."

On Saturday, Lalino, Karliss and about 30 actors and crew members lurked in a junkyard surrounded by old bicycles, hubcaps and discarded appliances on location at the Hobbs Metals & Recycling Yard in Tarpon Springs.

"We've been here for more than 30 years, and we have designers and decorators who come out here all the time looking for stuff," said Carl Hobbs, 31, one of the owners of the junkyard. "When they asked me about filming here, I knew it would be good not only for the publicity it offers, but from an artistic standpoint as well."

Lalino and Karliss were preparing to shoot a grisly scene in the movie. Fermentia, one of the lead characters, is thrown into the back of a blue BFI garbage truck and crushed to death.

The 30-minute film, which Lalino also wrote and directs, tells the story of a television news reporter, Dana Diamond, who goes to Miami's Liberty City area on Halloween to cover a riot.

When she arrives, Diamond, who is played by Jennifer Bass of Fort Myers, is kidnapped and tortured by a family of crazy transients.

On Saturday, Bass was covered with makeup resembling dirt and dried blood in a dress made from old diapers and other junk.

She apologized to the cast and crew before letting out a series of bloodcurdling screams.

"I'm sorry I have to do this, guys," she said.

The film is traditional in some of its horror elements, Lalino said, but unique in others.

"There are definitely some surprises in this film," Lalino said. "We've used some new and nontraditional ways of shooting that haven't been explored before."

One of the techniques Lalino uses in Filthy is moving back and forth from film to videotape.

"We show several newscasts and we wanted them to stand out," he said.

Filthy is filmed on location in Largo and Tarpon Springs, and at Telemations Studios in Clearwater, where Lalino works as a graphic designer. Production started April 19 and shooting is expected to be finished Sunday.

The 11 actors in the movie are primarily local, although a few are from the Orlando area, Lalino said.

Sheri Lawrence, who is in her late 40s, plays Fermentia, one of the family members who tortures Diamond.

"This is the sixth movie I've been in, and I'm impressed with the production," said Lawrence, who lives in Dunedin.

Lawrence's role requires her to wear makeup that takes more than three hours to apply.

"I'm trying really hard not to melt out here," Lawrence said Saturday while attempting to shield herself from the blazing afternoon sun.

Lalino said they looked for professionals for the movie. So far he is satisfied with the results.

The $25,000 it cost to produce the film came primarily from family members, Lalino said.

Lalino would like for the short movie to eventually be made into a full-length feature film. He and Karliss plan to enter it in a number of film festivals once production is complete.

Dave Barrett of Indian Rocks Beach is director of photography on the film. When he read Lalino's script, he knew he wanted to be a part of the project.

"I said to myself, this is one sick freak," he joked, "and this could be one really good film."

-- Julie Church can be reached at (727) 445-4229 or church@sptimes.com.

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