Colorado director filming in Erie hopes to release movie in 2025

DENVER (KDVR) -- After a local director gathered actors and extras to film around spots in the town of Erie for a movie, the team has their eyes on a release date.

For over a month, Erie resident Michael Freeman has been filming “Eerie Town," which follows a character who returns home to win back the love of his life. When he returns, he finds himself in the midst of a “vampire hunt gone wrong,” according to the film’s Facebook page. He joins his friends in a mission to survive a zombie hoard, while also meeting someone new along the way.

While the filming started in October, the idea first came to Freeman in 2016 at the Parade of Lights.

"Just the way the lights were and the town, the energy that was there, I just kind of looked around and I looked at my wife, I was like, 'This is a good zombie setting,'" said Freeman.

The idea stayed in Freeman's mind until he started putting pen to paper last year. Since then, he's worked on getting scripts and actors, and by October, he started filming in local spots around Erie.

Once he started filming, Freeman said he received a huge community response. Freeman said that when he was looking for extras to volunteer, he received almost 600 emails, which ended up breaking his account.

"Our extras night was really insane. The town is just so nerdy with zombies. I'm so shocked at how much people love this genre. Like, I mean, I know people loved it. I wasn't expecting that kind of warm welcome with the whole thing, especially in a small town," said Freeman.

Meanwhile, many local shops and restaurants helped out as well. Freeman said the crew filmed at Erie establishments like 24 CARROT BISTRO, Lucile's Creole Cafe, Cristos Coffee Boutique Roastery & Cafe and even outside Caraway Orthodontics.

"It's just been an amazing response from the town," said Freeman.

Now, Freeman said the filming is almost done and he's looking at a release date.

When movie filmed in Erie will be done

Freeman said the film is hopefully done by the summer so it can be released toward Halloween in 2025.

He said he's looking to submit the film to a festival and potentially self-distribute the film through independent theaters in Colorado and around the region. After building a following, Freeman said he'd ideally like to stream the film somewhere like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Freeman is in the final stages of filming and he said there are still two more days he needs to film, one day in early December and one day in the spring. While there's still some filming left, Freeman said he didn't need any other volunteers, but crews are still trying to raise money for the set, as everyone is working on a volunteer basis.

The movie's GoFundMe page has already raised over $11,000 and has a goal of $20,000.