Lawrence.com

Hugoton — Joel Trujillo's new horror film "Dusk of the Living Dead" won't be premiered in Hollywood, nor even in a movie theater.

Tonight's big event will take place in the Stevens County Courthouse in Hugoton, where the 26-year-old amateur filmmaker grew up and shot parts of the hour-long, black-and-white movie. Adult tickets for the premiere are $2 each.

"It's a dream come true," said Trujillo, who works as a graphic artist at the Southwest Daily Times newspaper in Liberal.

Filmed in Hugoton, Liberal and Beaver, Okla., Trujillo's "Dusk" is a variation on George Romero's low-budget 1968 horror classic, "Night of the Living Dead."

Both tell the tale of flesh-eating zombies and the people who try to stop them. Trujillo moved the setting to southwest Kansas but kept one classic horror film special effect - using chocolate syrup to depict blood.

Trujillo did, however, have one advantage over filmmakers of earlier decades. These days, chocolate syrup is sold in squeezable bottles, sparing Trujillo the chore of opening can after can.

"(Trujillo) put it right over your head and squirted it so it went down the side of your face," recalled Luann Watson, an Elkhart woman who served as an extra in the movie.

Actors from theater groups in Morton and Stevens counties helped, and city leaders in Hugoton even agreed to close Main Street one afternoon so Trujillo could complete some scenes.

Still, there were obstacles.

Lacking pricey makeup artists, he created the look of rotting flesh on his zombies by gluing small patches of toilet paper to the actors' faces.

"I mean, when you look at it, it's not Hollywood, top-of-the-line special effects," Trujillo said. "I wanted to make it look like we were filming it (in 1968)."