NORTHFIELD — A full-length feature filmed in the 1980s in Atlantic County will receive the big screen treatment for the first time Friday in South Jersey.
Editor and videographer William J. Murray’s movie was titled “Primal Scream” in this country and “Hellfire” everywhere else. The picture will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Tilton Square Theatre.
Murray helmed his 35mm directorial debut in 1983 and 1984.
The film’s editor, former Somers Point resident Keith Reamer, and Murray, will return and show a 45-minute documentary they directed about the movie, titled “Made a Movie, Lived to Tell.” The two will then screen the 93-minute feature and answer audience questions. The Q&A session will be moderated by former Press reporter and WOND-AM 1400 radio host David Spatz.
A futuristic, science-fiction, film noir, fantasy adventure, Murray’s film is a time capsule of mid-1980s South Jersey.
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Filming took place at the college that is now Stockton University, in Pleasantville and inside a Longport home. They blew up a car in Mays Landing. In Atlantic City’s Inlet section, neighbors called police when one of the actors ran around with a gun. Murray was arrested over the incident.
The movie’s cast included variety show artist Julie Miller, a former Entertainer of the Year in Atlantic City, and Mickey Shaughnessy, who died in 1985 in Cape May Court House at 64. Shaughnessy’s appearance in the film was his last movie role. He had roles previously in “From Here to Eternity,” Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
“Primal Scream” was never released to American movie theaters and went straight to video, but many of the core people who worked on it went on to make a living either in the film or entertainment business after it was completed.
