The plot involves two serial killers, Chuck (Nicolas Guzman), who kills hitchhikers he picks up, and Rayne (Siboney Lo), who hitchhikes and kills the people who pick her up. Inevitably, the two meet and sparks fly.

"The road is just not big enough for two serial killers," Lo said.

"When Chuck kills people, he really enjoys it," Guzman said. It's like his hobby."

After inflicting wounds on him, Rayne escapes from Chuck and is picked up by Rebecca (Rosa Frausto). The hunt is on with Chuck chasing after Rayne and Rebecca, and a detective (Noel Gugliemi) hot on all their trails.

Frausto found the script, written by David Zagorski, on inktip.com, a material-sharing Web site used by people in the film industry.

Within months, Frausto had permission to use the script, and production began on the film. Casting calls were held in Los Angeles and Chicago, and shooting locations were scouted out.

Zagorski, of western Massachusetts, flew to Chicago for the 18-day shoot, giving input and helping the crew. He has written 10 other screenplays, including "The Wickeds", which was produced in 2005. Despite the trend, thriller/horror movies aren't his only genre. Much of his writing is for action films, but he explains that budgets often get in the way of producing action films.

"Horror is easier," he said. "It can be done cheap."

Zagorski and Frausto agree that "Roadkill" is not really a horror film, but more of "an action thriller with elements of horror."

Due to the similarities in the genres, Frausto has planned to produce "Roadkill" on HD video with a budget of less than $50,000.

Still, he insists that despite the relatively low budget, this will not be a "B" movie. Having directed for 12 years, he is trying to stay away from the stigma that low budget movies sometimes face.

Regardless of the appearance of the final product, the actors will attest to the risks of working with a small budget.

The first victim of Chuck's violence, played by Jose Gomez, was thrown out of a Jeep three separate times without padding to shoot his murder scene.

"That's the nature of independent film-making," Gomez said.

"It's true," Guzman agreed. "Sometime you have to be very guerrilla and the actor takes a beating."

A few bumps and bruises won't get this crew down though. The actors have had a great time working together, and Frausto has worked with essentially the same production crew on all of his films.

"Roadkill" will be Frausto's seventh feature film. His previous accomplishments include "Get Pony Boy,", "La Migra," also known as "Murder on the Border" and "Once Upon a Time in the Hood."

His previous films have been shown on premium channels like Starz, HBO, Cinemax and Pay-Per-View and are available at video and rental stores like Blockbuster and Netflix.

"Roadkill" will also go straight to video, but will do so internationally, like "La Migra."

The movie is being produced in four different versions. There will be English and Spanish versions (actually shot in both languages, no subtitles) with each language's version also having both R-rated and PG-rated versions.

Though many of the actors are bilingual, not every one spoke Spanish, so learning lines was an interesting process. Also, the script was originally translated into Spanish directly from the English version, but that introduced grammatical errors and the Spanish script needed to be re-written. Still, many of the bilingual actors speak different dialects of Spanish, so there were times when even the fluent speakers had a hard time with the lines. All of that hasn't stopped this crew from pulling off two full versions of the film.

"Some of the best scenes were the Spanish ones, even with all the trouble," Guzman said with a laugh.

The Spanish versions will be released first and sent directly to Mexico and South America for distribution, and an English version will be premiered next April in Chicago at the Latino Film Festival. The English versions will be available in stores by next summer.

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"Since those were canceled, there hasn't really been anything around late-night showing the old cheesy horror movies, so I kind of wanted to do that." said Zagorski, who works in the assessor's and town clerk's office at the Hatfield Town Hall.

The owner's horror hobby isn't the only thing that drives the show. Zagorski said he has been writing fiction and screen plays for most of his life. Having no formal training, the camera connoisseur is self taught. One of his screenplays, "The Wickeds" was produced straight to DVD last year, but Zagorski said the director took too many liberties with his script.

"It didn't work out as I had hoped." he said. "I said I can either keep waiting and hoping something else comes around or do my own thing."

"After Dark with Raven" has already begun airing, but due to technical difficulties at the Ludlow studio, Easthampton cable access will rerun the first two episodes of the show May 12. Seven more episodes will air on the following Fridays.

Breaking into the industry may not be an easy task, but Zagorski remains hopeful.

"With the age of the Internet, it's easier as far as being a screenwriter." he said.

Aspiring writers can use the Web to post screenplays that potential producers can peruse and purchase.

"That's how I got The Wickeds produced." Zagorski said.

The Mad Z Crew is currently working on its first full-length movie title "Road Kill" which tells the story of two hitchhiker serial killers, played by [omitted] and Zagorski.

"We are looking to finish it this summer." he said.

Many of the scenes in the movie take place in Easthampton and Holyoke.

As for "After Dark With Raven" Zagorski has been discussing getting the show aired in Ludlow but has yet to hear a verdict. Still, he's not giving up anytime soon.

"You really have to work hard at it." he said. "Its especially hard to do it from this area."