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NORTH HANOVER — Most people would be frightened at the thought of a zombie invasion. Chris Kaczor cleared out his bank account to make it happen.

Kaczor, a township resident and promising young movie producer, is putting the finishing touches on a full-length, independent horror film called “The Reunion.”

Co-written with Trenton resident Jeff Stewart, who also directed, the movie features everything from friends, violence, sex, drugs and, of course, zombies.

“It’s a cross between HBO’s hit series ‘The Wire’ and the zombie film ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ ” said Stewart, who previously lived in Wrightstown and Bordentown Township. “It’s an urban zombie flick.”

Regardless of whether you have the same taste for brains and gore as the antagonists in the movie, Kaczor said his clever creation promises a passionate display of superb acting, a thrilling plot and amazing special effects. “The Reunion” has been a longtime inspiration of the two 31-year-old Northern Burlington County Regional High School graduates and childhood buddies.

“We spent hours just having conversations on how fast the zombies should be, and we really wanted to nail down details,” Kaczor said. “In preparation, we would watch horrible zombie movies and say, ‘We don’t want to be that.’ ”

The film starts in Trenton and flows into North Hanover using two main locations in the rural community. The abandoned and disheveled Cookstown Diner on Cookstown-New Egypt Road features the first zombie encounter. Another climatic scene occurs on Kaczor’s property in his large barn, which is buried in the woods beyond a long dirt trail. Usually used as Kaczor’s personal woodshop, the barn hosts a showdown between good and evil.

“I’d say 50 to 60 percent of the movie was shot in Burlington County,” Kaczor said. “It was perfect. We wanted to have a big contrast between urban Trenton to a very rural scene here in North Hanover.”

Kaczor also saw a drastic contrast in his bank account.

After a financial backer dropped out a few weeks before production, Kaczor made a few budgetary cuts but managed to raise roughly $30,000 to fund the movie. Most of the money came from his own pocket.

“I spent all my money, used some good credit towards it, and asked family members for help,” he said. “I mean, $30,000 is a Hollywood production’s lunch budget. So we did what we could and cut luxuries out. But I didn’t want to skimp on special effects on the zombies. Some movies have people with just gray makeup on. We really went for it. We wanted it to be on point.”

Fake blood, made from a homemade mixture of pancake syrup and squid ink, was generously spread throughout the movie. In addition, Kaczor and Stewart hired Doug Sakmann of Backseat Conceptions in Philadelphia to take the lead on special effects.

“This guy is known as the ‘Zombie King of Philadelphia,’ ” Kaczor said. “He is great with effects, and he runs zombie crawls all the time. We wanted someone who really knew what they were doing.”

Next, an advertisement on Craigslist was posted for actors. Aside from the ad, the two managed to bring in a few well-known names. Joseph Gannascoli, best known for his role in “The Sopranos” as the mobster Vito, plays a small part as a police officer. Adult-film star Gina Lynn also makes an appearance and up-and-coming actor Kirk Ponton plays the lead.

Filming began last summer and final editing is now taking place.

“The Reunion” will premiere April 22 at Studio City, NJ in Trenton. Kaczor said the premiere is sold out, but DVDs should be in distribution in the near future. A video trailer can be seen on www.burlingtoncountytimes.com or on the movie’s website, www.the-reunion.com.

Stewart and Kaczor hope to kick off a film festival run later this year and begin selling DVDs once a distribution deal is reached.

“I’m pretty confident I’ll make the money back,” Kaczor said. “I believe in this movie, and it’s pretty easy to get a distribution deal for this kind of film. There has already been some interest.”

Stewart said “The Reunion” hopefully will lead to bigger things and possibly bigger film budgets.

“It’s out there now,” he said. “If people like what we have done with a small budget like $30,000, imagine what we could do with $1 million.”

Stewart said he plans to continue working with Kaczor.

“Of course,” he said. “You never forget where you came from or how you got somewhere. Filming with Chris was a lot of fun.”

Kaczor said despite the hard work, filming took on a party atmosphere.

“It was a grind,” he said. “We would be working, then all of a sudden, you would hear a rooster and realize you worked all night. But the actors were committed and had a great time with it.

“With makeup, sometimes it’s a ‘hurry up and wait’ process. Sometimes it takes three hours to get made up and people are waiting around. But the town was good about it, too. They weren’t bothered at all when we would have zombies going to the liquor store or Wawa while they were waiting for a scene.”

Mark Zimmaro can be reached at 609-871-8059 or mzimmaro@phillyBurbs.com

Follow Mark on Twitter at twitter.com/mzimmaro

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