Locally-shot ‘Bad Kid’ premieres at Flagship Oct. 14

Turner man’s film inspired
by his foster care experiences

AUBURN — Two years after it was filmed around Lewiston-Auburn, the dark thriller “Bad Kid” will premiere at Flagship Cinemas on Oct. 14 before kicking off a weeklong run there.

Written and directed by Seth Roberts from Turner, and inspired in part by his own experience in the foster care system, the movie centers around a troubled young girl who’s been bounced from house to house.

Things were already rough for her when at 15, she meets the man who killed her parents.

“The script is very intense and designed to wake you up — it did its job,” said actor Bill McLean, one of four leads and a co-producer on the film. “It deals with trouble in the foster care system and trouble with bullying and it brings it right to the forefront. It’s a film that you should see to make you think about what’s going on out there.”

“Bad Kid” also stars Deidre Sachs from Freeport, Juliana Spier from Augusta and Nikolas Whittemore from Auburn, who is flying back for its premiere, McLean said.

Alan Dillingham of Killatainment Films in Auburn served as executive producer.

The movie was shot over 20 days for less than $20,000.

The premiere is planned for 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 14, with a screening and short Q&A. It’ll then have four showings per day through Oct. 20.

“That’s really exciting,” said McLean. “It’s a first for the indies up here in Maine, as far as I can tell — I have not seen another indie get four shows a night for a week.”

The feature-length film is 93 minutes. He’d consider it to have an “R” rating.

McLean said “Bad Kid” has had several different distribution offers — “(Seth) has to make up his mind which one he wants to go with” — and that DVDs are likely in 2017.

Roberts is currently shooting “Those We Leave Behind” about post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide among veterans, another film he’s both written and directed.

McLean, who lives in Monmouth and whose Freight Train Films was behind “How to Kill a Zombie,” has another action comedy in the works.

“My wife and I just finished a script called ‘Bigfoot Hunting,'” he said. “We’re going to shoot that next year. It’s a ridiculous romp through the Maine woods with some good old boys and good old girls and they’re trying to find Bigfoot.”

Expect a casting call next summer.