Writer and director David Boorboor gives direction before calling action on set. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK ELSON
An independent psychological thriller inspired by the true story of 1980’s Philadelphia serial killer Harrison “Marty” Graham was filmed at a location in Port Richmond earlier this month.
The movie, titled “A Place in Hell,” is written and directed by David Boorboor and stars Lewis Smith of Django Unchained, Noree Victoria of The Rickey Smiley TV Show and Philadelphia native Atif Lanier of Invincible.
Most of the movie was shot at Creamy Acres Fright Farm in Mullica Hill, N.J., but a few scenes were filmed at Stanzak’s Cafe and the residence upstairs at 2700 E. Cambria St. in Port Richmond.
In the movie, a post-graduate student and her college roommate team up to make a movie for film school while a detective searches for answers to a closed case.
The plot climaxes on a deserted fright farm in Southern New Jersey, associate producer Mark Elson said in a phone interview on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Graham, a mentally disabled drug addict, was convicted of first-degree murder in April 1988 in the stranglings of seven women whose corpses were found the previous August in his North Philadelphia apartment, according to a 1988 Daily News article.
The scene filmed in Port Richmond is a flashback to when detectives discovered the bodies, Elson said.
Graham is now 54 years old and is currently serving out his sentence of life in prison at the State Correctional Institution at Coal Township, according to the state inmate locator website.
The film is slated to premiere in November 2014 in New York City, Elson said.
