Urban Lore Of 'Munger Road' Basis For Feature Film
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A creepy urban myth has become the inspiration for a local filmmaker's first feature movie--and it was shot in the western suburbs.
St. Charles native Nick Smith returned to use his parents home as a base of operations for production of "Munger Road"--which, according to local lore, is a haunted road in Bartlett.
The film hits movie theaters on Sept. 30. Smith and his crew spent last year filming the movie on location around St. Charles.
The movie takes place the night before a big festival in town--when a group of teens choose the wrong night to explore Munger Road.
Something terrible happens to the group has they come upon the spot. Then the police are called to figure out what happened to the kids and track down some sort of menace as thousands of people converge for the annual Scarecrow Festival in St. Charles.
There are a variety of haunted stories about Munger Road. And kids from the area have been heading there for years to check it out--and presumably scare the bejeezus out of each other.
One legend involves the story of a little girl (or boy, or a school bus of kids, depending on who's telling the story) who was hit by a train at a railroad crossing.
The legend states that if you park your car by the tracks, roll down the windows and put baby powder on the bumper, little hands will appear. Those are supposedly the hands of the little girl trying to push the car away from the tracks.
Other stories involve a "ghost train" that has been rumored to ride on the railroad.
Nick Smith told the St. Charles Patch last year that the movie is more a thriller than a ghost story. He told the Patch that he always appreciated the simplistic ghost stories told around a campfire.
