On Friday, the locally produced vampire movie “Shadowland” will be accorded a rare honor: a weeklong engagement at the Tivoli for paying customers.

We asked writer and director Wyatt Weed, 44, to describe the movie, how it earned a theatrical release and where it might go from here.

Q: What’s the basic plot of “Shadowland”?

A: Caitlin McIntosh plays a vampire with amnesia. She was staked and left for dead in 1897 but is accidentally re-awakened in modern day. She has no idea who she is or how she got here, so she sets out across the city, looking for the answers, with the police and a time-traveling adversary on her trail.

Q: What did it cost to make, and how long did it take?

A: I can’t talk about the budget, but I can say it was under one million, and we made it look like it cost a lot more. Our financing came from private local investors, and they were found through a string of friends who had known each other since high school.

Writing began in November of ‘06, the shooting took place over 30 days in the summer of ‘07, and then it was almost a full year of editing, previewing and re-editing, visual effects, re-shoots and sound.

Q: Where else has it screened?

A: In addition to the 2008 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase and the 2008 St. Louis International Film Festival, we have screened it at Archon, a local sci-fi convention that has run for more than 30 years; Freak Show Horror Film Festival in Orlando; Horror Nights in Tampa; Otrocine in Bogata, Columbia; and the Piasa Film Festival in Illinois.

At the Filmmakers Showcase last year, we won awards for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Best Actress, and Best Director. At Freak Show in Orlando, we won for Best Actress and Best Cinematography. So Caitlin McIntosh has been doing well for herself.

Q: How did you convince the Landmark chain to screen the film in a regular run?

A: Part of what sold them on picking up the film was that it had done so well locally. The Showcase screening sold out, plus we won three awards. Then at last year’s SLIFF screening, the theater was probably three-quarters full. So when Landmark heard all of that, they were encouraged.

But really, we earned the theatrical release by getting in Landmark’s face and staying there. We called them at the home office, sent them a copy of the film and explained why we thought it would do well here in St. Louis, with all of the local support. They liked the film, but without a huge budget for marketing and no “name” actors to bank on, we spent months trying to convince Landmark that we would be able to drum up the business.

Q: How are you doing that?

A: We’ve physically distributed flyers and postcards in stores like Star Clipper Comics, Vintage Vinyl and Hot Topic. And we’ve done a lot of interviews on local TV and radio. But the most useful tool is the Internet. It’s amazing how you can reach specialized interest groups through sites like Facebook. There’s a lot of interest in vampires, thanks to “Twilight” and “True Blood.”

Q: What happens next?

A: St. Louis has been very supportive of us, and just getting into the theater here ensures that we’ll be able to release a DVD in a few months. But if we do well here, there’s interest from a theater chain in Phoenix and a specialty horror group in Los Angeles.

Our goal is to make the list of the Top 100 moneymakers for the week. If we can open up Variety and see our movie on the same page as “Harry Potter,” this will all be worth it.

(“Shadowland” opens Friday at the Tivoli, 6350 Delmar, with a red-carpet premiere and continues through Thursday, July 30. Cast and crew will be on hand for all of the screenings on Friday and Saturday. The screnings on Tuesday, July  28, will be subtitled in Spanish. Click here for the trailer.)