ST. JOSEPH, Mo., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- This September 10th "Midnight Reckoning," first-time writer-director Derrick Warfel's "Twilight Zone"-like feature about a budding rock star's horrific, desert run-in with a rogue prophet and his shadowy female sidekick, will follow the beat of a different drummer that many independent movies are doing these days ... breaking all the distribution rules. "The old system doesn't work," said Warfel of Winter Star Productions, based in L.A. and also Co-Producer on a different upcoming film with Ken Wales, Producer of "Amazing Grace". "You've got to try new release strategies. Bruce plays a down-on-his-luck rock singer in the film, and in real life he sings lead in a successful country western rock band, Borderline. It made sense to open to a friendly audience with Bruce's music fans before going wider. 'Napoleon Dynamite' opened to a warm Midwestern college crowd first."

The triple award wining Sci-Fi/Horror film starring CW's "Girlfriends" lead Persia White as the driven disciple, Tony Longo (Hollywood henchman, "The Cooler," "Mulholland Dr.") as her doomsday preacher, and Hall as a stranded musician hitching a late-night ride from the eccentric couple, will unspool at St. Joseph, Missouri's own Plaza 8 on Friday, Sept. 10, before having a wider platform release Oct. 1 in L.A., Dallas, Salt Lake City, and other cities and then on DVD during the pre-Halloween scary movie release feeding frenzy at theaters nationwide.

The 86-minute mind-bender and morality tale about an generation adrift also boasts Australian TV star Grant Bowler ("Ugly Betty", "Lost") as a fellow hitcher with a plot to con the soothsayer, and also features "Hawaii Five-O" veteran Al Harrington ("DreamKeeper") as a mysterious wilderness dweller. The film chronicles the hitcher's desperate efforts to escape his impending judgment and the paranormal grip of the night or end up, as predicted, "Dead by dawn."

"We take you on an unnerving ride to that Rod Serling territory frequented by David Lynch, 'Lost,' 'X-Files,' and Christopher Nolan in 'Memento' and 'Inception,' " said Warfel, an Eastern Pennsylvania native and a graduate of U.S.C film school (MFA) and Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM). "Like Nolan, I'm interested in making a thinking person's thriller, and nothing makes you think like death and the spiritual implications it raises." After opening at the Montreal World Film Festival and during its festival run the film was also known as "The Fall of Night."

For more information and interviews, visit www.MidnightReckoning.com/Press and /blog.

SOURCE Winter Star Productions