Screaming Tunnel inspires horror movie
Scary back-story to Niagara Falls landmark adds suspense to plot
Niagara Falls’ most famous urban legend is now a movie.
For generations, nervous teens have struck a match in a damp, dark tunnel at the end of Warner Road, waiting for the ghost of a little girl to blow it out. It’s supposed to be followed by an unearthly scream from the spirit — hence its name, The Screaming Tunnel.
Niagara filmmakers Reece Fisher and Jake Maiuri haven’t experienced anything supernatural at the tunnel yet, but they agree it’s creepy enough to be a movie. So they went and made it.
“I think it’s the anxiousness, the nervousness of that whole thing where if you light a match you’ll hear her scream,” says Maiuri, the film’s producer.
“Everyone did it … you go down, light the match, and there’s a couple split seconds of quietness and your mind playing tricks on you. That, I think, is what brings people down.”
Filmed last spring, “Warner Road” follows a group of high school students who decide to make the Screaming Tunnel the subject of their film project. As they film late into the night, they realize there’s more truth to the story than anyone was prepared for.
The actual legend of the Screaming Tunnel involves a couple living in a nearby farm going through a separation. When the husband learns his wife has won custody of their daughter, he kills the girl and sets her on fire in the small, dank tunnel.
Variations of the story have a girl raped in the tunnel and set on fire to cover the evidence, a girl who flees a farmhouse fire and runs into the tunnel engulfed in flames, and a girl who escapes
captivity from a madman only to be caught by him in the tunnel and burned alive.
Whatever gruesome version is told, it’s like a rite of passage for Niagara kids to test their nerves and light a match in the tunnel.
Fisher, the film’s director, made his first visit with some friends in early high school. “I almost wanted something to happen, but no, nothing happened,” he recalls.
Maiuri went with his sister when he was much younger, driven by their mom no less. “Nothing happened, but we were scared. I think we ran back to the car.”
Three years ago, the two friends were looking for a short Halloween video to make for their Niagara production company Instillment. The Screaming Tunnel, they realized, was already familiar to most residents and had a scary back-story to work with.
The idea simmered until they finally started pre-production last October. When they finally started filming in March, it involved long, eerie nights after midnight in the tunnel, which was suddenly scarier than they remembered.
Fisher recalls hearing strange noises while at the back of the tunnel, filming the cast from the other side. “A few little things where we’re like, ‘All right, I don’t have a good feeling right now.’
“There were a few times where a light would go out or something would happen and we’d be like, ‘That was interesting.’”
Adds Maiuri, “We spent so much time in there. We spent probably 40 or 50 hours in there. Inside a tunnel after midnight, early morning. We were all tired and started seeing things.”
The film stars Morgan Hilliker, Sam Hart, Danica Deschamps, Andrew Noto, Madison Marino and Eric Evans.
The 50-minute film will have its red carpet premiere at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Niagara Falls Oct. 19. Ticket details will be released Aug. 31 at www.warnerroadmovie.com.