Jane will do anything to help her favorite band succeed … including murder.

That’s the premise of “Stalker Jane,” which will be screened Sunday at Westside Bowl, which also served as a filming location for a horror movie that writer-director Roger Glenn Hill described as more “Scream” than “Saw.”

“It’s in the horror genre, but it’s not a terrifying film,” Hill said. It’s very much a dark comedy.”

Hill is based in Cleveland Heights, and most of the film was shot in greater Cleveland, but from grades 7 to 11, he lived in McDonald and attended school there through his junior year in 1997.

“I started writing my first movie, ‘Huckleberry,’ when I was in high school, and I kept kind of picking at it for a couple decades, and I finished that movie in 2018,” he said.

“I went to Ohio University because it was the only film school in the state at the time. I didn’t get into film school (there) but I was able to get into some film classes and such.”

After college Hill initially pursued documentary filmmaking because it seemed more accessible — “I could just kind of get a camera and get out there and start documenting stuff.”

He did movies on anti-Iraq war demonstrations and voter suppression in Ohio and made the 2014 documentary “Flying Paper,” focusing on a group of Palestinian children living in the Gaza Strip who try to set a Guinness world record for the most kites flown.

That experience was beneficial when he decided to focus on narrative features.

“I think it made me more decisive,” Hill said. “I think it helped me think as an editor as I was directing. Just basically having thousands and thousands of hours of cutting documentary really helped me structure a narrative project without it meandering. I got into more character-driven documentaries towards the end. ‘Flying Papers’ was very character oriented. So I think that also sort of helped inform my narrative films.”

“Huckleberry,” which was shot in part in McDonald, took 20 years from conception to competition.

“Stalker Jane” came much faster.

During one of his brainstorming sessions where he’d write down potential ideas for projects, Hill started thinking about his friend Niguel Quinn, who appeared in “Huckleberry” and also is a musician.

“Sort of the spark of it was like, what if I wrote a story about somebody stalking Niguel and his band? That was kind of the very first spark of ‘Stalker Jane.’ I wrote their first date scene that day, and the character just really kind of took on a life of her own. I wrote this in about two or three months, which is very fast for me.”

Quinn plays Demetri, the object of Jane’s obsession, and he also helped Hill find his title character, who is played by Halo Kitsch.

“He said, ‘I think you should take a look at her,’ so I pulled up her Instagram, and I was like, ‘Yeah, she’s definitely got that kind of edgy look to her and that sort of stage presence,'” Hill said.

“She definitely looked the part. I managed to send her the script. We had a few calls, and she just really impressed me with how much she loved the character and how fun she thought the character was. Once I met her there really wasn’t anybody else I could picture in that role.”

The story required several performance venues, where Hill could film scenes with Demetri’s band and the acts Janes viewed as competition. In addition to using such Cleveland area venues the Beachland Ballroom and Grog Shop, Hill shot a scene at Westside Bowl on the recommendation of Michael Rutushin, leader of the band Larry Elefante.

Rutushin also served as a live music coordinator on the project and worked on some of the original songs used.

“He suggested the Westside Bowl, so we went and checked it out and the aesthetic is so cool,” Hill said. “I love the place and the owner was very amenable to us shooting there.”

Youngstown band Madame Marlowe appears in the scene shot at Westside Bowl and also will perform following Sunday’s screening, which starts at 6 p.m. with doors open at 5 p.m. Hill didn’t want to say more about Madame Marlowe’s appearance because, “It’s a bit of a spoiler.”

Sunday’s event isn’t a premiere.

Instead, it’s the third of three test screenings Hill is doing to see how the film plays in front of an audience before he makes his final edits before seeking distribution or submitting to film festivals.

“The movie is about 95 to 98% there,” he said. “It’s just a good way for me to see what jokes are hitting, where the big crowd reactions are and for me to sort of nitpick little things. Maybe there’s a scene I can shave a few seconds off of. When I watch it alone on my computer, I don’t get the full experience, so these screenings are to sort of inform my final decisions.”

If you go …

WHAT: Preview screening of the film “Stalker Jane” followed by a performance by the band Madame Marlowe.

WHEN: 6 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown.

HOW MUCH: $10 in advance through Eventbrite and $15 day of show.