"The Creek" has run from nearby Lebanon to Milwaukee and Atlanta. Now it will be coming to a video store, a retail outlet — or even a mailbox — near you.

The low-budget indie directed by former Lebanon resident Erik Soulliard made its local debut at the Allen Theatre in Annville in March 2007, was an official selection at Atlanta Horror Fest 2007 and Milwaukee County Massacre Horror Convention 2008 and was named Best Horror Feature at the 2007 Illinois International Film Festival in St. Charles.

On Tuesday, it will be released on DVD, something Soulliard wasn't sure was ever going to happen.

"For us to have it out with this tiny, tiny film, it's great," Soulliard said Sunday evening. "Ninety-five percent of these films never see the light of day."

Soulliard said the DVD will be on shelves at Best Buy, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster and most retailers where DVDs are sold — and available through Netflix.

The writer-director, who now lives in Clifton, N.J., knows a little bit about the entertainment industry. He's an assistant in engineering for CBS. But he'd never tackled a project quite like this.

"Overall it's been a long road, but I wanted to see this project through," Soulliard said. "There was a lot of hard work invested into the film by many talented people, and I think that shows through despite our limited budget."

"The Creek" — made on a truly limited budget of under $30,000 — is about a group of young men and women who gather at a cabin in the woods on the fifth anniversary of the death of their friend Billy — the same cabin where they were partying with Billy the night he died.

The police ruled Billy's death an accident, but at least one of his friends isn't so sure. And the sudden appearance of Billy's ghost suggests the circumstances surrounding his demise might deserve a second look.

"This project was an amazing trial by fire, and I've learned so much, from making the film to postproduction to marketing it to festivals and distributors," Soulliard, a Millersville University graduate, said.

One thing he learned is how difficult it is to get a low-budget film distributed, in part because the DVD market has slowed considerably in the past two years.

"A lot of places that would have picked up our film no longer can afford to," Soulliard said. "Also, there is very little money allotted for marketing for films like these. So the burden for marketing falls to the filmmakers."

To help keep costs down, he's been pushing "The Creek" hard on the Internet.

The film has a Web site, www.thecreekmovie.com, and Soulliard also features it prominently on his production company's MySpace site, www.myspace.com/annubisproductions, which contains clips from the film. And of course there's YouTube. A 47-second "teaser trailer" is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORCAujlwhXk.

It has been lot of work. But that hasn't stopped Soulliard.

He's already in the early stage of preproduction of his next movie, "12 Bells," a thriller-horror film, and is looking for investors. The plan is to once again shoot in Lebanon, but on a bigger budget.

"We're planning to have name talent in a few select roles, which will enable us to get the film out to a much broader audience," Soulliard said.

His company, Annubis Productions, also will be shooting a music video for local rock trio Shift Seven (www.shiftseven.com) at the end of November.

Soulliard said he's not planning any special celebration for Tuesday.

"I'm probably going to be too exhausted," he said.

But he has a good idea of how he's going to feel the first time he walks into a video store and sees "The Creek" on the shelf.

"That'll be pretty surreal," he said.

E-mail: jroberts@lnpnews.com