“Death Force,” a Rhode Island-produced post-apocalypse thriller, finally makes its debut this weekend, thanks to the persistence of writer/director Ricky Laprade and cowriter Corey Gomes.

12 Gauge Pictures

Two days before Rick Laprade of Narragansett had scheduled the world premiere of his post-apocalyptic thriller “Death Force” at the Columbus Theatre last Aug. 29, the place was closed on orders of the Providence Fire Dept. as a safety hazard.

More than 200 tickets had already been sold. Not bad for an untested film that people had only heard about on what Laprade calls the “person-to-person networks” of the Internet. So “On the 29th we stood outside with a bag of cash to refund the money to ticketholders,” Laprade recalls. But as luck would have it, on that night there were torrential downpours and “no one showed up.”

Those ticketholders will get a second chance to see “Death Force” when it finally (Laprade hopes) has its premiere showings at 9 and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence. Anyone who already has a ticket can get in to any of the shows and Laprade and his producers are hoping more people will turn out, too.

It is, he cautions however, not a “Hollywood film.” Made on locations across Rhode Island for $300 (that’s one-fiftieth of the highly publicized “shoestring” budget of $15,000 for the mega-hit “Paranormal Activity”), the film is a messy web of intrigue in which an unseen character called the Red King sends a team of henchmen to secure something called Project Dark Forest. It, however, has been snatched by a young woman named Tracey (Shanette Wilson) who is now on the run with it. Everyone wants it so it must be very valuable, although it fits inside a metal briefcase.

But Laprade’s script (cowritten with Corey Gomes) never explains exactly what Dark Forest is nor why it is so important nor why so many lives are snuffed out in pursuit of it. Characters turn up and are killed off moments later as Tracey tries to flee with the briefcase. There are plenty of murders, torture a la the “Saw” movies, big automatic weapons being fired and even a cat fight to the death between two women in a field. But, with so little information for the audience, “Death Force” is frustrating and doesn’t pull one into the lives of its characters or its situations, which mostly seem desperate.

Laprade, who is 29 and works for a wireless communications system geared to the entertainment and sports worlds, began writing the script with Gomes, who shares a mutual interest in film, about three years ago. They came up with a story idea for “Death Force,” although Laprade says that as the script evolved, the end result has “nothing to do with the original premise.”

They’ve rented the Cable Car for the four shows, with tickets going for $10, and hope “someone will take notice of it.” They’ve already planned out a sequel to “Death Force” (at the end of the film there’s a line on screen that reads “to be continued”) and have “30 more scripts in the third draft phase and pretty much ready to go.” With such confidence, watch out “Paranormal Activity.”

mjanuson@projo.com