York’s own vigilante movie, CrimeFighters, returns triumphantly from its world premiere at the 64th Edinburgh International Film Festival to make the streets of York safe from crime.

Writer-director Miles Watts’s second feature garnered a warm response and glowing reviews when it screened last Friday to an appreciative Edinburgh Filmhouse crowd, and now it begins a summer tour of the Picturehouses group of cinemas, starting with a week-long run at City Screen York and Greenwich Picture House from today.

CrimeFighters (15) was made entirely in York by MilesTone Productions on a shoestring budget of £6,000 with support from York Film Trust and high production values, showcasing the city in film-noir black and white.

“A love letter to York and a shining example of its myriad talent, CrimeFighters is a vibrant, funny, cool Britflick pitched somewhere between a Woody Allen comedy drama and a Batman movie, and destined to become a cult classic, so don’t miss out,” says Miles, who shot the film over a three-week period, at such locations as Ye Olde Starre Inne in Stonegate, where the landlord let him film every night from closing time until the cleaners arrived in the morning.

The director and some of the stars and crew will be at tonight’s screening to answer questions and give out signed cast photos and posters to the best-dressed vigilantes at 9.15pm. Further shows will follow at 12.30pm tomorrow; noon and 8.40pm, Monday; 1pm, Tuesday; 6.20pm, Wednesday; and 4pm and 8pm, Thursday.

The full tour dates, trailer and film information can be found at crimefightersfilm.com, and Empire film magazine will feature the Picturehouses tour on its website.

In Watts’s 80-minute comic-book comedy, three terminally bored friends, Ella (Emma Keaveney), Pip (Paul Trimmer) and Daisy (Debbie Hard), each adopt a superhero guise in response to the crime wave that is sweeping the gothic streets of York, but will their own problems consume their desire to clean up the city?

The Edinburgh International Film Festival catalogue described CrimeFighters as a “laidback amble through the lives of three ordinary young people who will do anything to avoid being swallowed up by the monotony of their disappointingly normal lives.

“Taking its stylistic inspiration from the mumblecore titles of the 2000s, the film’s navel-gazing twenty-something protagonists and fly-on-the-wall mise-en-scene are more Richard Linklater’s Slacker than Matthew Vaughn’s Kick Ass.”

CrimeFighters was shown in Edinburgh as part of the festival’s Under The Radar programme of new discoveries.

“Watts makes the most of his limited budget, taking full advantage of the dark, cobbled streets, winding alleys and grand dramatic buildings of York to create an ominous setting worthy of his eccentric tale,” the catalogue critique said.

“Hot on the heels of titles like Kick Ass and Defender, what the film lacks in expensive visual effects, it makes up for with sheer charm and affability. CrimeFighters is an exuberant example of independent filmmaking at its liberated best.”

Further Edinburgh praise came from TV Bomb, who called it “snappy, geeky, loveable… a genuine pleasure to watch”, while Forbidden Planet deemed it a “fab Brit indie flick”, predicting “comics fans will love it”.

As for The Press’s opinion: “Miles Watts has called CrimeFighters a cross between The Incredibles and Kevin Smith’s stoner classic Clerks, a good call for a scabrous, enjoyably English film full of off-the-cuff cool. Who needs Kick-Ass?”

For tickets, phone 0871 902 5726.