It was late one July night in 1976 that David Berkowitz, the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, opened fire on Donna Lauria, an 18-year-old emergency medical technician, in front of her family's home in the Westchester Heights section of the Bronx, near the Throgs Neck Bridge. The shooting, and those that followed, cast a pall of fear and sorrow over the city.

Now preparations for a Spike Lee movie tentatively called ''Summer of Sam,'' about the era and how people in the area were affected by the shootings, which left six people dead and seven wounded, are summoning those bitter memories.

Ms. Lauria's parents, Michael and Rose Lauria, and their supporters looked on disapprovingly yesterday as hundreds of people lined up at the American Legion Post only a mile or two from their home at a casting call for extras in the film.

''They're going to make money and I'm going to make heartaches,'' said Mr. Lauria as he stood stiffly behind a police barricade, a picture of his lost daughter pinned to his tan shirt. ''They're exploiting us and the other victims.''

Although it has been 22 years since the Son of Sam prowled New York, Mr. Lauria still leads the local chapter of a group called Parents of Murdered Children at Calvary Hospital on Eastchester Road in the Bronx on the third Saturday of every month. And on the anniversary of his daughter's death, he said, there are always people who come knocking at their door, asking questions.

Some of the people in line said they felt bad for the Laurias, but most saw little harm in the movie.

''They have the right to protest,'' said Lauren Stoltze, gesturing at the Laurias. ''I feel bad that people are making money off their pain.''

Perhaps the person most unnerved by the Laurias' protest was Victor Colicchio, who wrote the original script for ''Summer of Sam.''

The project had seemed a breakthrough for Mr. Colicchio. Spike Lee had agreed to direct it. Financing was falling into place. Mr. Colicchio said he had not anticipated the pain it would bring to the victim's parents, whom he met for the first time yesterday.

Mr. Colicchio called the Laurias' loss ''heartbreaking,'' and nervously smoked cigarette after cigarette as he talked about meeting them.

''They wanted to let me know how they felt, and I couldn't argue with them since I'm a father, too,'' he said. He said he could not stop the film, but would suggest dedicating it to the victims.

But then he shook his head. ''I feel terrible,'' he said.

A slender, dark-haired man in his mid-40's, Mr. Colicchio, too, grew up in the Throgs Neck area. He said the script was, in part, an attempt to exorcise the past, when he and a group of friends tried to find the murderer and turn him in, but ended up beating up a man who turned out not to be the killer.

The movie centers on the man they attacked, who Mr. Colicchio said was a neighborhood resident who belonged to a punk rock group. ''He looked punkier and punkier, and we thought he was part of a cult,'' said Mr. Colicchio. ''We went after him.

''Luckily, the police came,'' he said. ''And the next day they caught the real killer.''