4 I The Behrend Beacon
Fifth anniversary of local horror film
fest poised to be more frightful than ever
October is finally upon us and you
know what that means: colder days, col
orful leaves and the Eerie Horror Fest.
an event Behrend sponsors each year.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of
the festival and planners have a lot in
store for horror fans this year, so much
so that the entire festival has been
moved to a new location: the Warner
Theatre on State Street in downtown
Erie.
Last year the festival took place in
two separate venues. Film screenings
were held at the Erie Playhouse on West
10 th Street and the festival portion was
located at the Avalon Hotel across the
street. This two venue system caused
confusion amongst some festival atten
dees last year. Without a central location
it was sometimes difficult to locate cer
tain aspects of the festival. To remedy
that problem, the entire festival is now
being held at the Warner Theater.
“This year is a
triple header of
some of horror's
biggest icons. ”
-Mark Steensland
Professor of
Communications
The Warner Theater will he home to
the film screenings and the expo portion
of the festival. There will he tables and
booths all throughout the theater, down
stairs and upstairs. New rooms were
even created in the hack of the theater to
accommodate the many different attrac
tions the festival offers this year.
One of the biggest aspects of the fes
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Jason Mewes appeared in 2007f0r Netherbeast Incorporated.
C ONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Tom Savini of Dead fame met many eager fans at last year's fest.
tival this year is the reunion of all the
living cast members from The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974) including
Gunnar Hansen who portrayed
Leatherface. Kane Hodder who played
Jason in Friday the VII and Tony
Moran who played Michael Myers in
Hallow een will also be appearing at the
festival.
C'ONTRIBI'THI) PHOTO
Ilu- Warner iheater: Horror I esi\ new home
"With Leatherface. Michael Myers
and Jason Vorhees. this year is a triple
header of some of horror's biggest
icons." said Mark Steensland. a profes
sor of Media Studies at Behrend. an
organi/er of the festival, and a filmmak
er. "There are lots of other interesting
guests as well
Last year notable, guests such as
Jason Mewes (of Jay and Silent Bob
fame). James Duval (Donnie Darko).
and Tom Savini ( Night of the Living
Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Land of the
Dead etc.) made appearances at the fes
tival. signing autographs and meeting
fans.
"On a personal level. I'm excited for
the screening of Dark Night of the
Scarecrow on Saturday." said
Steensland. "It's an old TV movie from
the 80's, and one of my favorites. I
JEW-
Bv Matthew Schwabenbauer
news editor
js53X7(? psu.edu
wanted to do a remake of it and during
that proeess I met the film's ereator. The
film is not eurrently available on DVD.
but the creator has just recently had the
rights to the film returned to him.
Unfortunately he did not want to part
with the rights, so I won't be remaking
it. hut he will soon be re-mastering the
film and releasing it on DVD. I present
ed him with an offer to screen the film at
the Horror Fest. and he agreed. My film.
Peckers, will be opening for it."
Peckers is Steensland’s newest film,
which was finished last year and is cur
rently on the festival circuit. It has won
four awards so far and played in a dozen
film festivals.
"It's sort of the homecoming of my
film, after being played in other festi
vals." said Steensland.
On the weekend of the Horror Fest.
Peckers will be showing at four differ
ent film festivals.
Steensland gave out little information
about Peekers. in order to keep suspense
for the film high. "It's a twisted little
tale about a guy who runs into trouble
and his neighbor comes over." said
Steensland. "I can't really tell you much
more about it than that."
Last year. Steensland's film
Qtiitd<gJ7 was screened. An adaptation
of the comic book of the same name.
i)ead@ 17 tells the story of a young girl
with an affinity for miniskirts. Nara
Kilday. who is killed, then returned to
life to fight demons with an axe
This year's Horror Fest will be
screening many movies from all over
world. Running from Oct 9 through Oct
12. sixty films will be shown.
The Horror Fest always features a
block of films exclusively from the local
region (on Sun). Last year was the pre
miere of a local film. Chasing Darkness,
directed by Jason Hull and produced by
Snowdog Studios. It told the tale of a
Mafioso hitman trying to leave the
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
James Duval o/Donnie Darko appeared in the 2007 Horror Fest.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Horror movie legend John Steadman of The Hills Have Eyes.
organization after a failed whacking.
Expectedly, his superiors were not
pleased with this decision and retaliated
accordingly. On top of that, he had trou
ble with his girlfriend and unintentional
ly angered a local vampire cult.
The film was leaturelength and high
ly anticipated by the local horror film
community and even garnered a large
audience at last year's festival as the
screening was sold out. The film gar
nered largely negative reviews, includ
ing a half of a star from
drcadcentral.com.
"Chasing Darkness may not be the
worst film ever made, but it almost takes
itself too seriously to be taken serious."
said the reviewer
Despite criticisms. Chasing Darkness
was a feature length film created entire-
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
(iiuwar Hansen il.calhcrfacc) will be appearing.
lv hv the local communitv. which is
noteworthv on it's own
Screening in front of Chasing
Darkness last year was The Beast In Me.
another local film, directed by Jason B.
McCann. The film was well-received by
those in attendance and was even fea
tured on the front page of The Meadville
Tribune. The Beast In Me was notable
Friday, October 3, 2008
for being shot entirely on film and in
black and white, a feat for most low
budget films.
“It’s sort of the
homecoming of my
film [Peekers],
after being played
in other festivals. ”
-Mark Steensland
Professor of
Communications
This year, no such premieres will be
occurring at the festival.
"We'll still be having the regional
block on Sunday, but no major feature
from a local film maker will be premier
ing,” said Steensland. “Not a whole lot
of local films were submitted this year.
We had many submissions from across
the country and across the world."
The first film screening of this year’s
Horror Fest starts at 11 a.m. on
Thursday, Oct 9. Passes can be pur
chased
online
www.eeriehorrorfest.com. For $53.28
(this includes the processing fee), you
can get an all-access pass which gives
you attendance to every film screening
and expo. Passes for Thu. Fri and Sun
are $22, while passes for Sat are $27.
The Eerie Horror Fest is poised to be
a horror fan's dream come true. With
some very high-profile guests and four
days of non-stop horror films, this
year's festival is shaping up to be a
memorable one. Be sure to read The
Behrend Beacon next week for a round
up of all the actors, presenters, movies
and monsters of the festival.
VP debates not
aired on Bruno’s
big screen
By Emily Reichert
copy editor
ecrso6B@psu.edu
Instead of projecting it onto the big
screen, Bruno’s had a small television
set airing the Vice Presidential Debate
in the back of the eatery on Thu.
Governor Sarah Palin and Senator
Joe Biden, both of the Vice Presidents
for the Republican and Democratic par
ties, discussed several political opin
ions during the debate, including the
$7OO billion bailout plan, the war in
Iraq and the country’s economy,
according to CNN.
Penn State Behrend students inter
viewed expressed great interest on the
subject, even students who reported to
not be old enough to vote.
“America is [not doing well] right
now,” said a freshman who had been
near Bruno’s during the debate. “If [the
debate] were on I would definitely
watch it.”
This was the response of all the stu
dents asked about their opinion on the
debate. None of them were aware that it
was being aired at the back of the area.
According to sophomore Cori Learn,
who was working cashier that night,
“[the debates] are playing on the small
TV but we didn’t want them on the big
screen because we had to stack the
chairs.” She said if it had been shown
on the big screen, workers would be
stacking chairs until as late as midnight.