"Horror is a different way of looking at things"
The Eerie Horror Film Festival gives
filmmakers the opportunity to showcase
their work and Mark Steensland, a lec
turer in the Communication department
here at Behrend as well as filmmaker, is no
stranger to the Festival.
Steensland has worked in the business
for many years, but only started showing
films at the festival the second year he
moved to Erie. He initially became in
volved because word that George Romero
would be in attendance and Steensland
was once an extra in one of Romero's
films, Day of the Dead. Unfortunately for
Steensland, Romero was not able to at
tend, but by that time Steensland was al
ready well a part of the festival. Eventually,
he took over as vice president.
"My memories [of the festival] aren't re
ally around the films so much as some of
the really fun things that have happened
for me personally."
One of Steensland's favorite films and
one that he tried to remake, Dark Night of
the Scarecrow, was screened at the festival
in its restored version before anyone else
SHANNON EHRIN
euiture editor
got to see film. Steensland was able to
show his film, Peepers, and introduce
Scarecrow.
"The neat thing about it is, yes it's a film
festival, [but] there's a kind of fun carnival
atmosphere to it that makes it unique."
All of his movies that have been made
since living in Erie have been shown at the
festival. This is the first
year that he has not
shown at the festival,
mostly because he is
currently working on a
book
When it comes to
making films, Steens
land believes that the
best style "is the invisi
ble style, so I try to stay
out of the story as
much as possible."
His movies are usu
ally under ten minutes,
although he has made two feature length
films: a fiction crime/drama and a science
fiction documentary. While both of the fea
ture films were not horror, that remains
Steensland's specialty.
"As I got interested in film, I gravitated
if you take the
witches out of Macbeth
or the ghost out of
Hamlet, you don't have
a story left..."
Professor Steensland
l[k
Pittsburgh Zombie Walk Breaks
World Record
SAMANTHA VERTOSICK
staff writer
Pittsburgh is known for many
things such as the Steelers, the
Penguins, its bridges, and Mr.
Rodger's Neighborhood. Now,
Pittsburgh can add a zombie re
lated Guinness World Record to
that ever-growing list.
On Oct. 10, Pittsburgh hosted the
2010 Zombie Fest and Walk in Mar
ket Square. The event got so much
attention that Pittsburgh's mayor,
Luke Ravenstahl, declared the day
`World Zombie Day.' Every year,
each zombie is encouraged to bring
at least one canned food item in
order to support the local food
bank, so the event is for a good
cause.
The festival celebrates all things
scary and even has vendors selling
horror themed items such as jew-
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towards [horror]. [My] films typically
don't have a drop of blood, they don't have
any foul language, but they are scary and
in my mind that's what a really good hor
ror story is," Steensland said.
It takes a team of people to create
Steensland's films and students have been
included in his teams.
to attend the festival
and we won a prize at the festival. That
was really satisfying because it was his
senior project and he worked on it from
the beginning."
The last two films Steensland made
were shown at over 50 film festivals across
elry, clothes, food, and other mis
cellaneous goods. The event starts
with an opening ceremony and
rock bands take the stage all day
until the actual walk. In between
the bands are fun zombie-themed
events that anyone can compete in.
First, there is a brain-eating con
test where zombies must use their
mouths only, in a race to finish a
life-sized gelatin brain. Other
events include the `Scream-Off',
the 'Zombie Olympics', and the fa
mous 'Ugly Pageant' that crowns
the zombie king and queen of that
year.
Zombie costumes are one of the
biggest highlights of the event
since many of the participants
spend a lot of time and thought on
their costume. At this year's festi
val, there was a zombie Cleopatra,
Carrie, a Teletubby, the Bedtime
Care Bear, Bert from Sesame Street
"I had a student
work on Peekers as a
senior project,"
Steensland said. "He
produced it with me
and we spent the
whole semester work
ing on the movie and
then the next semester
he did a semester
abroad in the U.K. and
we had our world pre
miere at a film festival
in Scotland and he got
the world. His most recent films include:
The Ugly File (2009), Peehers (2008),
Dead(' 17 (2007) and Lovecraft's Pillow
(2006).
With his films, Steensland wants the
story to be the focus. "I want my audience
to be fooled, to be taken in."
"This is going to get really tired really
fast, but...if you take the witches out of
Macbeth or the ghost out of Hamlet, you
don't have a story left and I think there's
this idea that horror films or horror stories
are only one certain kind of thing," Steens
land said. "If you really look at a lot of
great, great stories...at their heart are hor
ror tales."
Editor's note:
The worst horror film that Steensland
has ever seen is Blood Freak.
Steensland said, "It is considered, I
think, one of the only pro-Christian horror
movies and it features a turkey monster. It
is, it is really something else. Tor those
who think they've seen everything, comes
Blood Freak, a rampaging turkey monster
on a marijuana high.' Yeah, it's unbeliev
able."
and even Batman's Joker among
many other recognizable undead
costumes.
One of the main goals of this
year's walk was to beat Seattle's
World Record for 'Most Zombies
Gathered in One Place.' Last year,
Seattle beat Pittsburgh's record
with approximately 4,200 zombies
in attendance, but Pittsburgh
earned the title back with around
4,700 zombies at this year's walk.
Next year, the event is expected
to be even larger since it has been
growing at a rapid rate. One of the
organizers of the walk, the band
Deathmobile, also announced that
next year they will be having a fire
works show in addition to the walk.
Next year, gear up in a gory outfit
to be a part of another Guinness
World Record and prepare for an
even bigger Zombie Fest 2011.