Saturday night’s Nightmare on Walnut Street was the first event hosted by ETSU’s newly formed Film Studies Club.
The event, which included horror films, local musicians, drag performances, a costume contest and a bake sale, was hosted at the Acoustic Coffeehouse Next Door.
The event was put on to promote the club as well as raise funds for the club members to study abroad in France this summer, where they plan to attend a Parisian film festival.
The Halloween-themed event featured music by thecitylights*, Craig Perry, Dream Catcher and Drew Montgomery from Via la Vulture.
The big draw of the night was the films that screened which were “Popcorn,” “Incubus” and “Evil Dead II.”
“We were also really excited to have local drag queen AnnaTomical come and perform for us,” said Sam Smith, who is vice president of the club and was dressed as a zombie for the night.
The Film Studies Club is a campus organization that partners with the Film Studies Minor. The club focuses on film analysis and critique and film production.
“Our group is about enjoying films and better educating students on the value of modern, contemporary and international film,” said Tesha Blair, a junior at ETSU, who was dressed as a bumblebee for the occasion.
The club put on Nightmare on Walnut Street in order to bring together different multimedia platforms like film, music and performance with a Halloween theme, according to Dr. Jennifer Barker, director of the Film Studies Minor and advisor to the club.
“The thing people really like about Halloween is being able to think outside of themselves and be something or someone else that they are interested in or curious about. It’s something that they can’t do so easily in normal everyday life,” said Barker.
With help from local musicians and lots of fliers and facebook advertising, the event drew a crowd of almost 70.
“We’re a new group so we weren’t sure how to throw an event of this size,” said club president Brittany Shope, wearing her Snow White costume.
“We’re extremely pleased with the turnout and we’re looking forward to partnering with Buctainment and some other campus organizations on future events.”
The Film Studies Club is partnering with LGBTies in November to bring the documentary “Small Town Gay Bar” and its director to campus.
“After seeing the success of Nightmare, we’re really confident and hopeful of the success of our future events,” said Shope, who is also sports editor at the East Tennessean.
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