The Undead Poets Society is running a horror-themed creative writing and filmmaking competition to celebrate the Halloween season.

Students can submit a piece of writing (a short story, poem, or screenplay) or a video (a short film or trailer).

Written pieces must be less than five pages, and video entries must be less than three minutes. All submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. on Mon., Oct. 24.

The winners of the competition will be announced, and presented, at the Chrysalis/Iron Blade Coffee House on Thurs., Oct. 27.

“Our group is enthusiastic about October and the Halloween season–I mean, it’s in the name!” said English Professor Dan Murphy, co-moderator of the club.

This is the first event the club has hosted, and Murphy said club leadership had separately discussed both a “ghost story” event and a film festival earlier in the year. In the end, the club decided to combine those events into a single contest to encourage wider participation. The hope is that poets, writers, and filmmakers alike will share their work in this venue, Murphy said.

“Among all genres, I believe ‘horror’ is a great category for a contest like this,” Murphy elaborated. “With some creativity and forethought, one can assemble a properly suspenseful short-form narrative with minimal resources. It’s more time intensive and difficult, for instance, to put together a visually compelling three-minute action sequence.

“Horror is all about atmosphere, so it seemed like a great way to give students an occasion to work on a subset of related narrative techniques while also getting into the spirit of Halloween. Moreover, we all know that low-budget horror can be delightful and campy as all hell, so we’re also hoping to get some funny, over-the-top monster fare!” he concluded.