Jenna Bacon, Campus Carrier arts and living editor
The third annual Berry Dismembered horror film festival took place this past Saturday in Evans. The event, beginning at 2 p.m. and ending at midnight, featured 21 movies played on five different screens. Besides watching horror films, attendees of the event had the opportunity to participate in costume and screaming contests. Students were provided with free refreshments such as popcorn, soda and candy to enhance their movie-watching experience.
Assistant Professor of English, Rhetoric and Writing Clinton Peters started Berry Dismembered in 2022 with a group of 17 student volunteers. The students worked with each other and Peters to gather snacks, decide on which movies to play and design a logo for the event. During the first Berry Dismembered, there were some technical difficulties, and a few student volunteers had to pick up more candy halfway through the event due to more people attending than they had anticipated.
Since then, Berry Dismembered has continued and evolved. Last year, the horror film festival added a screaming contest and a raffle that students could enter to win prizes. This year’s prizes included student-made artwork, vintage movie posters and other fun treats. For the past two years, Berry Dismembered has been sponsored by Berry College Alternate Realities (BCAR), who helped provide funding for refreshments and decorations. Peters also allowed the student volunteers to pick out movies for the event and introduce the movies to their peers when it came time to show the film. Each room at the event featured a different category of horror films. These categories included religious horror, slasher films, eldritch horror and nostalgic Halloween movies. The nostalgia category is a recent addition to the Berry Dismembered line-up. Peters shared why they decided to create this category.
“Last year we showed some pretty insane movies, so a lot of folks were asking for a ‘safe room’ where the films had no gore,” Peters said. “I thought that was a great idea so we’re doing it. That way, if that’s not for you, you still have a place. We’re going to show ‘Coraline’, ‘Scooby-Doo 2’, ‘Monster House’, and the original ‘Beetlejuice’. I would like to do that every year.”
This year, Berry senior Grace Todd volunteered to be in charge of Berry Dismembered to help lighten the load for Dr. Peters. According to Todd, she along with other student volunteers worked to book the rooms with campus scheduling, put up the decorations, and gather the refreshments. Todd shared about her why she’s interested in the horror genre.
“I grew up watching Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas and I really loved those movies. So, I think because of that kind of claymation style of movies, that kind of led me to be more interested in movies,” Todd said. “Those two movies are kind of where it started and then it kind of became something to do when I’m in a group of friends. We don’t know what we’re going to do, so we just put a horror movie on and then it’s fun because then some of us are scared and some of us are laughing. It’s a good group activity to watch a horror movie.”
Senior Victoria Severiche has volunteered at Berry Dismembered all three years it has taken place. This year she and a fellow senior, Joey Fletcher, introduced the horror film “Late Night with the Devil”. Severiche shared what she enjoyed about the night.
“I watched “X” directed by Ty West, which was probably my favorite movie of the night,” Severiche said. “I’ve seen it three times now and I just can’t get enough of it. We had a really big audience with really good crowd reactions, which I live for because there’s some crazy things in that movie.”