On Devil’s Night, the Michigan Theater will be transformed into a terrifying circus fit to host an independent horror film festival.

LSA senior Jonathan Barkan and his crack team of horror buffs had visions of creating a stronger, more cohesive horror community in southeast Michigan. The result: the Three Corpse Circus Independent Horror Film Festival.

The eclectic festival submissions range from zombie movies to comedic stabs at the genre. Submissions came locally from both University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University students, as well as internationally from places as far as Denmark.

“We have everything from zombie movies, to broken families, to comedy. The film festival is going to run the gamut of the horror genre in just a few hours,” Barkan said. “All the films have their heart in the right place and are really fun, even if some are kind of low budget.”

“I actually prefer the B-movies even where the production is kinda crappy,” added Brian Schmieder, an LSA senior and the operations manager for the festival. “Most of the time they’re a lot of fun and don’t take themselves too seriously.”

The films range in length from as short as two minutes up to 48 minutes. The festival will also feature costume contests, horror trivia games, giveaways from Colonial Lanes and Monste Energy drinks and other treats for movie buffs throughout the night.

EMU alum Christopher Anderson, a festival coordinator, said there would also be a "ringmaster."

“She goes by Ursula, and she is going to be fantastic. She’ll really engage the crowd.”

Barkan hopes for a diverse showing at the festival, believing that horror taps into everyone’ s curiosity about the darker sides of life.

“It's in our nature to want to know,” he said. “Horror movies play on that curiosity. In general, horror is very profitable for Hollywood because people are curious and they want to see. We want to celebrate that instinct, we want to celebrate horror.”

Barkan knows what he’s talking about — he writes for Bloody-Disgusting.com, a popular and respected horror websites on the Internet that is publicizing the festival and getting it off the ground.

Despite what Barkan calls a lack of a horror community in Ann Arbor, the demand is there. Last year, “Paranormal Activity” played at the State Theater to sold-out audiences. Ann Arbor was one of only a handful of cities nationwide where Paramount first rolled out the film. Barkan and his team can see that people in Ann Arbor crave quality horror movies and hope to create a cult of creepiness that extends past Halloween.

“The horror community in southeast Michigan is scattered and disorganized with only small pockets of support,” Barkan said. “I know people who hate horror, but who love Halloween and watching scary movies with their friends once a year.

“But horror can be enjoyed year round. There is a stigma around horror. We’re not all scary, or angry hate-filled people; we're just normal people who enjoy being scared and enjoy the darker aspects of films,” he said.

Barkan said the Three Corpse Circus has big plans to carve out a horror community that would extend far past their event.

“We're building the Three Corpse Circus not just as a film festival but as a brand, something that brings that horror community throughout southeast Michigan together for monthly events — where it’ s not just film festivals, but also art galleries,” Barkan explained. “In the future, we plan to do concerts when it gets closer to Halloween. We'll also focus on the things parents can do with their kids, such as pumpkin carvings leading up to the main event, the film festival, which by the way is unrated."

“Yeah, don't bring your little kids,” Anderson added.

The trio has a philosophy that horror can be used as a tool for social change and is using the festival to rally support for causes like the Spectrum Center — the University’s LGBT outreach and advocacy center.