A ghastly scene took over a portion of downtown Nanticoke.
On East Main Street, zombies in street clothes with pale, ashy skin, dark veins and ice blue eyes lumbered towards the front door of the Luzerne County Community College Health Sciences Center this week. They banged on the glass, attempting to get in and terrorize those inside.
Luckily, inside was just the cast and crew of the horror film “Nanticoke.”
The horror film from Same World Productions is named after the Northeast Pennsylvania city. On Wednesday, June 14, extras took breaks in full zombie makeup while camera operators stood by waiting for director Rick Berry to call action. Producer Karen Metta lives in Nanticoke.
“We jumped at the idea to shoot in Nanticoke," said fellow producer Michael B. Judkins. "We wanted to bring something to this area."
Judkins said the film is a contemporary take on horror with zombies and vampires.
Hunter Kohl plays Brad Chase and Austin Monahan plays David, a doctor.
The movie is from Chase’s point of view. He’s a baseball player who got injured at the top of his game. He moves back home to Nanticoke and finds out something is wrong in his hometown. He becomes caught in a military experiment gone wrong.
"It's fun to play that character and as an actor to really suspend disbelief to the point of these unbelievable catastrophic things happening," said Kohl.
Monahan's character, David, works at a local hospital.
"He's been around for quite a bit and he’s been keeping his ear to the ground," he said. "When all this chaos starts he ends up helping."
A Dunmore High School graduate who lives in Scranton, Monahan has worked on short horror films before but “Nanticoke” is his first feature length horror movie.
"Everyone's just so into it," he said. "It makes you put your all into it. It's just so great having their support.”
The film has been in development since 2013. Same World executive producer John Smith and Metta developed the script.
“Between the mayor to the fire department, the city, the chief ... so many people ... just opened their arms to us," said Berry. "It's been an amazing ride."
