By Chris Nguyen
Features Editor
A few teachers from Coppell High School meet up on a Saturday. They are not here to discuss school business. Instead, some don suits, others zombie garb and begin reciting lines, like “zombies don’t think, but they pay taxes.” They are all hanging out, joking, having fun.
The horror.
It is a surreal scene, but for the past two years, a small group of teachers have filmed a parody horror movie under the helm of English teacher Michael Vergien.
“My wife and I have a get-together for the English teachers and for some of the other teachers every year for Halloween,” Vergien said. “And the first year I did it, I thought it would fun for the people going to get together and make a Halloween-themed movie. Make it very spoofy and very corny. All of that. So we made Night of the Living English Teachers.”
The film centered around two secret double agents, played by Vergien and English teacher Matt Bowden, who are attempting to make a potion to turn everyone else into non-thinking zombies. A sub-plot also deals with a news report on the zombies that disrupts a rerun of “American Idol,” causing a riot against the interruption of the show.
“Even though it was horrible acting—nobody could act—it was great that they were all excited and happy because they were in this movie,” Vergien said. “I was surprised at how it was still really horrible, but also surprised at how good it turned out. So the next year, we decided to do it again.”
And thus, a tradition was born. For the past three years, in the months leading up to Halloween, Vergien sets about writing the screenplay with no greater intention than to create a funny parody that also sprinkles in social commentary. Shooting takes place in the weeks before Halloween throughout a few Saturdays, using equipment loaned out by KCBY.
Vergien recruits teachers throughout the school who are willing to spare some time and a little bit of their humility. In last couple of years, some of the “stars” included Bowden, English teacher Zach Sherman and Spanish teacher Patrick Melville.
“After going last year and my husband and I getting to know all those people, it was cool to just see them all quirky and corny in the actual film,” English teacher Eileen Krueger said. “This year, I took the opportunity to play an ‘older zombie.”
Beside the annual teacher’s Halloween party, some of Bowden’s creative writing classes and the critical theory club, sponsored by Vergien, have seen their teachers in an image as far as possible as what they look like at school.
“It was spectacular,” senior Krysia Garcia said. “The whole thing was very well-produced actually. I really enjoyed seeing Vergien play a killer and show his inner murderer.”
Although Vergien is at the controls, doing all the writing, directing and editing, Bowden also contributes throughout the whole process, with their similar tastes able to bounce off each other.
“I add my two cents worth every now and then,” Bowden said. “I might say it’ll be cool to get a shot from this angle or I might help with the boom mikes. When he gets jazzed and excited after writing a few pages, he’ll ask me to come over during an off-period and read it. I’ll give my own insights into characters or plot.”
In one case, Bowden recollected a technique involving window caulk he used during a short film in college and that, when dry, would resemble skin.
“The reaction of the audience when it’s Mr. Melville, the Spanish teacher, literally eating someone’s neck and when he pulled away, the way the fake skin came out of his mouth and the reaction from the audience, was awesome,” Vergien said.
Vergien has tried to find something different for each successive Halloween film. After last year’s film revolved around a whodunit at death at a party, Vergien decided to go into uncharted territory: a musical about college kids having a party in the woods.
“We recorded the music already, and it’s horrible,” Vergien said. “It’s a bunch of teachers singing and all that. And I wrote the music and I don’t write music and I don’t play an instrument, but I do have a piano. I just played around with it and came up with little melodies.”
Unfortunately, this year’s film was cancelled after the scheduled shooting coincided with many teachers’ illness and the birth of Bowden’s son.
However, he still held a Halloween party and that really is what the essence of his Halloween films are. Vergien can stretch his creative boundaries, but also gets the opportunity to amuse himself and his colleagues in something totally unrelated to work.
“He and I are fulfilling a little fantasy of being moviemakers,” Bowden said. “It’s just us being 8 years old and taking wooden swords and pretending we’re knights. But it is a little more than make believe because we actually create something.”
