A new horror short film produced by members of Murray State University’s Department of Theatre and Digital Media Services team is screening on campus this weekend.
“Gaming Wisconsin” follows a hunter who’s tracking a gray wolf, but finds more than he bargained for in the wilderness.
Daryl Phillipy, MSU theatre professor and director of the short, said the project started as a short play written by his fellow theatre professor Lissa Graham-Schneider and their former student Andrew Brittenbender.
Murray State University professor of theatre and director of “Gaming Wisconsin,” says the film was a collaboration between students, faculty and staff, and is perfect for Halloween weekend.
“They sent [the play] to the Dramatist Guild, and they got a lot of really good feedback on that, and we decided to take on the project in the department and make a short film of it,” Phillippy said. “We teach acting for the camera. We teach different film courses in the department, and we thought it'd be a good opportunity to take some of that class, learning that we do and put it into practice here at Murray State University.”
Once they pulled the trigger on making their hunting horror story for the screen, Murray State Digital Media Services got involved – including manager Jeremy McKeel and production coordinator Brandon Story, along with many of their students.
The script of “Gaming Wisconsin” centers around the practice of hunting gray wolves in the midwestern state and is a social commentary on hunting practices and firearms. Gray wolves have been listed as an endangered species in the contiguous United States, though there have been designated hunting regions in parts of the country where it’s required for population control.
Phillipy said some hunters broke those regulations: hunting at night instead of during the day, going outside of the designated areas and using dogs to track wolves. A principal character of “Gaming Wisconsin” is one of those rulebreakers.
“So it's a bit of commentary about the abuse of the power that was afforded within that context,” he said. “The antagonist of the film, he's considered one of the great hunters in the state of Wisconsin, and he also has made lots of money selling ghost guns, which are those 3D printed guns that can't be traced. And so it has a little bit of a social message about those types of things.”
The film follows the hunter into the woods, as he goes after a prize wolf, which may not be what it seems.
“This Hunter had taken one of the wolves during the hunt. Again, he was hunting at night, which he should not have been,” said Phillipy. “And there's some speculation that the wolf that he was actually hunting was a werewolf.”
“Gaming Wisconsin” is Phillipy’s first film directing credit, though he’s worked on screen and stage productions before. He said he hopes to do more short films in the future.
“Gaming Wisconsin" will be screened in the small ballroom on the third floor of the Curris Center on the main campus of Murray State University on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. The showing of the 30-minute short will be followed by a discussion with the screenwriter and cast.
