For Connor Tarter, the approach of October means one thing: horror films. 

Tarter, a University alumnus and former employee of The Daily Reveille, is single-handedly organizing a new weekly horror film series, Terror Tuesdays at the Tech Park, next month.

Starting Oct. 3, Tarter will show two classic horror films back-to-back every Tuesday until Halloween. Each week will have a specific theme, such as zombies, slashers, monsters and Stephen King classics. 

Tarter was inspired to start Terror Tuesdays after he saw a tweet from a friend about hosting his own horror movie nights. Even though he did not participate, the idea was so appealing that he decided to do it himself.

Tarter mentioned to his friends that he was going to try to watch a few horror movies on his own throughout October, and they expressed interest in being a part of it. His friends encouraged Tarter to turn his movie nights into an event the rest of the community could partake in, and Terror Tuesdays was born.

As marketing manager of the Louisiana Technology Park, Nexus LA and Research Park Corporation, Tarter brought the idea to his supervisor who offered the Tech Park on Florida Boulevard as the venue for the event.

“I was lucky through my trade of marketing — I had a little bit of a know-how to set up an event, put it on and build up the branding for it,” Tarter said. “Once that all came together, it was just like it was meant to be.”

Tarter has a special affinity for ’70s and ’80s horror films and wanted to honor them with this event. He particularly admires how directors would use the plot and other creative choices to compensate for the lack of special effects, creating a “special microcosm of film history,” he said. 

“There’s something about those movies that has a different feel that isn’t captured by any other genre or time period of horror movies in general,” Tarter said.

To represent his personal favorite genre of horror, supernatural films, Tarter is including both a zombie and monster-themed week.

Tarter is hopeful for what the event could mean for the future of Baton Rouge’s film scene, he said. With the lack of film-centric events in the city, he is hoping to put on more film series and events at the Tech Park. He also hopes to make Terror Tuesdays an annual event.
“I would love to be able to put this on in a park somewhere and have vendors and have people come out and make it into a much larger event than it’s going to be this year,” Tarter said.

Regardless of the result, Tarter is satisfied with just starting something new, he said. 

“If there’s five people at each screening, I’ll call it a success,” Tarter said. “If we can get like-minded people together, who knows what can spin out of it, whether it’s from me or from them. It’s all about starting the conversation and getting people in the room together.”

To register for Terror Tuesdays, visit terrortuesday.eventbrite.com.