You’d better run and you’d better run fast. They’re coming from everywhere and you have nowhere to hide. They want to eat your brains, and they’re not going to stop until they chase you down and bite so far through your skull that you’ll become one of them.

Palmerton’s Joshua Solarczyk, Lehighton’s Jarred Yurkunas, Tamaqua’s Justin Stephens and Whitehall’s Nicholas Pontoski have produced “Within the Woods of Undead County,” a feature-length horror film that was released for DVD distribution on June 19.

About 85 percent of the filming location was within the 200 acres of woods owned by Ted Bogosh behind Leiby’s restaurant in South Tamaqua with the rest of the story shot in Wilkes-Barre. Bogosh’s grandson TJ Chinaski worked with the production team during the filming.

“We’re very excited about producing our movie in Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Solarczyk, a 2009 graduate of Palmerton High School. “It’s a great location for a horror movie.”

The initial response to the film has been very favorable. “We just celebrated our sold-out red carpet premiere at the historic Angela Complex Theatre in Coaldale, and our DVDs have been selling like crazy.”

‘Vicious creatures

of the undead’

The movie starring Gabriella Harry, Mike Motyl, Cory Handelong and Angela McCormick of Lansford tells the story of four random young adults from Philadelphia who walk through Schuylkill County into the woods of Tamaqua after the area was hit with an unknown plague that is turning its residents into vicious creatures of the undead. In their search for safe haven, they soon realize they are being followed by the creatures they were trying to escape, and the only weapons they hold are a baseball bat, a crowbar and a loaded handgun. The movie is unrated and does not lack for blood, gore and gratuitous violence that are signature elements in classic zombie screenplays.

When asked about public fascination with zombies, Solarczyk said, “It’s the thrill of everything that’s not our reality. The real scary part of life isn’t in any movie. it’s the 40-hour workweek. This is an hour of pure entertainment that allows the viewers to escape reality. The movie is a modern story line and it does not attempt to make a statement unless you consider that survival is inevitable to everyone.”

“Within the Woods of Undead County,” a Screamtime Films distribution, will soon be provided to viewers by Amazon Prime, Roku and Netflix. The film has already won awards for “Best Special Effects” at the New York Fear Festival and for artistic achievement from Spotlight Horror Films.

As far as the proof of the popularity of the genre is concerned, Solarczyk said, “Horror film festivals are popping up everywhere. You don’t see many festivals for love stories.”

A group effort

Solarczyk received a television and production degree from Lehigh Carbon Community College and studied integrated media and technical theater at Wilkes University. He also is a custom website designer.

“Within the Woods of Undead County” was a film project that began in 2012,” said co-producer Jarred Yurkunas, of Lehighton. “This film was the best experience for me because it introduced me to the film industry, and some of my best friends have come from working on the set. Our production proves that anything is possible and that dreams can come true.”

The film’s budget was only $25,000, most of which was donated, and some 200 people drove from New York, New Jersey and Maryland just to be extras in the film for free.

“One day, we had over 100 volunteers, some of whom drove hours to join in on the experience, and showed up on the set to be extra zombies. That alone demonstrates the support our community had and continues to have for this film,” Solarczyk said. “It took six years of sweat, hard work and devotion. This movie is dedicated to all the fans and locals that made this horror film possible.”

Building resumes with microscopes

The production team all agreed that the completion of the project not only helped build their filmmaking resumes, they came to realize that the goal of making a good movie requires a keen attention to details that make the difference in making a good movie.

“We spent five hours one day to film 10 seconds of a scene because we wanted to get it right,” Solarczyk said.

Pontoski, a graduate of Tamaqua Area High School, added, “Directing this movie was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. The process taught me about patience, confidence and leadership, and most of all, the importance of microscopic details.

“This film means a lot to me because I wrote it, and to see something come alive (no pun intended) from the page was such an interesting and labor-intensive event.”

From screams to dreams

Of course zombies might cause viewers to have nightmares from watching the undead eat their victims alive. Solarczyk won’t tip his hand as to how his film ends, but he contends that fear is most evident when the creatures are not visibly present, and just like people had stayed away from swimming in the ocean after the movie “Jaws” hit the theaters, they might stay away from going into the local woods for a while after watching his production.

“To us, it’s not just a movie. It’s a dream we built from the ground up and it all started and ended with a passion for the art of storytelling,” Pontoski said.

Profits from the red carpet premiere of “Within the Woods of Undead County’ were donated to the American Cancer Society. Stephens, trying his best to help increase sales, said, “You should definitely buy the DVD for yourself and for everyone you know as stocking suffers for Christmas for the next 10 years at least!”

Viewers of “Within the Woods of Undead County” will certainly appreciate the passion of Joshua Solarczyk and his production team. Solarczyk believes that watching unpleasant death with blood and organs spewing everywhere is “a real thrill.”

And he’s not afraid of the perception people may have of him because that perception might actually be true.

“I have horror in my heart,” he said with a laugh.