Students can celebrate the upcoming holiday early when the Student Film Organization screens the original Halloween and Planet Terror for its first Halloween double feature.

The free event starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in 113 Carnegie Building (Carnegie Cinema), said Alyssa Fannick (junior-film/video). Seating will be first come, first serve.

Fannick said the Student Film Organization (SFO) plans to screen Halloween first.

"We're gonna start out with something a little more serious, then transition to something more playful," Fannick said. "And by playful, I mean mass destruction and multiple amputations."

Planet Terror was originally part of a double feature, the second half of Grindhouse, along with Death Proof.

The film is about a biological weapon that turns people into zombies. Fannick said it was a close vote between Planet Terror and Zombie, which almost made the cut based on one memorable scene.

"It came down to a fight between a shark and a zombie or a girl with a machine gun leg," Fannick said. "Ultimately, she prevailed."

SFO President Zach Shourds (senior-philosophy) called Planet Terror "potentially a classic." "So many horror movies just get bogged down in drama, and you eventually just stop caring, but I think this movie feels, for the subject matter, almost light-hearted in parts," Shourds said.

Shourds called Halloween a classic, and said the remake by Rob Zombie might also stir interest in the first film, particularly for those who have not seen the original.

"I think a lot of people are in this funk where they see new horror movies when they come out, so they don't catch up on the older, still well-made horror movies," Shourds said.

Fannick said the 1978 Halloween stands out as a very well done slasher film, a genre that had been around since the '50s, but closer to "cheesy," B-movie fare in the drive-in theater era.

"[It] sort of adheres to the traditional conventions of the horror movie, but really succeeds in doing so," Fannick said.

The SFO's primary public event has traditionally been the student film festival in the spring. The Halloween event will be the first of several new events this year, boosted by the sellout of the festival last spring, she said.

"This is actually a brand new event for us," Fannick said. "We wanted something to kick off our year of events that was relatively low key and laid-back, but still fun."

Shourds said the SFO wants to integrate more events with a broader appeal into the club's activities.

"I think the idea we want to create is to be a social club," Shourds said. "We want to help people who enjoy movies to actually enjoy movies or movie-related events."