By: Christopher Dawkins

When Tucker Morrell(15) is painted with zombie make-up by talented make-up artist, Ciera Keiler(13),  and made the lead zombie in a movie, he chases his sister, Haley Morrell(13),  along with Estin McGraw(14), and Mckyler Korth(13) down the halls of Eaton High school. Coupled with Caleb Whitaker’s directing, and movie editing talent, the advanced theater class received a first place award for short film at the Colorado State Thespian Conference on December 7 at the Colorado Convention Center. Kendra Hixon, Eaton’s theater teacher, noted that last year Caleb Whitaker was very close to taking first in the short film, but lost to the Denver School of Arts, so this year he decided to come back and give it another shot. In the interest of her students Kendra Hixon says, “I actually knew Wednesday before we left and I kept it secret so they could have a surprise.” Hixon also recalls that during the ceremony, when the winning video was played, the 18 theater students and two teachers, Hixon and Aleena Griffin,  screamed with excitement.

The short film is called “Zombie Rewritten,” in which Caleb Whitaker, the director, attempts to depict a zombie chase. He finds that the logic in the chase just isn’t there and decides to add a “Scooby-Doo” approach to the movie where the zombies chase the students in and out of  the classrooms. Andrew Stout(14) recalled one of the zombie battles and said,”That sword fricken hurt,” because he was slapped in the face with a sword by McGraw, who was trying to defend his life. His team of zombies included: Tucker Morrell, Michael Cardona(14), Stout, Joe Stewart(13), Norma Loya(13), and Keiler, and his team of human beings included: himself as the director, Haley Morrell, McGraw, and Korth . Along with being an actor, Whitaker also edited the video and directed the film, and with the help of Korth as another cameraman the movie was successful.