For Champaign’s Art Theater Co-Op’s Late Night Committee and its other patrons, Halloween has become more than just one night of costumes and candy. For the past two years, it has been a month-long film festival of horror and thriller movies.

Shocktober Film Festival, put on by the theater’s three-member Late Night Committee, draws the community together by featuring an array of events and horror films during the entire month of October through the first weekend of November.

The final two big Shocktober events of the season are Wednesday’s screening of “Night of the Living Dead,” which is accompanied by a live performance and original score from the Andrew Alden Ensemble and a weekend-long showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” beginning on Halloween.

Wednesday’s performance will be the fourth time in about two years that the Andrew Alden Ensemble has performed for the theater.

“The music they compose is real eerie and … atmospheric. And it’s played live, which adds a dynamic element to it that wouldn’t actually translate to playing over the speakers,” said Chris Fairfield, Late Night Committee member and an owner of the co-op.

The last time the group performed, they used PVC pipes to create a wailing sound befitting the spooky tone of “Nosferatu.”

The group’s score for “Night of the Living Dead” adds a unique artistic twist as well, according to Jessie Shoraga, another member of Late Night Committee. The original independent film did not have the budget for its own music. Instead, it featured only public domain orchestra clips.

“It’s … still kind of cool to actually see someone deliberately make music for the movie cause it’s something that the film didn’t have an opportunity to get when it was first released,” Shoraga said.

Tickets to the event are on sale for $12. Patrons will also have an opportunity to buy Shocktober-themed T-shirts, which are bright crimson red with the festival’s mascot “Shocky,” a werewolf-esque creature, on the front and cost $15.

The classic “Rocky Horror Picture Show” rounds out this year’s Shocktober events. Shoraga and Fairfield both said they expect a sold-out showing with guests dressed in costumes. Guests are encouraged to yell out the lines and interact with the film as well.

The theater hosted a blood drive back in August before showing Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” a 1979 adaptation of “Dracula” set in eerie Transylvania, to announce this year’s horror film lineup.

The fest officially began with a free, sold-out showing of Wes Craven’s “Scream,” which was the favorite event of the fest for Shoraga, who is the newest addition to the Late Night Committee. She joined the committee in November 2013 after General Manager Austin McCann and the other members heard Shoraga raving about the last year’s Shocktober events.

Shoraga, who is one of the Co-op’s owners, has been working in the independent film industry for the past 12 years as a producer. She also wrote and directed a few features, but said she mainly focuses on helping other directors and writers achieve their visions on a limited budget, something she said she hopes to promote with her work at the Art Theater.

“The Late Night Committee is actually really sensitive to the up-and-coming filmmakers, many of us are ourselves,” Shoraga said. “So, we’re actually trying to expand our programming even more to include things that were shot here or even on a national level but on a lower budgeted level.”

The independent film scene is unique to the Art Theater within Champaign and has been for years, according to Ryon Shults, Shocktober patron and Class of 2009 alumnus.

“I think it’s awesome that they show all these movies. So I think it’s important to spend my money on things I care about in the community,” Shults said.

Though she loves her work as a producer, Shoraga said something was missing between her and her audience, something she found at the Art Theater.

“When you’re an indie filmmaker relying on the digital world to get your stuff out there, I mean you connect with fans through social media, but there isn’t that personal contact,” Shoraga said. “Whereas at the Art Theater I get to see regulars like every week.”

Fairfield said he also enjoys the personal connection between fellow film fanatics. A patron since the late ‘90s, he became a Co-op owner about two years ago.

“That’s what we like about our theater. Anybody in the community can own the theater,” Fairfield said. “So it’s really unique and definitely engenders a community vibe that we really promote and enjoy.”

On Friday, community members had the chance to spend a whole night watching and discussing a selection of horror films at the theater’s movie marathon, which included headliner films “Halloween” by John Carpenter and “Trick ‘R Treat” by Michael Dougherty.

The Co-op had managed to get a hold of a new Digital Cinema Package re-release of “Halloween” for the event and decided to pair the 1978 slasher classic with the more modern 2007 Dougherty film. “Trick ‘R Treat” showcases mini-vignette stories with a spooky undertone instead of a straight horror feel, Shoraga said. She said the showing was important to the committee because it embodied a more realistic Halloween experience.

The rest of the 2014 Shocktober festival programming was focused on balancing the community’s unique mix of horror film tastes.

“We really tried to get a wide range of generally everyone’s favorite scary movies,” Shoraga said. “So we have some modern classics like ‘Scream.’ We had some black and whites like ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Psycho’ … a few slashers, and I think that was just a really fun experience so people could have that opportunity to really celebrate spooky movies all month long.”

Though horror films do not resonate with every patron, Shoraga said she believes a sense of nostalgia grabs the attention of Shocktober lovers. Reminiscing about classic horror films and past Halloween spooky experiences brings film fans together at the theater, which is dedicated to fostering a sense of community.

“That nostalgia always wins people over for horror — at least that’s what it is for me,” she said.

Shalayne can be reached at [email protected].