EVANS CITY — The Butler County Convention and Tourism Bureau would like to team up with Evans City to further promote the borough’s horrific past.

Jack Cohen, president of the bureau, said Monday that he plans to call borough council President Lee Dyer to talk about the bureau’s ideas on promoting the movie “Night of the Living Dead.”

The 1968 cult classic George Romero-directed film was shot in and around Evans City, and has legions of followers worldwide.

“Night of the Living Dead” was the first movie to feature flesh-eating zombies, which has become a popular theme in entertainment.

Gary Streiner, the film’s sound technician, has held a number of festivals in Evans City that have celebrated the “Night of the Living Dead” and brought in several of the actors who appeared in the film.

However, Streiner announced that last year’s 50th anniversary festival would be the final one because those who acted in the film or served on the crew are becoming too old to participate.

Cohen hopes the Evans City council and Streiner will embrace a partnership with the tourism bureau so the month of October can observe the borough’s unique cinematic history.

“Zombies and ghouls, they all started in Evans City,” Cohen said. “That’s some great history we have.”

Cohen said the tourism bureau would be careful not to usurp the celebration of the film from Streiner or the borough.

“We want to enhance what they’re doing and bring a lot more fun into the community,” Cohen said. “It’s all about fun.”

Cohen said possible ideas include taking busloads of revelers to the Evans City Cemetery on Franklin Road where the spine-tingling opening scene of the movie was filmed. He also pictures building a replica of the house in the movie.

The Forward Township house was slated for demolition at the time of the movie’s shooting, and the farmer told the film crew they could do anything they wanted to the house during production. Afterward, the house was demolished.

Cohen also favors a zombie parade when fans would dress up like the undead and lurch down Main Street. Streiner organized that event last October.

“We’re trying to bring new business and people into the community to celebrate Evans City’s wonderful history,” Cohen said.

Another Romero movie, “The Crazies,” in 1973 also was filmed in Evans City and Zelienople. Cohen said that horror flick would not be left out of the planning.

“In ‘The Crazies,’ Evans City was wiped off the map by a bomb,” Cohen said. “Maybe some people still think that’s the case. We want to show them Evans City is alive and vibrant, and we want to bring some business in for the business owners.”

Council President Lee Dyer said that he and Cohen have scheduled a meeting for later this week.

He said the council would be open to Cohen’s idea.

“It would be a great opportunity to help Evans City showcase itself,” Dyer said.

He said he and Cohen briefly discussed turning the horror festival into a four-weekend event in October that could coincide with other borough events, such as Oktoberfest.

Dyer said showings of the “Night of the Living Dead,” scary yard sales, “haunted” tours of old houses, and signs at the entrances of the borough proclaiming it as the home of “Night of the Living Dead” also were preliminary ideas touched upon in his conversations with Cohen.

“We are talking about a variety of things, but we’re still in the infancy stage,” Dyer said.

He said more details will become available as the partnership progresses.