Mr. October is the story of Zack, a young man who suffers from October-phobia. Every year, since his childhood, horrible things have happened to Zack during October. This year, Zack is determined to hide from the outside world and survive the month without incident. Everything’s going as planned until Columbus Day, when Zack falls for his new neighbor Carly, an out of work, but irrepressibly up-beat actress. Carly changes Zack's life -- or at least she tries to. She draws Zack out of his shell, but Zack's fear of October (and of intimacy) are too great and he rejects Carly's advances. Wounded, Carly draws back from him. Zack finally realizes his mistake, and goes after Carly to end his October curse. But, his only hope is to find Carly before midnight on Halloween and convince her -- and himself -- that he is not afraid of falling in love. He ventures to a Halloween party where Carly is working in the chamber of horrors, and desperately tries to find her before Halloween, and October, are over.
Mr. October is a twenty minute romantic comedy, which was shot in Los Angeles on 16mm film as part of the USC master’s degree film-making curriculum. The film was created and produced entirely by full-time USC students in conjunction with supervision from the USC faculty and mentors at Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures. The result is an entertaining and surprising mixture of genres -- part classic romance and part playful horror film that is not afraid to spoof classic icons of the horror genre. This story is told from the Zack's perspective, who sees the world during October as a horror film come to life - around every corner lurks a potential menace. Mr. October is a romantic comedy with a universal message: the fear of commitment and the fear of getting hurt are not created by external forces, but are internal demons we each must defeat within ourselves.