Sophia Beigi, Longuevue Drive, and Robert Starzynski, Woodhaven Drive, have known each other since they were kids. They grew up around the corner from each other, attended Markham Elementary, Mellon Middle and Mt. Lebanon High schools together, then went to separate universities. She’s a Pitt grad and he’s a Temple grad. Now they’ve teamed up again in the indie slasher film The Damned Lands, which has its red carpet premiere at 4 p.m., Sunday, October 20, at the State Theatre in Uniontown.

Beigi and Starzynski both got the film bug in high school. “I took a media arts class my senior year and that’s when I actually decided that I wanted to go into film at college,” Beigi said.

“Similar to Sophia, I became interested in film in high school and also went through the media arts program and fell in love with the craft,” Starzynski added.

In The Damned Lands, six teens try to go camping, but lose their reservations and find a nice open plot of land they think will be perfect. “Unfortunately, there’s a family there that doesn’t like people on their property and you can basically fill in the blanks from there,” said Ben Pramuk, writer, director and producer.

He describes his first feature-length film as a throwback to 1980s slasher movies. Turns out, he’s a big Friday the 13th fan.

In addition to their roles as campers who may or may not meet a horrible fate (no spoilers!), Beigi and Starzynski also worked on the crew. Beigi is the film’s social media manager as well.

“I can’t say enough good things about the cast and crew,” said Pramuk. “It was a lot of fun. We all got along really well,” Starzynski said.

If you can’t make it to the premiere, you have a couple more chances to see The Damned Lands. It will be shown as part of a double feature at the Brownsville Drive-In the weekend of October 25, and then on October 26 at Hi-To Lake in Fairchance, where most of the filming was done last year.

What’s next for director Ben Pramuk? He’s already writing the sequel!

Tickets for the red carpet premiere can be purchased by messaging The Damned Lands Film on Instagram or Facebook.  The cost is $10 per person.  Advance purchase is recommended.