In the spirit of October, Friday the 13th and Halloween, Paramount Pictures is preparing to release Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn, starring Eddie Murphy and Angela Bassett, Oct. 27.

And to get Iowa State excited, Paramount is hosting a movie promotion night at People’s Bar and Grill tonight.

The Vampire in Brooklyn promotion includes drink specials, contests and prizes. “[Paramount does] promotions to generate word of mouth on campus and in the Des Moines area,” said Tony Dugan, an ISU journalism student and the Paramount intern for Nemer, Fieger and Associates, an advertising, marketing and public relations firm in Des Moines. “It’s gonna be a blast.”

The fun begins at 9 p.m. when the spooky drink specials, two-fers on Bloody Marys and red beers, begin. And while patrons are getting all red-eyed, registration for the Blood-Curdling Scream Contest begins, and the contest commences at 10 p.m. “Whoever has the longest, loudest and scariest scream will win,” Dugan said. “The crowd will decide the winner.”

After everybody’s vocal chords are hurting, they can moisten their larynxes while participating in the Take a Bite out of the Big Apple Contest. Contestants will have three chances to bob for apples while wearing vampire teeth, and once again, prizes will be given to the winner.

Since Paramount realizes that anything free is a bonus, the prizes will be T-shirts stuffed in coffins, screening passes to the movie, door prizes dealing with Halloween and a surprise grand prize.

For the grand finale, a Vampire Costume Contest will be held at midnight. Yep, you guessed it, participants who dress up as Dracula, Lestat or their favorite vampire, will win some more free prizes. “It’ll get everybody in the spooking spirit,” said Sarah Hankle, an assistant to Tom Zmolek, owner of People’s.

“It’ll be a lot of fun,” Dugan added.

So put off studying for a night, get all decked out in your Halloween garb and head on down to People’s to take part in some frightful fun and win some free stuff.