Zombies take the lead in Choctaw filmmaker’s recent projects

Choctaw tribal member and Topeka, Kansas filmmaker Gary Piland has completed the third installment in his zombie movie trilogy, “Blackstone – Hand of God.”

The trilogy launched with “Zombie, Kansas: Death in the Heartland” and “Zombie Beauty Pageant: Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.” All three films can be streamed on Amazon Prime. The entire trilogy took Piland over five years to complete.

Piland is the founder of Roaring Rat Films, an indie horror film company. In addition to his three feature-length zombie thrillers, he has created three zombie-comedy shorts, “Zombie Laundry,” “Zombie Chigger” and “Zombie Tattoo Parlor.” The short films can be viewed for no cost at roaringratfilms.com/movies.

He is also the President and CEO of the web development, graphic design and video production firm Umbrella.

Piland is originally from Oklahoma and was born in Enid. He and his family moved a lot while he was growing up. He said that after high school, he became a self-teacher of his acquired skills and learned from others through on-the-job training.

Early on, Piland was drummer, songwriter and vocalist for the three-piece rock band Limousine from 1975 to 1983, playing all over the Midwest. While in the band, a lights technician had a computer and showed it to Piland, who said he instantly took to it.

“I bought a computer and taught myself to program,” said Piland.

According to Piland, after the band broke up, he worked for an advertising company for about 12 years and then started his own business doing web development. During his time at the advertising agency, he taught himself how to make websites. Piland says he also does graphic design and has always been a writer, greatly influenced by his mother.

A horror movie fan his entire life, Piland says he has a movie ready for production.

“I have a movie I haven’t produced yet that was the one I wanted to produce. And before I did it, I wanted to make sure I knew how to do movies. I didn’t want to waste my magnum opus idea and I had the skills together,” said Piland. “I decided what would be kind of quirky and learn how to make movies, so I decided to do some zombie movies. I made six. Turns out I made a few more than I thought I would.”

Piland hopes make the movie he has been planning next year, a full-length film called “Masquerade.”
He has also written a new play that he is currently submitting to a local civic theatre in hopes of production.

Piland says one reason he does what he does is to cast and showcase local talent and technical support out of Topeka, where he lives with his wife, Martha, of 30 years.

“We have a huge pool of talent here, and that’s what has really helped me to make my movies. I can cast a movie and get absolute top quality from the business,” said Piland. “Everything is locally produced.”

Readers can keep up with Gary Piland and his projects through his website roaringratfilms.com. More information can be found by visiting his Facebook pages, Roaring Rat Films and Gary Piland, or on Instagram @roaringratfilms.