On Friday, September 4, the horror-comedy film “Bloodsucking Bastards” was released in theaters and on iTunes. The movie has been compared to “Office Space,” but with a morbid spin, and was written, produced and partly performed by Colgate alumnus David Park ’02.

The movie follows a group of coworkers in a dead-end corporate job. Within one week, the lead character Evan (Fran Kranz of “The Cabin in the Woods”) breaks up with his girlfriend and watches his nemesis (Pedro Pascal of “Game of Thrones”) get the promotion that he was hoping for. Evan soon starts to notice disturbing changes in his co-workers (spoiler alert: they turn into vampires). As everything falls apart, Evan must find a way to save the day.

The script for “Bloodsucking Bastards” was initially written as a horror film, but the group saw the opportunity to combine it with comedy.

Park describes the experience of creating this film as his most exciting role so far because of the shift that his character undergoes throughout the film as well as the feeling of ownership that comes from helping to write the script. He explained that part of the inspiration for the film was the universal experience of the “unfulfilling job.”

“That’s part of the reason why I gravitated towards production…I have had office jobs that were kind of soul-sucking and everyone in the group has. You don’t need to work with vampires to feel like you have [had] the soul sucked out of you,” Park said.

Park began his comedy career at Colgate after being inspired by the comedy group Broken Lizard, the creators of 2002 film “Super Troopers,” who formed at Colgate in 1990. During this time, the future Broken Lizard members formed the still-existing improv comedy troupe Charred Goosebeak, which Dave Park joined during his time at Colgate.

Park also cites the Colgate “Day in the Life” program, which is still active today, as a contributing factor in his decision to pursue film production. As a student, he traveled to Los Angeles during winter break and worked with several different television productions, including “Politically Incorrect” with Bill Maher. 

While at Colgate, Park was very involved on campus, and he credits the opportunities his extracurriculars gave him as an important part of his success. He joined Colgate University Television (CUTV) and produced his first show, which he described as “a space for people to dance live on TV.” He also DJ’ed with the group Protoculture, reviewed movies for The Maroon-News and founded the Take Two movie series at Colgate.

Today, Park lives in Los Angeles and performs with the improv comedy group Dr. God, which has created content for networks including Nickelodeon, Fox, Warner Brothers,  Cartoon Network,  Disney Channel,  Playboy TV and CNN. He is currently executive producer for the AXS TV show “MOCKpocalypse,” now entering its second season.

Park explained that his own career path was not always certain. After majoring in Spanish Language and Literature at Colgate, he turned down a job teaching Spanish at Hamilton Central School to pursue his production dreams.

“It’s a struggle; it’s not easy. I’ve had all manner of different jobs out here. It takes time. It takes perseverance. The cliché is that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s absolutely true. A lot of people don’t have the psychological strength to face the uncertainty and rejection, but you really have to stick it out,” Park said.

Park explained that it can be a difficult process to find what you’re meant to do.

“There’s an old Chinese proverb where you ask the sculptor how he sculpted an elephant out of marble, and he said he knocked away the stuff that didn’t look like an elephant. You knock stuff away, figure out what you don’t want to do. So many skills and opportunities nurtured at Colgate helped me [figure it out].”

Park felt that Colgate provided many different learning outlets, and his advice to current students was to seek them out. 

“I really took risks on myself, tried things out that I had an inclination to try but never had tried…learning to DJ, running a television show, getting up on stage without a script… or even camping and snowshoeing. Just try to take advantage of the time you have there and the education that extends outside the classroom.”