HOUGHTON — The Houghton Middle School Drama Club has announced its presentation of Craig Sodaro’s Scariest Play — Ever! with three performances during the second week of March at the Houghton High School Alumni Auditorium.

Play Director David Crowley said the production is about a movie producer who is looking for new ideas for movies, but he wants them to be old ideas, re-hashed.

“Five directors arrive, and they have five ideas,” Crowley explained. “One is Saturday the 14th, one is Nightmare on Oak Street, and one is Calamityville Horror. One is Paranormal Sensitivity and the fifth one is the Extortionist.”

Each of the directors makes their pitch, and then the story gets acted out, he said.

The play, presented by special arrangement with Eldridge Publishing Company, tells the story of producer C.C. Bellows as he meets five directors whose movie pitches come alive onstage.

Of course, C.C. knows that audiences really want what they’ve seen before, so each of the directors has tweaked a famous horror film, Eldridge’s website says. “The Calamityville Horror” tells the story of a family who move into a house that’s haunted by circus animals. In “Saturday the 14th,” a group of college kids hope to find the famous ghost, Jacob Voorbees, a hockey player who fell through thin ice. In “The Extortionist,” a young girl is possessed by the spirit of Medusa, the lady with the snakes instead of hair. In “Paranormal Sensitivity,” a young husband insists on filming every moment of a bridal shower but it’s only when he manages to scare off the whole party that he really gets something exciting to film. In the final pitch, “Nightmare on Oak Street,” a sleepover turns into a terrifying exercise in trying to stay awake so the spirit of a crazed choirmaster doesn’t capture the kids.

Crowley said there are almost 40 kids involved in various aspects of the production, between sixth and eighth grades.

“The nice thing about this play being about five different stories,” said Crowley, “is I was able to rehearse each (story) separately, so I wasn’t working with all 40 kids at once.”

Of course, he said, that made it many more days of rehearsals that he had to arrange. Each rehearsal time is approximately 45 minutes, he said, but he does about two a day.

All proceeds go back into the Drama Club, Crowley said, for purchasing the licenses for putting on the plays, and productions scripts. Then there is the cost of renting costumes when necessary and supplies for building sets.

The royalty license must be purchased for each of the play’s performances.

“Luckily,” said Crowley, “for this production, I’m not having to build a big set, so there is no cost involved there.”

It is going to be a fun play, he said.

Playwright Craig Sodaro, in a behind-the-scenes interview published on the Edlridge Plays and Musicals website, said inspiration for the play came from a 1970s horror movie.

“I have always loved suspense and horror movies that don’t rely on blood and gore for their main thrill,” he is quoted as saying. “I particularly like ghost stories, and one day I bought a DVD of the old, 1970s ‘Amityville Horror.’ As I was watching it, I thought it would be fun to write a parody.”

Performances days and times are:

Friday, March 10 and Sat. March 11, 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 12 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.