If you want gross, Michael Conlon's got you covered: Take your choice of blood, connective tissue, burns, pustules, or even compound fractures and brain-tissue fragments. It's all fake, of course. It only looks disgusting.

Mr. Conlon and 60 of his fellow students showed off the dark side of post-secondary education last week at a portfolio review at the "Ghoul School," Tom Savini's Special Make-Up Effects program at Douglas Education Center in Monessen.

The reception resembled a "Dawn of the Dead" casting call. Tables were spread with sculpted heads that blink, grimace, and drool: Vampires, amphibians, and bullet-pocked zombies. Before-and-after photos documented reasonable-looking roommates transformed into victims of plague, drug abuse, chain saws, frostbite, acne, old age, and rigor mortis.

The much-tattooed student body was then shepherded to an adjacent auditorium for the quarterly graduation ceremony. Tom Savini, a Hollywood horror producer and actor whose credits include "Friday the 13th," "Creepshow," and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre II" praised their work. Monroeville native and program organizer Jerry Gergely, an Emmy Award winner for his work on the "Babylon 5" television series, spoke of their work ethic and technical skills.

Program graduates go on to work in horror films, toy firms, and haunted houses all over the world. Next term the program welcomes its first international students, from France and Norway.

Monessen's post-industrial economy is reaping benefits from having the creepy academy in town. The Savini school is a division of Douglas Education Center, a 102-year-old technical school that for decades turned out accounting clerks and secretaries. Hometown entrepreneur Jeff Imbrescia bought the school in 1989, added graphics, medical, and cosmetology courses, and bought more than 30 derelict downtown buildings to house students and classrooms. The Savini School division opened in 2000 in a former convent. A flashy four-story administration building inhabits what was a furniture warehouse. Students each pay $31,400 for the 16-month program.

Monessen may not be pretty, but it is a fine place for schooling, Mr. Conlon said.

"It's way quiet here. There's nothing to distract you from your work. But if you want to go out, Pittsburgh is right there."

Mr. Conlon's ready to take on Hollywood, but he'll stop along the way to craft skull ashtrays or pentagram pendants if there's a demand.

"I can [design] tattoos or do regular makeup, too, but I prefer the gore," Mr. Conlon said. "Horror is such a great escape from reality. It only looks real. And I love the creative aspect: stuff like making realistic "blood" that has a good flow, but tastes OK so the actors don't have to suffer when they have to have some in their mouths."

He knows how important it is to keep actors comfortable under their layers of latex and rubber. He's already livened-up the butchery in "Slaughtered" and "April Fool's Day," two independently produced splatter films.

Students can also show off their work at an annual "Tom Savini's Terror Mania," a Halloween-season charity fund raiser housed in an empty Giant Eagle market.

Scottdale graduate Jessica Cramer rested her hand on a latex head on her table, its skin corroded with "chemical burns," its face a mask cast from Jessica's own features. "We're not actually creepy people," she explained. "We do beauty makeup too, and corrective prosthetics. A lot of us are really sweet."

Behind her yawned an open coffin with a life-size lady vampire inside. "But blood and gore and horror? That's where the fun is."