Ohio Thoughts: Zombies and the Zombie Walk

With the popularity of the TV show The Walking Dead, more and more people are getting into zombie fandom. But where did all this zombie love come from or what started it all?

First, What are Zombies?

Zombies are fictional undead creatures, usually depicted as mindless, reanimated human corpses with a hunger for living human flesh. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works.

The term Zombie comes from Haitian folklore: The Haitian /French “zombie” and the Haitian / Creole “zonbi” is a dead body animated by magic. Modern depictions of zombies do not involve magic but invoke other methods such as a virus or illness.

What Started the Zombie Craze?

Zombies have a complex literary heritage of authors ranging from Richard Matheson and H. P. Lovecraft to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, all drawing on European folklore of the undead.

But really the modern conception of the Zombie owes itself entirely to George A. Romero's reinvention of the Zombie monster for his 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead.”

That film led to several zombie films in the 1980s and a resurgence of Zombie popularity in the 2000s. Romero’s "Zombie Apocalypse" concept, in which the civilized world is brought down by a global zombie infestation, has now become a staple of modern popular Zombie art.

The Walking Dead is (in my opinion wonderful!) a television series developed by Frank Darabont.
It tells the story of a small group surviving during a zombie apocalypse and is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard.

Promotional photo from The Walking Dead website

In 2013, the first season airing on AMC had the highest audience ratings in the United States for any show on broadcast or cable with an average of 5.6 million viewers in the 18-49-year-old demographic, making it the most-watched drama series telecast in cable history. And that’s not all.

The Walking Dead’s season 5 finale had the highest-rated finale in any series history, having 15.8 million viewers.

A few of my favorite Zombie movies:

Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, 1968 (They’re coming to get you, Barbara)

The newer British/French film Shaun of the Dead, 2004 (absolutely hilarious!)

Dawn of the Dead, 2004 (took my teenage son and scared us to death)

28 Days Later (love the British zombie films)

And of course Zombieland, 2009 (grossed more than $60.8 million in 17 days)

Government Zombies as a Learning Tool?

On 18 May 2011, the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a graphic the novel, Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse, providing tips to survive a zombie invasion as a "fun new way of teaching the importance of emergency preparedness".

In October 2011, The Weather Channel published an article, "How To Weather the Zombie Apocalypse" that included a fictional interview with a Director of Research at the CDD, the "Center for Disease Development". Questions answered include "How does the temperature affect zombies' abilities? Do they run faster in warmer temperatures? Do they freeze if it gets too cold?"

A really great book to add to any Zombie collection is The Zombie Survival Guide, written by American author Max Brooks and published in 2003.

It’s a survival manual dealing with the fictional potentiality of a zombie attack and contains detailed plans for the average person to survive zombie uprisings of varying intensity and describes "cases" of zombie outbreaks in history.

Zombie Walk History:

Although many locations such as Sacramento California, and Toronto, and Sherbrooke, Canada try to claim the original Zombie walk, the earliest zombie walk-styled event on record was put together rather last-minute at the Gencon Gaming Convention in Milwaukee, WI in August 2000.

In comparison, the first zombie walk held in Sacramento, California was not until August 2001. The event, billed as "The Zombie Parade," was the idea of Bryna Lovig, who suggested it to the organizers of Trash Film Orgy (Sacramento Production Company) as a way to promote their annual midnight film festival.

And the first gatherings specifically billed as a "Zombie Walks" in Canada all occurred around the same time in October 2003.

The mid to late 2000s saw a huge gain in popularity for zombie walks and soon spread across North America and many cities around the world.

The Zombie Walk

A Zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Participants usually meet in an urban center and make their way around the city streets and public spaces in an orderly fashion.

On October 29, 2006, nearly 900 "zombie walkers" gathered at the Monroeville Mall outside of Pittsburgh, which served as the set of George A. Romero's classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead, to participate in Pittsburgh's first annual Walk of the Dead.

We have been to a couple Zombie Walks and they’re always fun. It is amazing to see the extent people will go to for an “authentic” Zombie look.

And these events attract all ages and all walks of life, with everyone having fun. And did I mention it’s a great place for photographers or a photo-club meet-up?

To find the times and dates for your area or state check out ZombieWalk.Com or click the link to check the List of Zombie Walks by State

We’re lucky enough here in Central Ohio to also have the Midwest Haunters Convention held on the same date as Zombie Walk Columbus. Founded in 2004, the Midwest Haunters Convention is the largest Halloween show of its kind.

At the Midwest Haunter's Convention

How To Act Like a Zombie

If you plan on attending one of this year’s Zombie Walks in your city, here are a few tips from Greg Nicotero.

Greg Nicotero started out on AMC's "The Walking Dead" as head makeup-effects supervisor, but today, he has a more prominent role as one of the show's executive producers and directors. He was featured on adage.com and in the article, he gave these tips on what it takes to look and act like a zombie or walker.