The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, Z Nation, and even iZombie. These shows, movies, and games have made their mark because of one quintessential idea popularized by George Romero: that when you die, your body rises again only to devour the flesh of the living. These fear inspiring creatures are so prevalent in pop culture these days that there are even Zombie Walks all over the world. Montreal has had its Zombie Walk for years and this year promises to be the biggest and best yet!
Get your best zombie makeup out because tomorrow, October 28th is when you will shamble through the streets as the living dead. It all starts at 1pm at the Complexe Desjardins where there will be one of the biggest meetups of zombies in Canada. Not a makeup artist and need a good blood splatter or gory wound to complete your zombification? The Baie, just a few blocks away, will be offering $15 zombifications with their makeup specialists.
The Zombie Walk will have a pre-walk show by Lyse and the Hot Kitchen as well as a giant game of escape the psychiatric hospital (with zombies obviously). Then the shambling, disorganized, brain-seeking march will begin around 5pm.
Thankfully, the zombies are inspired more by those of The Walking Dead than the terrifying ones from 28 Days Later. That means that there will be no rage sprinting zombies, just a nice leisurely shamble from Place des Arts to McGill College via de Maisonneuve and back by Sainte-Catherine. Even if you are not participating, get out and support them or just take pictures. It’s not everyday you get to see zombies in real life! The walk ends with three shows at Place des Spectacles starting at 6:40pm by PUP, Chocolat, and Duchess Says, a nice mix of grunge, punk, and psychedelic rock.
On this eve of Halloween, what better way to celebrate our favourite holiday than to enjoy a zombie horde walking through downtown Montreal at the Zombie Walk. If none of that interests you, then consider that if you were to go shopping with friends or family at the Eaton’s Center around closing, and that you walk out to find a horde of zombies sprawled out on St-Catherine, you could totally act like the zombie apocalypse was happening and scare the living daylights out of them. We’re just saying, Halloween is the time for frights.
Photos courtesy of the Zombie Walk.