THE DEAD WALK!
A Dispatch from Toronto's Record-Breaking Zombie Walk

By Greg Dalgetty
           

            The living dead came out in droves for the fifth annual Toronto Zombie Walk, held on October 21, 2007.

            Hordes of ravenous flesh eaters descended on the city, terrifying onlookers and leaving behind trails of gore.  Thea Munster, the walk’s organizer and creator, couldn’t believe this year’s turnout.

            “I’m overwhelmed, really,” she told Penny Blood.  “There were tons of zombies and some great costumes.”

            Over one thousand zombies attended the event, according to Toronto Police.  This not only shattered the previous year’s record of five hundred zombies, it also toppled the Guinness World Record for participants in a Zombie Walk (set at 894 in Pittsburgh in 2006).

            But if you think Munster cares about having her name in a record book, think again.

            “I don’t need the recognition.  When I see the dead rise, it makes everything worth it,” she said.  “I don’t really care about the Guinness Book of World Records.  I think it’s kind of hokey that everyone has to do the world’s biggest something.”

            Munster is an unmistakable horror fan.  The thirty-four-year-old lab technician drives a ’54 Pontiac Hearse and has horror iconography tattooed all over her body.  She is also a medium in a traveling act called The Paranormal Show, in which she lies on a bed of nails and walks on glass – in addition to channeling spirits.

            “Now people are saying, ‘We have to set the world record for the Thriller zombie dance,’ or, ‘We have to have the most zombies.’  I’m not about the most and the best.  I truly believe that the Zombie Walk is for everyone.  If a thousand people come, that’s cool, but I’d have fun if it were just five people… If you’re trying to break a record, you’re not thinking about enjoying yourself.”

            Zombie Walks are loosely defined as gatherings of people who walk the streets dressed as the undead.  They have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, cropping up in cities throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.  But they originated in Toronto, where Munster organized the inaugural Zombie Walk in 2003.

            “Anyone can come – any race, gender – and we’re all zombies together,” she explained.  “People are coming from Columbus, Ohio and from Georgia, because this was the first one.  People want to come to the original Zombie Walk.”

            The seed for the first Zombie Walk was planted years ago, after Munster hosted a series of unsuccessful parties.

            “I always had zombie parties or zombie get-togethers, but none of my friends liked to come to those, or they’d come but not get dressed up,” she recalled.

            “A friend of mine said people in different cities get together dressed as zombies and roam the streets.  I looked it up and never found any evidence of it, but I decided I was going to try it.  I was going to put up flyers and see how many people would dress up as zombies and walk the streets.  I had seven people the first year.”

Munster’s fascination with the undead stems from classic zombie films.  She lists Invisible Invaders, I Walked with a Zombie and Carnival of Souls as some of her favorites.

            “I’ve always been attracted to zombies.  They’re particularly scary because they’re people you know.  They could be your grandparents, your brothers, your sisters…

            “Probably the first horror film I saw was Night of the Living Dead.  That really affected me.  It scared the hell out of me, but I just loved being scared after that.”

            She decided to hold her first Zombie Walk the Sunday before Halloween.

            “I always loved Halloween, but I just liked the spooky aspect of it.  I felt it was moving farther from the spooky aspect to more of the cartoony aspect,” she said.  “We need to bring back the roots of the dead – the living dead.”

            In the early days, people learned about the Zombie Walk from flyers taped to streetlamps and through word of mouth.  As the years wore on, the Zombie Walk attracted more and more participants through social networking web sites like Facebook and Myspace.  It had its breakthrough year in 2005.

            “The walk I had two years ago had three hundred people.  That was done through networking on the Internet,” Munster said.  “That walk went right through the middle of town and caused so much chaos.  So many people saw it.  They saw how great a time the zombies were having . . . and said, ‘I want to do that.’”

            The 2006 Zombie Walk caused a similar stir.  That year’s route went through Toronto’s China Town, where some local shopkeepers expressed their distaste for the undead.

            “I don’t want to scare anyone, but I think people were pretty scared last year.  There were a few shop owners who came out with brooms and chased the zombies,” Munster recalled.  “I think some people may have been offended.  It might have been quite scary for some people.”

            The 2007 Toronto Zombie Walk started in Trinity Bellwoods Park, an expansive and picturesque park in the west end of downtown Toronto.  Zombies were greeted at the park gates by volunteers from Creeped Out Canada, who doused them with fake blood.  They were then corralled into a pit at the far end of the park by Adam Invader, Munster’s boyfriend.

            “I must have directed hundreds of zombies into the pit in the park,” Invader, twenty-five, said.  “We lost a lot of people who were helping us coordinate things, so there were hundreds and hundreds of other zombies that I didn’t lead into the pit.”

            Invader, a printer by trade, was deeply involved in pulling off this year’s Zombie Walk.  In addition to printing Zombie Walk t-shirts, posters and buttons, he found himself doing lots of odd jobs.

            “I do whatever needs to get done.  If people need to get bloodied up, I’ll bloody people up.  If I’ve got to run through the park and get zombies into the pit, I’ll do that.  If we’ve got to print stuff – be it posters, t-shirts or pins – I love doing that stuff.  I love helping out and supporting anything Thea does.

            “Sometimes I wondered if I could get everything done on time, but I did.  It all came together really, really well . . .  I don’t even care if we cover our costs – as long as people are happy and have a souvenir.”

            The pit at Trinity Bellwoods Park was teeming with the living dead by 3:30 pm.  The walk started shortly thereafter.

            Instead of ascending the trail leading out of the pit, the majority of the zombies in attendance opted to climb up the steep hills surrounding the pit.  Some zombies lost their footing and fell backwards, creating a domino effect.

            Many of the zombies stayed in character throughout the walk, lurching down city streets and growling for brains.  Toronto Police kept a close eye on things, with some officers stationed at various points throughout the route and others following the zombies on bicycles.

            Munster had been admonished by police in previous years for not alerting them in advance.

            “Last year they gave me a big warning because I had five hundred zombies and I didn’t call the police.  This year, they just wanted to make sure nothing happened,” she said.  “They were pretty pissed last year.  They didn’t know what was coming, and zombies can be pretty rowdy.

“I was cocky before.  I thought, ‘We’re zombies – we wouldn’t tell the police we’re coming.’  I stayed in character the whole time, but then I realized I’m already in trouble, so I’d better not get in any more trouble.”

That meant Munster had to apply for a permit to stage this year’s walk.

“They didn’t charge me, which is good, because the Zombie Walk isn’t a money-making deal.  I was kind of worried because the permit means I’m liable for everything.  If a zombie hurt somebody, if anything happened, I would be involved.”

But Munster thought the police actually enjoyed patrolling the walk.

“They usually do religious parades, so this is something unique and different,” she said.

Zombies have been known to behave badly in the past.  In 2006, a swarm of them descended on a Naked News reporter.

“A Naked News reporter came down and did an interview with her top off,” Munster remembered.  “She got attacked by zombies.  It was pretty crazy, but it was completely in good fun.”

There were no such incidents this year.

“The police said the zombies were behaving and they stayed on the sidewalks,” Invader said after the walk.  “The zombies were not brandishing weapons.  They left a huge trail of blood and gore, so it was pretty easy to find them, but nothing went wrong.”

The walk came to an end at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema, where the second annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival was held from October 19 to 25.  That night the festival played a zombie double-feature: Automaton Transfusion followed by Lloyd Kaufman’s Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.  Zombies were offered discounted tickets.

Kaufman was particularly impressed with some of the lady zombies in attendance.

“I must say, there are some very attractive female zombies,” Kaufman told Penny Blood.  “Poultrygeist is all about chicken-Indian zombies, and there are some amazing zombie chicks here who are absolutely ravishing.”

Staring into a theater full of undead eyes may have even given him an idea for his next film.

“I want to do a movie where normal people bite zombies, and the zombies suddenly become investment bankers,” he quipped.  “They wake up, and they’re in cubicles writing computer programs.”

Considering the success of this year’s Toronto Zombie Walk, it’s amazing that Munster had been thinking of calling it quits as the walk’s organizer.

“The funny thing is, about three months ago I was thinking this would be my last Zombie Walk,” she said.  “I just wanted to pass on the crown.  I wanted to go and enjoy the walk for once, instead of organizing the whole thing  . . .  But I just decided, no, I can’t give away my baby.”

She still has trouble believing the influence she’s had on other zombie walkers throughout the world.

“It’s pretty crazy.  I can’t believe all the chaos I’ve caused.  People enjoy it and I think that’s really great.  I’m just glad people are having a good time with it.”

With the next Zombie Walk months away, Munster is keeping herself busy touring with The Paranormal Show.  She is quick to point out that all the feats of endurance she performs in the show are genuine.

“In The Paranormal Show, we do the bed of nails and I do glass walking, as well as other medium acts.  It shows how you can control your mind to withstand pain,” she explained.  “It’s all real – very real.  It’s all about knowing how to control your pain.”

Invader is already thinking about next year’s Zombie Walk.

 “I think we’ll start planning for next year soon.  I just can’t believe we got such a huge turnout,” he said.  “Maybe next year we’ll get an even bigger parade.  Who knows?”

Munster seems to be hoping for a much bigger turnout.

“I really want this to be a day when the whole world rises – where the dead rise and take over the Earth.”

Photos: Greg Dalgetty