…but only for a few hours on Sunday in Toronto.

(thanks Seth for this awesome shot!!!)

For the last few years, I’ve wanted to take part in the Toronto Zombie Walk, but something always came up that prevented me from getting involved. This year, however, I made SURE I was going to participate, and I dragged Seth along with me. It turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun!

Picture this: A couple hundred people all dressed up like zombies, lurching down the streets of Toronto, chanting “BRAAAAAAINS!!!” and other things in groaning voices, and “attacking” pedestrians and non-moving vehicles with occupants. That pretty much sums up the event. Most of the people passing by had good humour about all that was going on, with the occasional scream, or someone shouting out “WHAT DO YOU ALL WANT!?” to which we all responded “BRAAAAAINS!!!”, but once in a while someone took upon themselves to say that we all looked like idiots. Well, can’t argue with ya there, buddy, but it’s all in good fun!  

I think my favourite moment was when a pickup truck passed by with a kid, who was smiling and looking out at us, and I started to lurch towards him and growled… his smile vanished, and he kept looking at me with wide eyes until they drove away.

There were some themed zombies, like the Ronald McDonald zombie, who was holding a brain-sized bloody burger, and at one point growled “Maple Leaf products!”, which was hilarious. One zombie passing by then growled “Lawsuit!”, which made me laugh out loud. Some other great zombies were the Luigi, Princess, and Toad zombies. I was also hoping that someone would dress up as Ash from “Evil Dead” and “Army Of Darkness” fame, and I was not disappointed! There were even people dressed up as soldiers from the Umbrella Corporation, which was quite cool. Later, a staged SWAT team versus zombies attack took place near the end of the walk which was awesome. It was great seeing so many people getting into their roles and just goofing around.

Next year, Seth and I plan to really go all out with our zombie costumes. A trip down to Kensington Market should do the trick. Can’t frikkin’ wait!  

I recorded a few movies of the pandemonium at it unfolded, which you can see here (you’ll need Quicktime):

zombies_1.mov (14MB)

zombies_2.mov (13MB)

…and more images can be found in the Gallery.