I can’t remember exactly when it all started – my zombie obsession. I have always been a die-hard fan of The Walking Dead, regularly gorging on back to back episodes of the excellent US zombie series. I remember catching films at the cinema a while back, Dawn of the Dead and World War Z with Brad Pitt seem to stick in my mind. Even my Gran knows about zombies – she’d noticed in my bedroom when she came to visit that everything seemed to have a zombie theme. She told me about a film in the 1960s called Night of the Living Dead that she saw when she was young,and it frightened the life out of her (and nothing scares my Gran.) It was the first real US zombie hit and started the whole trend right there. So anyway, on my Gran’s recommendation, I got the DVD. I don’t often (ever) welcome film recommendations from my Gran, but on this occasion she was spot on. I loved it. And of course, I would – because I’m zombie nuts.
I don’t know what it is about zombies that appeals to me, I’m not weird in any other ways. I have the normal number of friends, I did OK at school – I’ve never done anything to make my parents freak out or worry about me. Until now. My mum is definitely getting a bit twitchy about the amount of zombie ephemera I’m accumulating. My bedroom is plastered with posters of decomposing un-dead creatures, staring out all googly eyed and vacant. I think mum would prefer me to have 5SOS or 1D exhibited everywhere, but frankly, they are dull in comparison to zombies and I think I’m a little beyond all that now.
Recently, I’ve been experimenting with zombie make up. You can get this really cool latex stuff that you paint on in layers, creating amazingly hideous results. It’s brilliant. My friend and I managed to make ourselves look like we’d been dead about six months – you can make your skin appear all peeling, flaky and oozing. I even put some grains of rice into a gash on my cheek to make it look like maggots – it was truly gross. We painted our teeth all black and filled our hair with talcum powder to make it all dusty looking. I got some weird zombie contact lenses for Christmas that I inserted, and I must say, I looked truly terrifying.
It’s all very well looking like a zombie, but I think my fascination with the whole genre is a bit more complex. Let’s face it, I’m not going to attract a boyfriend looking like I’ve just been dug up. The thing I really love about it all is that frisson of fear, that terror of getting caught – or that moment when you think everything is safe and calm, and a zombie suddenly appears out of nowhere to cause havoc. I think I’m a little bit addicted to that adrenaline rush you get when zombies suddenly materialise. That’s why I’m thinking about going on a special zombie event so that I can actually live that experience for real. I found this company www.zombiebootcamp.co.uk that stages actual events where you are plunged into a zombie invasion situation. It sounds awesome. It’s a boot camp, so it’s pretty tough, not exactly a picnic. I think you have to be prepared to get truly petrified. I’ve seen some of the make up of the actors they have taking part and they look absolutely hideous – really professionally applied. It looks like taking part in an episode of The Walking Dead. So, I’m going to see if I can get some friends to come along for moral support – we’re all over eighteen now so that won’t be an issue. Whether or not we’ll have the guts and tactics to be able to outwit the zombies, I don’t know. But we’ll have great fun trying. I told Gran about it and she said she’d like to come too – but I’m not sure they’d let her do it, it might give her a heart attack or something. She’s a game girl, though, my Gran!
So, in the mean time, whilst waiting for www.zombiebootcamp.co.uk to have some spaces on their very popular events, I’m getting into a bit of zombie cooking. I told mum I’d help her out with a family party, as long as it could have a zombie theme. She’s agreed, so she can’t go back on her word. I hope she’s cool with a menu that features a lot of blood (tomato) soup, fresh lychees (eyeballs), oozing green gunge (guacamole) and scabs(vegetable crisps).
My zombie obsession keeps life interesting. Everybody needs a hobby, don’t they? Gran’s got her knitting, my mum’s got her gardening and I’ve got my zombie apocalypse re-enactment fantasies. What’s so weird about that?
