Local Newswire Possible undead world record for Denver zombie crawl

The zombie phenomenon has gone from a pack of horror fans to a global movement. Like the zombie virus generally depicted in films, TV, and video games, affection for the decaying has reached its fever pitch; witness the popularity of the AMC series The Walking Dead (based on the popular comic of the same name), movies like Zombieland and the upcoming Brad Pitt vehicle World War Z, and games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Island. Denver is primed and ready to take this global movement and really pin it down and eat its face locally. 

The 6th-Annual Denver Zombie Crawl this past Saturday, Oct, 22, combined a new Denver Halloween tradition and the magnetizing appeal of stage make-up, masks, and fake blood dripping from mouths to prove that it’s not just for the undead anymore. It’s become so big that this year, they’re contending to become the new world-record holder for largest zombie flash mob. Take that, world!

“I’ve been to the big Halloween parade in NYC a few times, and it’s an amazing event,” explains Danny Newman, founder of the Zombie Crawl and owner of Denver-based smart phone development company ID345. “It’s so cool, and I would love for Denver to have something that lasts that long and is that big. I think we are on our way.”

The Zombie Crawl started out as a fun birthday activity for Newman and his friends six years ago. When he arrived to enjoy the zombie-themed birthday party, 40 people were there waiting for him.

“I was in San Francisco and saw some people dressed as zombies walking around,” Newman recalls, “and I thought it would be cool.”

The numbers continued to grow year after year until this October, when a 3-block radius of the 16th Street Mall, from Curtis to Lawrence, had to be blocked off to accommodate the undead. Reports put the crowd of zombies between 16,000 to as many as 30,000.

Zombies from around the Denver metro area amassed at Skyline Park. They stood, ambled, or lay down until a healthy jogger came by. But more than anything, these were the most well-behaved, polite, giving zombies you’d ever have the pleasure of seeing.

“After the third year, we decided we wanted to do something good for Denver,” Danny explains, “so we set up a canned food drive through Food Bank of the Rockies.” 

“To stockpile food for the coming zombie apocalypse?” we ask. “Yes.” The crowd overfilled 16 barrels with canned goods.

With sponsor Scion providing its well-placed tC cars and a large, inflated red gate over 16th Street, the crowds gathered, filling the streets. People stood on benches and planters to take pictures with their favorite zombies and watch the tame madness.

At Skyline Park, a roped off “Double Z Tap Arcade of the Undead” featured zombies and zombie hunters role-playing with Nerf dart guns. Teenagers kept to themselves at Skyline Park, running about playing tag, “loitering,” or crowding around Jello mold brains. Families in full regalia joined the crowd, mixing and asking with a moan for “brains.”

At 4:00 p.m., Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” blared through speakers, starting and stopping as if the crowd was actually in the middle of a full-blown zombie nightmare. “Fix the fucking generator,” shouted one zombie man pushing his sleeping, zombie son in a stroller, “I need my tunes.” Continued generator problems lead to zombie band Widow’s Bane to pack up.

Soon, the parade began, knuckle dragging down 16th Street, delighting fans and confusing shop patrons alike. The parade ended with a costume contest at Skyline Park. Homemade and store-bought costumes alike stood in lines to be judged by the undead crowd. The Undead Unicorn would reign supreme. Let’s say that again: a zombie unicorn.

Other zombie highlights included safari zombie, zombie Waldo, zombie Katy Perry (with cupcake bra) and Macho Man Randy Savage, zombie reporter with mic asking if people “like brains,” zombie Princess Leia in metal bikini, zombie Harry Potter and Kurt Cobain, possible zombie Moe from the Three Stooges, and even Jesus… or a man in flowing white and red robes with curly brown hair and beard and sandals.

All that was missing was zombie versions of The Beatles, Ryan Gosling, Keith Richards (possibly too on the nose), and Ghandi.

“This is the most bad-ass thing ever,” states a woman dressed as a sexy zombie nurse (the most common theme) with milky zombie contacts. When asked why she came out, she shouted, “It’s just fun to be a zombie!”

The masses moaned in agreement.