Ever since zombies made their debut on the big screen, these beasts of the undead have dominated not only the horror movie genre, but other genres, including comedy (or zomedy). Plus, zombies make for great Halloween costumes.
On Thursday, Oct. 30, starting at 7 pm, the annual Zombie Crawl will come alive in Oak Bluffs. “This is our 14th event,” the creator of the Zombie Crawl, Angelina Topalieva says.
The idea for the Zombie Crawl was born in Topalieva’s house. “It was me and a bunch of Halloween-loving friends. I was throwing a party and said, ‘Let’s all dress like zombies.’ We started in my house, and then we thought, ‘Why don’t we go bar-hop and we act like zombies?’”
The crawl has grown every year, with more and more zombies joining in. “We all walk slowly, growling — loud and obnoxious — scaring people,” Topalieva laughed. “The beauty of the Island is that people love Halloween and are easygoing. They realize we are being funny and goofy. Most of the Oak Bluffs residents know us by now and expect us.”
Zombie Crawl participants go from place to place, knocking on the windows of stores and restaurants and staring in. “And there are a lot of us — 50 people dressed as zombies. The Pawnee House is a good example. It’s all windows, and we take our time,” Topalieva says. “We start at the windows and spend a few minutes staring in at people, then we walk in. The night ends with a dance party at the Ritz.”
The crawl takes place a day or two before Halloween. “We know that parents are busy with their kids on Halloween, and people in the service business, and we want these people to be able to enjoy Halloween, too,” she continues.
Since the Zombie Crawl is a bar crawl, it is for people over 21 years old and up. The goal of the crawl is to bring the spirit of Halloween to the Island and set a tone of a nice weekend of scary fun. Topalieva says everyone is invited. “They don’t have to wear zombie costumes, but we usually bring makeup with us, and can alter people into zombies if they want.”
To get the evening started, Topalieva says the zombies gather at Post Office Square in Oak Bluffs. “We usually wait 15 minutes — zombies are never on time — and we always start the crawl at Sharky’s. Every place in O.B. where we are going will have zombie-inspired cocktails.”
For more information, email anicabanicaphotography@gmail.com.