The Monroeville Zombie Walk Of 2009 And Coinciding Monroeville Zombies Museum
A video has popped up documenting the recentMonroeville Zombie Walk, an annual event celebrating the Pittsburgh town’s ties toGeorge Romero’sDawn of the Dead,the director’s classic cinematic ode equating mall culture to the undead. This year also saw a Monroeville citizen, one with a very personal connection to Romero’s originalNight of the Living Dead, opening a zombie museuminsidethat very mall. Rather awesomely, it includes “a coffin, rigged with speakers and hydraulics,to experience a ride to a cemetery and burial” that can be experienced for a decaying three bucks U.S. Progress. The video contains a chat with the museum’s curator, as well as lots of decaying mall goers, and is posted below…
As seen above, the museum’s “Maul of Fame” was christened withthe bloodied handsof actorKen Foree, who starred inDawnand memorably got iced by Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’sHalloweenas Big Joe Grizzly. The museum’s founder is a toy store owned namedKevin Kriess, and his aforementioned spooky connection is that his grandparents are buried in the cemetery featured inNight. Kriess is also the guy behind the Monroeville Zombies t-shirt, which entered the geek radar thanks toKevin Smith…
Though Monroeville still holds the world record for a zombie gathering in 2007 totaling 1,000+ enthusiasts, Chicago is said to have unofficially surpassed it. I guess this is where I add that I am not a big fan of zombies, nor do I totally grasp their prolonged fascination and profitability in pop culture. My problem is that I find human beings to be possible of greater horrors while alive; in addition, I prefer the fast-moving zombies of28 Weeks Later(probably my favorite within the broad niche and much more so thanDays).
It seems that not a day goes by where I do not find myself counting zombie-themed bumperstickers within my apartment complex or while purchasing chocolate milk and a veggie burrito from a local farmer’s market. The day I see a Volvo station-wagon that boasts, “My other car is a zombie,” is the day I grab an axe and go Tallahassee. This college student and geek-spawned ubiquity ironically irks me not unlike the way in which zombies casually surround and do in a victim. I’ll admit that the particularly lively ‘09 Halloween season finds my annoyance on mild but seriously: why notCrittersorKiller Klowns from Outer Spaceinstead, zombie card holders? This concludes my kill joy rant.
Random: Recent confessors of Zombie loveinclude RZAandVice’s Jesse Pearson, who discussed Romero’sDawnin /Film’sinterview.
