Derryberry: Lawrence Zombie Walk will be dead scary and ghoulishly fun
- Oct. 4, 2012
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- udkne.ws/T1xLdj
When I was younger, I was always the kid with the Batman cape on. Whether it was the end of October or the middle of June, I didn’t need an excuse to don the Dark Knight’s gear. Needless to say Halloween has always been a pretty big deal for me, so when fall finally hits, all of my work, school and attention take the backseat to the glorious art of costume crafting. This would certainly be the case this month, but I started a tad bit early this year.
BEN PIROTTE/KANSAN
Taylor Cook, a KU graduate from Lawrence, gets deeply into character as a zombie while crossing 11th St. at Massachusetts. He trails Tanner Spreer, a KU graduate from Wamego. Both were participants in the fifth annual zombie walk…
I celebrate Halloweek. Seven days, seven costumes. As we get closer to this glorious holiday, I’ll go into more detail about exactly what I’m wearing, but as can be imagined, that takes a bit of preparation. What makes this year interesting, though, is that I’m finally going to make it out to the Lawrence Zombie Walk and will use that costume for Halloweek as well.
As obsessed as kid-Dylan was with costumes, high school–Dylan was equally intrigued with zombies, so combining the two is pretty much as good as it gets for modern-Dylan. The Zombie Walk is downtown tonight at 6 p.m. and gives Lawrence civilians the chance to become the undead in a variety of ways.
In 2011, the Walk saw about 850 braineaters crawl along Mass Street, and organizers expect even more this year. So grab those dirty, torn-up clothes you thought you’d never be able to wear again, and join the army of darkness. Even if your makeup skills are less than realistic, students from the Marinello School of Beauty will be at South Park to offer face and body painting to the unprepared.
Although the streets will be covered with the leg-dragging, shoddily-clothed ghouls, I decided to stray a bit from the mold on my costume. While hundreds of the undead roam the streets of Lawrence, I’ll be doing my part to end the deadite reign of terror as Ash Williams, from Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” film series. For those lacking in knowledge of groovy B horror movies, on a seemingly harmless trip to a cabin in the woods, Ash accidentally unleashes the power of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, roughly translated as The Book of the Dead. The evil got his girlfriend and even poisoned his own hand, which he later had to cut off with a chainsaw, but Ash has to fix the problem he started. So armed with a sawed off shotgun and a chainsaw replacement for his own hand, he stands up to the evil undead. In the sequel, he’s sent to medieval times to save a kingdom from the reign of a deadite army. Like I said, fantastically awesome.
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks creating my chainsaw hand out of a juice jug, as well as bloodying up some old clothes I got from Salvation Army, so there have been some late nights that are totally worth it. Not to mention I’ve been preparing costumes for my girlfriend and dog as well, as Resident Evil’s ass-kicking Alice and an Umbrella Corporation soldier. You haven’t seen awesome until you’ve seen a corgi in a tactical vest.
So take a break from expanding your brains for a chance to (pretend) to eat them instead. Whether you completely zomb-out or just stop by to watch Lawrence’s living dead, you definitely need to check out this parasitic parade.
