Erstellt am: 28. 9. 2011 - 11:03 Uhr
28 Hours Later
Roughly 28 hours ago I stood in Vienna's Museum's Quartier, shrouded in ripped and tattered clothing and dripping with blood. I had a vacant expression in my eyes, and a deep unremittent hunger for human flesh.
All around me were like-minded people in the same situation, making up a horde of well over a hundred zombies all together in collective undeath.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Mind you, it took us a little while to get into character. First we had to cover ourselves in all of the necessary ingredients - namely make-up, fake yet oddly sweet-tasting blood, cotton swabs for more realistic-looking wounds, and wax, just to name some of it. As soon as we were ready with our costumes, we had to all shuffle outdoors en masse, and then we had to meditate ourselves into a new and hungry state of mind.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Johnny Bliss, 2011
At first it was sort of embarrassing; there we were, all that work put into our costumes, but we just couldn't stop giggling, taking photographs, and using our mobile phones, all decidedly non-zombie sorts of activities.
There were exceptions, of course. Pictured are two of the most amazing Zombies - on the left, FM4's Roland Gratzer; on the right, just an amazing guy who looked and behaved so honestly zombie-like from the very get-go, that should I have ever encountered him alone on a street at night, I really might have been a bit terrified.
Johnny Bliss
Shortly after 6pm, Roli (pictured above and below), an important coordinator of the day's main event, rallied the troops together and told us which direction we should shuffle. We practiced our zombie walk and groans together (in a scene reminiscent of zombedy classic Shaun of the Dead), and after we were finished, started on our collective way.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Johnny Bliss, 2011
The crowd of 'normal' people at the Museum's Quarter were amused and took lots of pictures. However, I think people are sort of used to weird social experiments taking place there, so we didn't really manage to properly scare anyone. Still: it was a fertile ground for warming up, and I think a few of the photographers were surprised that I actually bit them.
Johnny Bliss
More interesting was once we were actually walking on the major shopping street, Mariahilferstraße. There you start getting older Austrians, families, and conservative tourists mixing with the funkier young population we were encountering at the MQ. On top of that, we could already start crossing the streets and staggering in front of cars with our arms limply outstretched.
It was good fun. At some point, we spontaneously shuffled as one into McDonalds. Some Zombies were too hungry to wait for proper brains, and actually purchased some food. The rest of us just sort of groaned and grabbed at ordinary customers before finally making our way out.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
The next highlight was going down into the subway (U3; Neubaugasse). At first I thought we were actually going to board a train, but as it turned out we were only there to bang on the windows and leave bloody handprints on the doors. Some passengers were amused, and opened the doors for us, which sort of caught us out - because we didn't actually plan to board.
Johnny Bliss
Aside from that, however, we were all getting increasingly into it. On Mariahilferstrasse a lot of zombies were actually lunging at complete strangers and even getting a bit "bitey". There'd definitely already been a few people who did not get the joke at all, and some very odd looks. Therefore: at least to some extent, the flash mob was a success.
When we came back up from the U3 station, we carried on off the main road in the direction of the Apollo Kino. Along the way, there was this awesome bus full of people stopped in front of us and we got to leave some bloody handprints on the windows.
We went through a park, and surprised quite some people sitting on park benches. I even surprised myself by leaping up quite dramatically on a fence and making a disgusting gurgling noise. This stirred some of the zombies around me and we all sort of shared a moment. I was proud.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Johnny Bliss, 2011
There was an unnecessary trip into the Apollo Kino, I think precipitated by some misinformed zombies thinking this was the Film Casino, and the rest simply following the mob. Groaning loudly, much of the horde shuffled in and made their way toward the cinemas. Some minutes later, we all left. Most pointless moment of the evening.
Not much else happened. I'm afraid at a certain point I lost my voice somewhat from all of the roaring and found myself thirsty for something other than blood. I purchased a Radler from a nearby store and was a very out-of-character zombie for the final third of the walk. But there were thankfully plenty of others still maintaining the presence.
Johnny Bliss, 2011
Listen to my very "in-character" interview with several other members of the Zombie horde:
Listen to my discussion about keeping the energy up, with the world-famous Schlachter-Papst AKA Mr. Necrophile. He was the sole zombie participant who had a machete:
Eventually we made it to the Film Casino, where the film Deadheads was being screened, right after a dark and very intelligent post-apocalyptic zombie short, which took place in a future Stockholm. It was really good. I think the film was just called "The Unliving". Meanwhile,
Deadheads
reminded me a lot of the film Zombieland, particularly from tone and humour. Both films are American comedies / zombedies, but that's where the resemblances end.
This one features two guys who come back from the dead along with an entire horde of brainless zombies -but the catch is that the two guys, despite being Undead, are otherwise fine - they are exactly the same as when they'd been alive, able to talk, eat, drink, and interact a lot like "living" people. (Or like the Vienna Slash Mob zombies.)
FroBro Films
One of the two guys desperately wants to go find the woman he loved, and so the two of them set off on a cross-country road trip, all the while being pursued by the same guys who'd originally killed and "zombified" them.
That's it, in a nutshell. It was amusing, but I don't see myself going back and watching it again and again or so.
After Deadheads, I went unceremoniously home, missing the rest of the night's zombertainment. Since I was still covered in zombie blood, I'm a bit surprised and unnerved that nobody seemed to notice or care. Maybe I'll go out as a zombie more often; it was fun for the entire family.
BTW, FYI: the Slash film festival is still carrying on until Friday night. Tomorrow is Ein Abend mit Crispin Glover, from Back to the Future. Find out more information here.