“It’s close to midnight…And something evil’s lurking from the dark…” Zombies have come a long way since the King of Pop released his famous song and brought the Zombie community to everybody’s attention. The 3rd annual zombie walk or zombie mile was held in Helsinki yesterday in plain daylight.

Although their grounbreaking dance moves on the video to Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller” almost 25 years ago did earn them some recognition and allowed the community as a whole to enjoy some positive publicity, most of the press they have received through out history has been pretty bad. People were saying “sure danced hot but what have they done lately?”

It hasn’t been until recent years that humans have begun to understand that even they may be missing body parts, in most cases zombies still have feelings too. The annual Zombie Walk has been one of those events that have helped the living understand the emotional needs of the dead, undead or otherwise non living.

In just a few years the Z-walk has grown into a much awaited event and easily the biggest social event of they year for the undead Finn.

This year the walk was once again organized superbly and there were no incidents. It was clear to all spectators that every corpse out there was just there to enjoy the brisk Helsinki autumn.

The official count was 113 undead from all over Finland, with some corpses unlucky to be tied up in zombie business elsewhere sending the odd bodypart to lend a helping hand (or leg) to the organizers or just in a show of solidarity and support . With the number of the dead in a slow but sure rise organizers expect next years event to be even more popular.

It is the peaceful reputation of the Helsinki Zombie Walk that has earned it international reputation as the unofficial Zombie Love Parade.

“Zombies are slowly beginning to realize that being undead doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t have an active social life” says one of the organizers, “you just don’t have to feel obliged to rot away in some dark cellar by yourself anymore”. Loneliness is a big problem in the zombie community, and recently the internet has helped a lot, but its clear that loneliness still a massive issue.

The Zombie walk is a great event to meet the other undead, to make new fiends. Its also a great opportunity for the career minded corpses to do some serious networking.

3 single zombies making the most out of the afternoon over a cat and a bottle of wine