The Day of the Undead 2007, aka The UK Festival of Zombie Culture, is over... The glasses are empty... The blood is dry and finally the cries of the living dead that invaded Leicester's Phoenix Arts Centre have died down... and everyone who attended had (if you forgive the pun) a bloody good time... With so many events throughout the day, writing a summary of them was always going to be difficult... But here goes...

...and this event not only raised the profile of Zombies in the UK, but the zombie fans that attended and were made up by Stuart Conran and Gavin constantly popped money into a Charity box for the Rainbows Childrens Hospice... Does a lot of good work for chari-ty mate... Doesn't like to talk about it....

The Films...

The films for the Day of the Undead went from absolute classics to short indie 'no budget' zombie frighteners... The features were Day of the Dead, Dead Meat, Versus, The Zombie Diaries and finishing with Peter Jackson's Brain Dead... Some of the shorts we showed either on the main screen or in the bar area were very kindly given to us by a number of up and coming short film makers... These included Gasoline Blood by David Pope, Zombie Undead by Rhys Davies, Slow Rot by Paul Shrimpton and the now infamous Campus of the Living Dead by Mark 'Wally' Wall. Each was introduced by Zombie Ed of Terror4fun and every one seemed to go down a storm, apart from the people who suffered from a mixture of motion sickness and alcohol poisoning during the Zombie Diaires... They soon became very close friends of the flowers beds outside the Phoenix Arts... In between the films the place was rammed with beer, prizes, human flesh and FAB Press bits devoured in equal measures...

 

The Guest Stars...

We had guest stars a-plenty at the Day of the Undead, on the left of the photos below you will see Gavin, the make up artist and zombie specialist from Darkwaters Entertainment and on the right of the photos is Stuart Conran, make up guru from films such as Shaun of the Dead, Brain Dead and Saving Private Ryan... In the middle photos (at the top) is Jamie Russell, with his research into zombies biting him on the ass and below him is a special mention for Matt from tbmr.co.uk, who reviewed the event at the event whilst trying not to bleed onto his laptop... A challenge I would not like to attempt (if I had a laptop...)

 

The Zombies...

Many came coated in blood, many more came along in old clothes to get made up by the make up artists... But for everyone who braved Leicester covered in blood and latex... We salute you...

 

The Best Dressed Zombie...

Perhaps the 'Best Dressed Zombie' or maybe the 'Man Most covered in Glue and Blood' prize went to dread-locked Leon... Not made up as a zombie by one of our make up artists, he arrived absolutely coated in PVA glue and claret which I firstly hope is non toxic and secondly I would like to apologise to the Phoenix for him shedding and sticking all over the Arts Centre (Hope you like the close up of him peeling his own arm!)... He won a massive bag of make up goodies from Costume Corner, Welford Road, Leicester (Yes, I know it sounds like a blatant plug...)... Here's hoping he still has some hair left on his body...

 

The Prizes and the Sponsors...

I apologise if this ends up being a bit like an Oscar acceptance speech, but loads of companies gave us FREE STUFF to support The Day of the Undead and to give away as prizes to all of the zombie fans present... CAPCOM gave us a tonnes of Dead Rising bits and pieces, FAB Press - copies of the Book of the Dead, SONY Pictures Europe - posters from Resident Evil Extinction, Tartan Video and Revolver Entertainment gave us copies of Versus and The Zombie Diaries respectively, Duckworth Publishing stepped up to the plate at the last minute with magazines, newspapers and signed copies of the Zombie Survival Guide...

 

The FAB Press Stall...

A Big Thanks must go out to Harvey and the motley crew from Fab Press that brought down, not only a massive selection of genre books, films, T-shirts and CDs, but Jamie Russell, author of the Book of the Dead too... Harvey managed to avoid the cameras, but his stall didn't and I don't think I have ever seen someone happier with a copy of a cannibal flick in my life...

 

The Aftermath and Thanks...

The event was not about a single day, but months of getting FREE STUFF to give away, sorting out films, guest stars and getting bloody sheeting together to save the carpets around the Phoenix. Terror4fun could not have run this day without the help of a number of people who came along and helped make sure the whole thing ran smoothly... These include Toby and Nicky who protected the make up artists from their fans, Jane and Graham who looked after the stall and mingled with the raffle tickets, Chris and Kim from Pyrokinesis Photography, no prizes for guessing what they did and Darren who did a hell of a lot of everything. The biggest thanks goes to my wife Sammy, who didn't mind manning the Terror4fun stand for 11 HOURS or the days of emailing and phoning to guarantee that the Day of the Undead made the transformation from a fevered idea into a blood soaked reality, where Leicester's streets where filled with rivers of blood and the moaning of the Living Dead...