Brain Food

Easter with the Philly Zombie Crawl

by Monica Weymouth

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There's no denying the twisted pleasure in decapitating a Peep. The crunch of the sugar coating, the sticky pull of the marshmallow, the gentle resistance of an ever-so-slightly stale neck — it's not quite right. But Robert Drake takes Easter morbidity to a deliciously new level with the third annual Philly Zombie Crawl. Along with co-founders Melissa Torre and Dave Ghoul, he'll lead hundreds of undead on a South Street bar infestation in honor of the zombie of all zombies, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.

City Paper: How did last Easter go?

Robert Drake: Last year's crawl went pretty well. The first one we did back in 2006, we had 125 people, and last year we were just shy of 300 — it was madness. So many people expressed such a desire to dress up and be part of a zombie nation, so we had the Zombie Prom last fall.

CP: Was it a magical evening?

RD: There was a really good turnout; the outfits were phenomenal. I honestly believe there's a hunger for people to get dressed up in Philadelphia and they can't wait. This year I expect a really strong showing of Philly zombies just because the momentum is there now.

CP: Do you have a favorite zombie get-up?

RD: Obviously the ultimate Zombie costume is done by a friend of ours, Gil, the official Philly Zombie Crawl zombie Jesus. You can't top zombie Jesus. Last year Melissa and I came as a priest and a nun. Which is kind of surreal to be a priest and a nun standing in the street trying to police 300 zombies to stay on the sidewalk. She was standing in a hooker nun outfit with a zombie face and the cops were just watching patiently.

CP: What are you planning to be this year?

RD: I really want to go as a zombie Peep. They actually have Peep outfits. Masquerade is searching their warehouses up and down the East Coast to find me one.

CP: You might go to hell for that.

RD: You think so? I don't know. I think Peeps are hell. Some people ask me how sacrilegious this all is. I try to explain to them that we're celebrating the world's most famous zombie, Jesus, and the fact that he rose on Easter. So my feeling is, all we're doing is celebrating him. For us, it's all about love — zombie love.

CP: Is Philly alone in this zombie love?

RD: When we started this, there was a zombie crawl in Canada and there was one in Wisconsin. It was a real unknown phenomenon, this whole crawling zombie nation thing. We were maybe the third or fourth city in the world to do a zombie crawl that was structured and organized. We were definitely the first to do it outside of Halloween. That was three years ago. Over the past year, it has exploded to a major event. And I feel a little bit warm in my undead heart to know that we were somehow the beginning of it all.

The Philly Zombie Crawl Sun., March 23, 6 p.m., pay as you go, South Street. Visit phillyzombiecrawl.com for route and after-party info.