Fremont zombie walkers dead set on setting a record

They crawled from their crypts — their Beamers, Toyotas, Kias — and lurched through Fremont.

Some dripped blood. Some dragged entrails. Some carried brains, playing catch with them as they waited in line.

On Saturday, thousands of zombies stood outside the Fremont Outdoor Cinema waiting to register for the Red, White and Dead Zombie Block Party, the second such event in Seattle and one they hope will nab the world record back from Great Britain for the biggest gathering of zombies in one place. The promoters also hope to raise money for a food bank and encourage blood donations.

Last year's gathering set a Guinness World Record, with 3,894, until a British event topped it by 132. And if the afternoon crowd was any indication, the block party's head zombie, Eric Pope, a 31-year-old computer scientist by day, will get that title back.

For the past five years, Pope has been doing zombie walks — a kind of street theater — everyplace from weddings to conventions. So last year when Jon Hegeman, from Fremont Outdoor Cinema, asked if Pope was interested in joining forces, it was a match. An event featuring zombie movies, a zombie fashion show and other entertainment was born, and for one day Fremont became the "Zombie Capital of the World."

Even in quirky Fremont, however, being a zombie capital has its detractors. Zombies scare children and small dogs, and there's the matter of all that fake, sticky blood. Signs on a number of store windows warned zombies that any blood found on businesses will result in "dismemberment of the violators."

Then there's the matter of strange-looking customers in and out of shops. At one boutique, a woman with gray skin, black hair and fake blood browsed through racks of sundresses, while a few doors down at an Indian restaurant, a couple bleeding profusely from head wounds shared a table for lunch.

According to Pope, a tall man with dark-shadowed and green-tinged skin (on this particular day), the zombie "movement" came out of zombie comedy movies rather than the horror ones. But he acknowledged that he gets criticized at times by people who believe it promotes violence.

Saturday's costumes did tweak American cultural icons: cheerleaders, brides, beauty queens.

Jerusha Achterberg, for example, was dressed in a green cheerleader's dress splashed with fake blood. The 30-year-old sported a beer can out of the side of her head as she quietly sat reading "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com