San Diego Comic-Con 2012 has come and gone and the most memorable thing for me wasn’t a costume I saw, merchandise I bought, the standing in line for hours or even a panel featuring my favorite TV stars. My favorite thing did not even take place at the San Diego Convention Center but across the street at Petco Park, home of the Padres. But instead of peanuts and Cracker Jack, I was being chased by zombies at The Walking Dead Escape!
For those of you who haven’t heard of the show (or comic book), The Walking Dead airs on AMC. It is a story about a group of people in the south who are trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. Now, these zombies (or Walkers, as they are referred to by the group) are very similar to creatures you’ve seen in past movies in that a person has become infected after being bitten by a Walker and they come back from the dead and perpetuate the cycle.
The Walking Dead Escape, which was held from Thursday to Saturday of Comic-Con weekend, aimed to re-create the panic and the terror of trying to get from Point A to Point B while conquering obstacles and avoiding contact with the Walkers that were trying to swipe and touch you. Participants paid to be a Survivor, navigating the course to get to the “Evacuation Zone” or they paid for the privilege to be a Walker, complete with Hollywood-style makeup and make things difficult for the Survivors. If none of this tickled your fancy and you wanted to just relax and watch for a while you were allowed to buy a Spectator pass.
Having always wondered aloud whether we would be able to survive something like the doomed scenario on the show, my friends and I decided to be Survivors. We were fortunate to be able to sign up for a start time that was after the sun went down, which only enhanced the ominous atmosphere. We were led to an area where a faux FEMA worker who had two captured Walkers in their possession was trying to give us instructions on our evacuation. The Walkers quickly attacked the FEMA worker and a poorly constructed chain link cage holding numerous other Walkers broke down and it was time to run!
The course was definitely tougher than originally expected, even for someone in semi-decent physical shape. We made our way through the cargo nets and slides, up stairs, down ramps, crawled through some makeshift tunnels and ran around abandoned cars trying to dodge strategically placed Walkers. Most of them were in plain sight and you just did your best to speed past them, but there was an occasional Walker that would pop out of nowhere and growl at you to give you a genuine scare. When we got to the end of the course, we were “inspected” by FEMA workers to determine if we had been infected, and luckily we all passed our examination and we were able to say we SURVIVED.
There were some nice touches along the course. Noises such as helicopters and gunfire were piped in through the ballpark speakers and there were plenty of random, doomed screams that would come from the next area you were preparing to enter. My favorite was the bloodied makeshift triage area, complete with fake bloody patients who couldn’t be saved, some stray body parts and a medical staff that was probably visited by some Walkers. The key to my experience was the nighttime element, because it made things trickier since Walkers weren’t so easy to distinguish from fellow Survivors trying to navigate the course, but that made things a lot more fun.
The course was not without its faults. As I mentioned, the darkness was important. Most of the waves of Survivors had to do this during the day and the same course with sunlight is just not the same experience. There was a lot of downtime as some of the obstacles were spaced far apart from each other and it seemed like there was room for more Walkers. I am not really one to complain about these things though. I had a blast with my friends. It was an awesome experience that any fan of The Walking Dead should consider taking part of (if you’re in good health, of course) and if organizers are able to bring it back for a second year. If you decided immerse yourself in this temporary, made-up scenario, you were able to have fun with it. Hopefully The Waking Dead Escape was successful enough for a return trip to San Diego or to visit other cities to give more fans an experience of a lifetime that isn’t easily re-created. Unless zombies actually exist, of course.
Above is Fizmarble contributer Ryan Pioquinto alongside Steven Yuen (Glenn on the Walking Dead) who was there to speak at The Walking Dead panel at Comic Con and help promote The Walking Dead Experience.
It was also announced at Comic Con this year that The Walking Dead will be involved with the Halloween Horror Nights this October. This event is put on by Universal Studios and will be featured at their Los Angeles and Orlando locations.
The Walking Dead returns for it’s third season Sunday, October 14th at 9/8c
Below are links to some Walking Dead must haves. Go get em:
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