Organised by Southend photographer Gaz de Vere, the Southend Zombie Walk returned on Sunday after seven years to celebrate the Horror-on Sea Film Festival which starts on Friday.
The event, which sees devoted horror fans get made-up to look like the undead, was also joined by Southend West and Leigh Labour MP David Burton-Sampson who cut a ribbon to signal the start of the festival period.
Starting the festival – David Burton-Sampson cuts the ribbon (Image: Gaz de Vere) Everyone welcome – One of the participants in the zombie walk (Image: Gaz de Vere)
Gaz said: “We have a sizeable horror fan community as well as a lot of filmmakers here in Southend.
“The walk attracts lots of people from both communities and the pier is amazingly helpful to us.
“As a lifelong horror fan, I have tattoos of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster and Anthony Perkins in Psycho, the zombie walk for me is an exciting event and I love to see people freeing themselves to let their inner zombie loose without worries.”
Zombie – A zombie at the walk (Image: Gaz de Vere) Popular – The zombie walk encourages people to dress up outside of Halloween (Image: Gaz de Vere)
The best dressed participant at the walk wins a full weekend pass to the Horror-on-Sea festival which is run across two weekends, January 10 to 12 and January 17 to 19 at the Park Inn Hotel.
Gaz added: “Zombie walks are popular all over the UK and indeed the world.
“Ours is unique in that we have the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival and many of the attendees are local filmmakers.
Infectious – Two costumed zombies (Image: Gaz de Vere) Return – A zombie snapped by Gaz at a past zombie walk (Image: Gaz de Vere) Shamble – Zombies walk the pier at the last zombie walk (Image: Gaz de Vere) Leading man – Paul Cotgrove, organiser of Horror-on-Sea (Image: Gaz de Vere)
“The walk is just one of the many events we have here in Southend, all of which have their own audience.”
To find out more about the Horror-on-Sea festival, visit thewhitebus.co.uk/