Page 31 - Aruba Today
P. 31
PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Thursday 24 March 2016
Want to be a zombie? Join ‘The
Walking Dead’ immersive show
MARK KENNEDY says Counts. If “Chapter One” is a suc- This undated image released by Walker Stalker Con shows a
AP Drama Writer “The Walking Dead Experi- cess, new narratives for a scene from “The Walking Dead Experience - Chapter One,” a
SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) — ence — Chapter One” is sequel may be borrowed touring immersive show based on the popular zombie series
When the lights come set the night that the zom- from Counts has this warn- on AMC.
on, the scene in front of bie apocalypse starts. It’s ing for first-timers, who
you isn’t pretty: There’s a backed by the fan-driven gather in small groups in Associated Press
gagged woman hand- Walker Stalker Con and a completely dark living
cuffed to a wall, a TV on at Skybound Entertainment, room when the experi-
full volume and a guy lying the company led by “The ence begins: “It’s very pos-
on a couch with a gaping Walking Dead” creator sible that not everybody
belly wound. Robert Kirkman. in your group makes it out
Such is the troubling land- It’s traveling the country in alive.”q
scape that greets audi- three tractor trailers and
ence members at the be- is part of both the Walker
ginning of the touring im- Stalkers tour and the He-
mersive show recreating roes & Villains Fan Fest. It’s
the chilling world of AMC’s currently in Salt Lake City
“The Walking Dead,” in and will make stops in April
which the world has been in Denver and Nashville,
plagued by a zombie Tennessee; Chicago in
apocalypse. The horror May; Charlotte, North Car-
drama series is one of the olina, in June; Boston and
most popular shows on Secaucus, New Jersey, in
television. July; San Jose, California, in
Visitors make their way August; Philadelphia and
through the 10,000-square- Atlanta in October; Atlan-
foot attraction — six sets ta again in November; and
built into tractor trailers, Edison, New Jersey, in De-
plus various tents — as ei- cember.
ther a postapocalyptic Walker Stalker Con, the
survivor or, after a quick second largest fan con-
makeup session, an un- vention in North America,
dead zombie. plans 16 events across
If you go in as a human, America, a meet-up in
the handcuffed woman London in February and a
— she’s the one moaning cruise to the Bahamas.
“They’re going to kill me!” “Whether we’re in New
— needs to be ungagged. York, London or Atlanta —
Then she’ll give you some which is our biggest event
more unsettling news: The of the year with 50,000
key to her handcuffs was people — they still manage
swallowed by the gentle- to keep it very intimate,”
man on the couch. The says Jackie Prutsman, vice
one with the hole in his gut. president of operations at
“Someone’s got to go and Walker Stalker. “I think fans
get the key,” says cre- are often surprised by how
ator and director Michael much they feel they’ve
Counts, one of the early claimed of the experi-
pioneers of immersive the- ence.”
ater, during a backstage There are various ways to
tour. “Use your imagination experience the immersive
to figure it out.” show: as a survivor who
After that gross situation, goes through in waves
you must handle simulated of seven at a time ($60),
gunfire, holographic im- or getting made up as a
ages of Walkers, billowing gruesome Walker, includ-
smoke, tunnels, realistic ing prosthetics, and scar-
light and sound effects, ing the wits out of survivors
and actors playing Walkers ($60). Combo tickets go
hunting for you. And that’s for $120, and for $20 more,
just the first part. there’s a package with no
“It’s all these effects that time limit.
are highly designed, very Counts prides himself on
specific, very produced realism, and he promises
that ultimately create this high production values.
totally immersive, totally “We’ve gone overboard
transportive experience with sets and authenticity
where you’re in the world in depicting the reality of
of ‘The Walking Dead,’” it,” he says.
