by Valentini Anagnostopoulou
ATHENS, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Inspired by a growing global rage, hundreds of "zombies" and all sorts of bizarre creatures took over the centre of Athens on Saturday afternoon, spreading horror, shock and awe to locals and tourists.
The seventh Athens Zombie Walk invited youngsters to meet at Syntagma, the capital's central square, and join the different sort of carnival parade.
"The last two years the turnout of these events is very big, so it looks like there is a trend" Yolanda Koliou, coordinator of the event, told Xinhua.
"Zombie Walk" started in 2001 from Sacramento, California, only to quickly branch out to the rest of the world. It is a parade of the "living dead", where people are expected to dress up as zombies and crawl around the city, creeping out and poking passers-by.
"It is the second time we come here. Last year was good, we scared a lot of people, but this year we are looking forward to scaring many more, having more fun ..." 19-year-old Io told Xinhua right before the parade started, covered in artificial blood and fake scars made of liquid latex.
A lot of zombies' costumes stood out for their originality, wild imagination and impressive special effects, as the target audience of such events is usually fans of horror movies and TV series and devoted cosplayers.
"My interest for this whole thing stems from my make-up studies and my passion for special effects: that's what I want to work on. But I also like the zombies, the 80s and all that..." Ioanna, yet another bloodstained teenager, explained.
For this year's meeting, the organizers encouraged participants to draw inspiration from TV series as well as from iconic films.
