Musical zombies, animal zombies, smartphone costumes, and haunted houses

I finished Happy Wester 2014 with a program note that was also a promise.

Stay tuned for my Sunday entertainment entry.   Not only is it Wester, it's the season premiere of "The Walking Dead." There be zombies ahead!

WXYZ made it easy for me, as the station posted three videos on its YouTube channel about entertainment options in Metro Detroit for Halloween and the weeks leading up to it.

Since I promised zombies, I begin with Evil Dead the Musical.


Yes, folks, a comedy zombie musical.  It's not just marching bands getting in on the trend.*

Follow over the jump for the other two clips about Halloween along with a bonus footnote about Animal Planet making a zombie TV series.  Yes, really.

Next, WXYZ describes how to use your smartphone to give your costume a 21st Century upgrade in Halloween costumes get a high-tech update with Digital Dudz.


Creepy.

Finally, here's a family-friendly option that involves a good scare for a good cause: Haunted walk and hayride.

Sokol Camp in Green Oak Township is getting into the Halloween spirit with a Halloween walk and hayride.

When I worked for Pre-Historic Forest in Irish Hills, I was one of their zombies for the "Petrified Forest" hayride.  That was a fun experience.  It helped that the people I worked for had run a Wild West Show and knew how to do a good haunted house.  Honestly, that was the best time to visit the park.  The fiberglass dinosaurs and other extinct animals made for a unique setting, and they were far more impressive and creepier at night than during the day.

*I just read something that indicates to me that the trend is peaking.  io9 posted Even Animal Planet Is Making A Zombie TV Series Now.  On the one hand, it looks cool.  On the other hand, it looks like it's the kind of scraping of the bottom of the barrel that happens when a trend peaks.  I saw that before when really weird and marginal anime series were licensed for the U.S. and other English-speaking markets ten years ago.  That's when I knew that the trend had peaked and it was time to prepare for the end of rapid growth in anime and manga.  I was right.

On the gripping hand, the show might just be a success and I'll have to wait until something else turns the tide.  Even then, zombies may be with us for a long time.  After all, competition reality shows are no longer the hot new trend in TV, but Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and American Idol are all still with us, more than a decade after they premiered and eight years after I got off that particular entertainment bandwagon.

Speaking of entertainment bandwagons, enjoy tonight's season premiere of "The Walking Dead."  I know my wife and I will!