IF YOU GO: "The Walking Dead Escape." Starts at 6 p.m. May 31. $150 (VIP, to run the course as a walker and survivor), $95 (walker), $75 (survivor), $24 (spectator). Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. www.thewalkingdeadescape.com.
If just watching the bleak, post-apocalyptic zombie world on TV isn’t enough for you, Robert Kirkman, creator of “The Walking Dead” series, has developed something more hands-on.
Coming to Philips Arena May 31, “The Walking Dead Escape” is an interactive, immersive obstacle-course where attendees can be a zombie or a human trying to avoid becoming a zombie.
“The Walking Dead,” which is currently shooting Season 5 around metro Atlanta, is the most popular cable series in history, averaging more than 13 million viewers this past season. It draws more 18-to-49-year-old viewers than any other nonsports program on TV. It also has spawned local tours (Atlanta Movie Tours), conventions (the Walker Stalker convention), haunted houses (Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse) and zombie races (the Zombie Run).
This event includes elements of all of the above.
The organizers tried the concept first at San Diego’s Comic Con in 2012, and feedback was so positive, they decided to take it on the road.
Philips Arena becomes a faux evacuation center after zombies have started rampaging the city. People who pay to be “walkers,” the term used on the TV show for a zombie, get full make-up treatment and training on how to shuffle like the walking dead. They get to be on the course for about 90 minutes. Survivors, at a lower price, can get chased by walkers through the course, which should take about 35 to 40 minutes.
Actors play military supervisors and other characters trying to keep people calm amid a deteriorating situation.
“An arena or stadium could plausibly be an evacuation center,” said Robert Isaacs, president of Skybound Entertainment, Kirkman’s company, which organized the event. “And rather than projecting themselves into this situation, they get to live the scenario.”
The winding trail is about 1.5 miles in length and also will include a highway area, a prison, a hospital stop and a quarantine area. “We put people through a lot of scenarios,” Isaacs said. “Some are psychological. Some are physical.”
The show begins at 6 p.m. and will run in waves until midnight, sort of like a haunted house setup. Isaacs said there are 600 to 800 people on the course at any one time.
There are also $24 tickets available for folks who merely want to watch from the stands and go to a special after-party.
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