2.8 Hours Later - A Real Life Zombie Apocalypse Game That's Sweeping the Globe
With the recent success of AMC's adaptation of “The Walking Dead” comics starting British star Andrew Lincoln, impressive sales for games such as “Dead Island”, “Left 4 Dead” and “Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare” and Brad Pitt currently filming “World War Z”, it seems like zombies are invading and are here to stay!
So what do you do when society collapses and the Undead are wandering the streets, looking for fresh brains? That's the question that 2.8 Hours Later poses in the form of a game, and wow, it is a load of fun discovering the answer! The company Slingshot utilises different cities as live-action platforms for the game and inviting people to come experience the zombie apocalypse for themselves. After its recent huge successes in Bristol (where the game originated) in May 2011, followed by a sold-out run in Leeds September 2011, 2.8 Hours Later is taking itself to London for the Halloween weekend (game nights from 27th to 29th October).
I interviewed Kathryn Denvir, a member of the Leeds zombie horde about the appeal of zombies, the game itself and why people should take part in this social phenomenon:
[DH] So let's start right at the beginning, shall we? What is it about zombies?
[KD] There is nothing better than zombies! Within the horror and supernatural genres, there's been a lot of focus recently on vampires and werewolves with a lot of the movies released being...well, not very good or revamping the original idea. Whereas the zombies movies that have been released over the last handful of years have generally been really interesting or fantastic in dealing with this idea of the reanimated corpse and the fall of social order and humanity. I mean, what's more terrifying: a seductive supernatural figure who drinks blood, sleeps in dirt and can't walk in the day or the image of a recently deceased loved one coming towards you, everything that made them the person you loved in life completely gone forever.
[DH] So zombies are more about the people they were rather than monsters?
[KD] Absolutely. Just look at the promo “Dead Island” trailer. The focus of that entire sequence is the death (and final death) of a child. With the dual reverse-and-linear storylines playing concurrently, we watch a child die horrifically and then watch as they rise up to attack their own parents. The first image of her dead in the grass after being thrown out a window contrasted to final image we're left with is this little girl and what she was before – it's seriously chilling. That's where the horror lies – that zombies used to be your friends, your family, your children.
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