Louisville prepares to wake the dead with zombie make-up classes, Zombie Night at Slugger Field and the 10th annual Louisville Zombie Attack!
When there is no room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Ville, and apparently it’s getting crowded in Hades. You won’t be able to walk two city blocks in the next two weeks without bumping into a walking corpse in the River City. Zombies are going to be on everyone’s minds, and brains are going to be on every zombie’s menu before the end of August, and there’s only one store clerk who can help you prepare for the apocalypse.
No, it’s not Ash. It’s special FX make-up artist, Athena Prychodko of Make It Up by Athena. Prychodko, who works part time behind the make-up counter at Caufield’s Novelty at 1006 W. Main Street and who also moonlights at Seindenfaden’s Café at 1134 E. Breckinridge Street, is also a professional special effects make-up artist, actress and filmmaker with fifteen years of experience.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the unofficial “zombie capital of the world” thanks to the living dead films of George Romero, Prychodko graduated from Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program in Pennsylvania before embarking on a career doing gory special effects for Toe Tag Pictures, the infamous creators of such films as “August Underground” and it’s follow-up, “August Underground’s Mordum.” Both of those “found footage” murder films were so realistically staged and disturbingly graphic that many viewers who discovered them through bootleg VHS tapes and DVDs believed they were genuine snuff films before Toe Tag Pictures finally took creative credit for their production.
Prychodko also acted in several of their films, such as “The Redsin Tower” (2006), while also serving in the make-up department. Her most recent film, “Open Me” (2014), premiered last week on her birthday at Seindenfaden’s.
Since moving to Louisville, she has started several related side businesses.
“I do face painting at various events and festivals, as well as at Halloween parties,” she says. “I’m also Vice President of the Louisville Gore Club.” The Louisville Gore Club hosts horror movies regularly on Sunday nights at Seindenfaden’s.
Prychodoko will be teaching two more zombie make-up classes at Caufield’s this August.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 from 5:30 PM – 7 PM and
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27 from 5:30 PM – 7 PM.
To sign up, you must come in to Caufield’s and put $10 down to save your spot, as spaces are very limited. That down payment will go towards $10 worth of make-up on the day of your class, but you will also need to bring in an additional $20 cash to pay Athena on class day.
Her first class could prepare you for the first of two big zombie gatherings in the Ville on August 21st.
LOUISVILLE ZOMBIE NIGHT with the LOUISVILLE BATS at SLUGGER FIELD: Thursday, August 21 at 7:05 PM. Cost is $7 – $12. The living dead theme will be seen throughout the whole ballpark, and there will be live music and $1 beer before the game between 5:30 PM and 7 PM. If you aren’t already made up as a zombie, Caufield’s representatives will be on hand to turn you into one for $5. There will be zombie costume contests, in game zombie promotions and zombie photo-ops. Upload your pictures to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using #BatsZombieNight and you could win free tickets to Zombie City provided by Asylum Haunted Scream Park!
The second, and probably the biggest, zombie gathering this month takes place on August 29th at 8:29 PM, and this year marks its 10th anniversary.
THE LOUISVILLE ZOMBIE ATTACK 2014: Thousands of zombies are expected to march through the Highlands, killing and eating every living thing along the way, as they shamble from the corner of Bardstown Road and Eastern Parkway to the Highlands Taproom at 1058 Bardstown Road where the world’s biggest zombie jamboree will be held. Bands scheduled to play include Dead Dick Hammer, The Vice Tricks, Dead Halos, We Are Hex, The NulyDedz and The Trophy Wives.
This year, the Louisville Zombie Attack is being sponsored by The Devil’s Attic haunted house! There will be a costume contest and much more. If that’s not enough zombie action to hold you over until Season Five of “The Walking Dead” premieres on October 12, then you’re likely already dead and only care about eating brains anyway.
