CREDIT: TIM HARVEY
The Tom Zombie Festival will touch ground on September 27 in St. Thomas to celebrate all things zombie.

Fans of The Walking Dead TV show won’t have to wait until the new season première for some zombie scare – St. Thomas will be holding its annual Tom Zombie Festival on Sept. 27.

The main event of this year’s festival will be The Terminus Tour, a tour through a haunted Elgin County Railway Museum, inspired by the season four finale of The Walking Dead.

“Zombies have been popular in our culture for decades,” said Bryan Bakker, the festival’s creator. “Also what’s very popular is the emergence of effects makeup and cosplay … and the festival really taps into that.”

Judges will also be picking a new zombie to carry the Curse of Tom Zombie.

The story goes that when trapper David Ramsey found the Trimeric Bell hidden in a First Nations burial ground around the Port Stanley area, he used it to put a curse on Colonel Thomas Talbot.

This was at the turn of the nineteenth century, and Ramsey was angry with Talbot for refuting his land claim.

When Talbot heard about Ramsey casting a spell on him, the legend goes, he tried to kill Ramsey.

Except, Ramsey wouldn’t die.

It is said that years later, Talbot and his bride tried to organize a treaty between St. Thomas locals and First Nations. He would’ve then been attacked and buried alive in St. Thomas, just deep enough so he could hear his assailants torture his bride. Other stories say both Talbot and his bride were buried alive in the town or that Talbot was held captive, being forced to watch the assailants burn his bride alive.

It is then that the curse was set in motion, and that strange things have happened around St. Thomas ever since.

Last year, the town began holding its annual St. Thomas Tom Zombie Festival with the goal of finding a new host to carry the curse.

Contestants for the curse go on stage and try to scare the judges with their makeup and costumes.

“It’s really like a reverse beauty pageant,” Bakker said.

Last year’s Tom Zombie will lead the Zombie Walk from the Railway Museum to City Hall, where the Transition Ceremony will be held. The new Tom Zombie will then lead the walk back to the museum.

The festival will also feature actor Vincent M. Ward, who played Oscar in season three of The Walking Dead, a beer tent, food vendors and music.

But the festival is also about teaching people the history of the region.

“The reality is, we really do have a rich cultural and historical fabric in this area that we hope to use to tell some great stories,” Bakker said.

The event will be held at the Elgin County Railway Museum on September 27 from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.