The dead will walk the streets of Toronto once again. This Friday, the annual After Dark Film Festival kicks off with an opening-night party at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen W.) and a screening of the spooky feature Mulberry Street—about a deadly infection that breaks out in Manhattan, causing humans to devolve into blood-thirsty rat creatures—at the Bloor Cinema. This horror and sci-fi fantasy film feast is not for the faint of heart. With 23 social events, 14 feature films, 36 shorts, and a Zombie Walk, After Dark aims to chill the city to the bone.

With all 14 features screening at the Bloor Cinema, After Dark sports a good mix of films to satisfy any horror and fantasy fan: everything from those aforementioned rat folk to a car that runs on human blood—and, of course, classic slasher flicks galore.

As for the short films, they are divided into three sections. There’s the Cutting Edge Horror showcase—featuring the best short horror films from around the world—which will be screening at U of T’s Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Ave.) on Saturday, October 20 at 1:45 p.m. For fantasy buffs, there’s the Cutting Edge Fantasy showcase at the Bloor Cinema on Sunday, October 21 at 1:30 p.m. In addition, Cutting Edge Canada will be screened throughout the festival at the Bloor Cinema with several homegrown filmmakers on hand to introduce their un-godly creations.

For those of you eager to dress up and roam the streets before Halloween, the Toronto Zombie Walk is once again teaming up with After Dark for a whole day of gruesome, undead fun. The walk starts at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 21 at Trinity Bellwoods Park, and finishes with drinks around the Bloor Cinema. Participants don their best zombie costumes and stagger across Bloor Street with several hundred likeminded living dead compatriots.

In celebration, there will also be a double bill of zombie movies that night: the Canadian premiere of Automaton Transfusion at 6:45 p.m., and then the Toronto Premiere of Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead at 9:30 p.m. Zombies get a special discount on tickets: $8 for one or $13 for both. For those of us still sporting a pulse, tickets are $10 each and $15 for both.

Tickets are available at the advance box office (open Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 55 Bloor St. W.) or at the door. The festival only runs until October 25 so buy your tickets early!

For more information check torontoafterdark.com