Healdsburg zombies shuffle to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (w/video)

Seemingly without warning, a group of leg-dragging zombies appeared on Healdsburg plaza on Halloween night.

They lurched and groaned, drawing a crowd, before familiar music began to play on a boom box.

Then those zombies started to dance. And they were good, too.

“They’re really getting into it!” shouted 12-year-old Neena Carr, who watched with friends during a break from trick-or-treating.

The flash mob performance, set to Michael Jackson’s 1983 classic, “Thriller,” proved to be a hit to costumed kids who converge on the plaza each year to get candy from business owners.

It was put on by a group of residents who thought they might like some entertainment this time around.

“I thought, ‘Oh, let’s fill the plaza with zombies,’” organizer Karin Tredrea said.

She and friends learned the steps to “Thriller” in classes at UPside Dance Co. in Healdsburg. They trained others how to do it in two rehearsals before letting loose in front of a crowd of several hundred people.

The 20 or so dancers hopped and spun in choreographed fashion, eliciting hoots and howls from an appreciative audience.

Among the dancers was Healdsburg winemaker Sarah Quider, who saw the original “Thriller” music video in high school. She painted her face and donned a skeleton-zombie costume before jumping out on the grass with the others.

“It was fun,” she said after it was over. “It was a video I always loved. I was surprised at how many people were here.”

Flash mob performances, started in New York City about 10 years ago, are meant to look spontaneous and arrive without notice.

But it turns out, the Healdsburg performance wasn’t so secret. It’s coming was spread by word-of- mouth and telegraphed on Facebook.

When the dancers arrived, a large audience was waiting for them.

Adults and children, many in costume, mingled in anticipation before the first zombies staggered out.

They encircled the dancers, many filming the action on cellphones.

“I thought it was cool,” said Evan Bradish, a vineyard manager dressed in a tutu and logging boots.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.