Zombies are back in Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The late night party-goers are not the only ones walking around like they're the living dead at this year's South by Southwest Festival.

At the Interactive portion this year's festivities, alongside all those so-called creative advertisers on the interactive trade floor, a road-sign promoted the website Lost Zombies.com

"A zombie attack in Austin, you really can't beat it," said Charlene Zvolanek, who walked around the corner and was confronted by the sign. "It's a nice little reminder of how Austin stays weird," she said.

The sign is a big reminder of another hacked here in Austin. Zombies were in town in January proclaiming the end is near.

"Zombies aren't hiding, they're out in the open," said Ryan Leach, founder of Lost Zombies.com

And of course their back. Austin News cameras documented their first exclusive zombie sighting Saturday at the SXSWi Trade Show.

"I got too close to the virus and now I am one," said Denny the Zombie. Denny the Zombie showed up to promote a new Zombie movie, where people can submit their own footage.

"We're editing it into a feature length mock-umentary documentary," said Leach.

The movie's promoters will not say whether they started the whole hacking trend. "That's kind of the whole mystique right," said Leach. "You don't know if we did you don't know if we didn't."

They do say they rented the sign, and have permission to change the signs words

"So it's legal," said Denny the Zombie.

And it is certainly capturing people's attention. "I don't see an Easter Bunny. I don't see a Santa Claus. But I see a zombie," said Denny.

Now a zombie has shown his face in Austin, it makes you wonder if it is a sign of more to come.