Japan 'zombie' train spooks passengers ahead of Halloween

JAPAN – It is usually a serene 21/2-hour ride on Japan's famously efficient bullet train. But the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror.

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Organisers of an adrenaline-filled trip on Oct 19, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the 'world's first haunted house experience on a running shinkansen'.

On board a chartered car of the shinkansen - the Japanese word for bullet train - were around 40 thrill-seekers, ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka.

The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train To Busan, in which a father and daughter trapped on a moving train battle zombies hungry for human flesh.

All seemed normal at first as the bullet train made a peaceful departure, but it was not long until the first gory attack.

The victims - actors planted in seats by the organisers - jerked in agony and then underwent a terrifying transformation before starting a rampage against their fellow passengers.