This common American legend, told in bars and high school locker rooms throughout the Deep South, has its roots in a documented historical incident. On Halloween evening, a group of local Cajun teens decided to take part in a "dare" to go in the local bayou and remain there from midnight to dawn. Local legend told of zombies descended from a plantation family that roamed the swamp, and who devoured or reanimated any people who were unlucky to come across them. By noon the following day, none of the youths had returned to the town. A search party was formed to comb the swamp to try to find them. The party was attacked by at least thirty zombies, which included the unfortunate teenagers, and retreated, unwittingly leading the ghouls back to Vitre. While townsfolk barricaded themselves in the