Mount Pleasant was crawling with zombies Saturday night — or at least it seemed.

“Everyone, please die,” said Livonia junior Ryan O’Neill. “We’re about to thrill the world.”

At 8:30 p.m., the city was a part of Thrill the World, an annual worldwide simultaneous “Thriller” dance, along with nations such as Australia, Saudi Arabia and Wales, according to thrilltheworld.com.

“We are a small part of something huge,” said O’Neill, event manager of Mount Pleasant’s Thrill the World dance.

Out of the 10 nations and thousands of participants, 34 from Mount Pleasant were a part of something bigger than they had expected.

Wyandotte sophomore Nicole Schmidt was proud that a small city such as Mount Pleasant was involved in a huge event.

“I think it’s really cool because it’s the year that Michael Jackson died and it’s a way to honor him,” she said.

Schmidt’s sister, Mallorie Schmidt, drove from Wyandotte to Mount Pleasant to join the rest of the participants.

“She’s a huge Michael Jackson fan,” Nicole Schmidt said.

Zombie land

As the group took its position on the ground of Lot 18, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” began to play, and the zombies “rose from the dead.”

Harrison senior Nathan Heath attended the event to see his friends’ dedication pay off.

“They’ve put in countless hours in this, and the dedication is just amazing,” Heath said. “This is the best I’ve seen them so far.”

A few of the participating zombies lived on Heath’s floor in Woldt Hall.

“I’ve watched them practice in their room and, basically, they’ve got it down,” he said.

O’Neill taught himself the entire dance within an hour over the summer. He searched “Thriller” online, found thrilltheworld.com and became an event manager. He began to set up the event in Mount Pleasant, holding rehearsals since September.

According to the Web site, last year, Thrill the World set a world record with the Record Holders Republic with 4,179 people from 10 nations simultaneously performing the “Thriller” dance.

O’Neill was happy, relieved, ecstatic and thrilled the event turned out well.

“It was a lot of hard work, and we had tons of fun out there,” he said.

E-mail the author: Amelia Eramya