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The Walking Dead

mr_macabre

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Dec 3, 2009
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Couldn't find a thread about last night's debut of the excellent Walking Dead series on FX - did anyone else see it? I stumbled across the trailer for this series on Youtube a few months ago and was so intrigued I went and bought the source comic book it's adapted from. The series is directed by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) and has a big budget movie feel to it without being obesessed with CGI. I thought it was a superb opener and would highly recommend it to my fellow Forteans!
 
Anyone know if this is coming to a channel I can see, ie. on Freeview? I have heard it's great.
 
This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it.
I love Romero's Dead films, apart from his latest effort Survival of the Dead which was decidedly lame, Night, Dawn and Day are amongst my most treasured horror movies, Land and Diary are pretty good also, but The Walking Dead out Romeroed Romero in the very best of ways. It was well paced and well acted, the leads american accent was sound and his character doveloped strongly. The make up was excellent throughout especially the bike girl. You could almost smell the rotting stench outside the hospital at the beginning of the episode and horror permiated nicely throughout. The final scene with the tank was excellent and I, for one, can't wait for the next episode.
 
Just caught the last ten minutes. Looked very good. Is it repeated this week at anytime?
 
McAvennie_ said:
Just caught the last ten minutes. Looked very good. Is it repeated this week at anytime?

Yep - tonight (Monday) and Wednesday, both at 11pm.
 
gman72 said:
The make up was excellent throughout especially the bike girl.

Spoiler alert if anyone's planning to watch this retrospectively!

You're right the make up was spectacular, and I thought the two scenes with bike girl were genuinely horrifying, not because there was any sense of danger (she had no legs so wasn't exactly gonna chase him) but just in the way it/she was clearly distressed, confused and abandoned. The lead character's reaction to bike girl sums up how much thought has gone into the script, so that instead of just leaving it/her to fester he actually returns later on to put it out of its misery.

I was sad about the horse though...do animals other than humans ever come back as zombies?
 
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER

Regarding your question on animals becoming zombified.
Interesting.
In Day of the Dead there is a brief scene with a crocodile on some steps with some zombies taking no notice of it, wether this means that the animal was already zombified or that animals are immune i'm not sure, but the surrounding undead non reaction to a possible meal could mean two things. Either it was infected or the undead had learned enough about the nature of crocodiles not to attack it.
In The Resident Evil series there are various animal zombifications including Dogs and birds, but again it is not a clear cut case of animal zombification. The running story in the Resident Evil series involves the Umbrella Corporation infecting subjects directly via experimantation rather than the natural progress of an infection in the wild.
In the remake of Dawn of the Dead, a dog is lowered into a crowd of ravenous zombies in order to carry a roast beef sandwich to a starving survivor hiding in a shop across the car park. The undead take little notice of the dog as it is lowered past them in easy grabbing distance.
In the movie 28 Days Later there is a brief scene with a family of uninfected horses running wild and free in the countryside. Even though the Rage virus has already ravaged the human populace.
There are other examples of animal zombification in the history of zombie movies but off the top of my head I think that they involve infection through experimentation, I'm struggling to come up with one example of an animal catching the zombie virus through the natural progression of an infection in the wild.
I may be wrong but I think that evidence would suggest that animals do not catch the zombie virus in the wild. However human experimantation can result in an animal succumbing to zombification.
Am i a nerd? :D
 
mr_macabre said:
The lead character's reaction to bike girl sums up how much thought has gone into the script, so that instead of just leaving it/her to fester he actually returns later on to put it out of its misery.

actually this series is an adaptation of a very well executed comic book series and that whole interaction is taken directly from the pages of the comic (however in the comic the woman moans "help me")
 
Hopefully the Beeb or another freeview channel will buy it and put it out for those of us who cannot justify/afford increasing our digital package to include the FX channel!
 
gman72 said:
I may be wrong but I think that evidence would suggest that animals do not catch the zombie virus in the wild. However human experimantation can result in an animal succumbing to zombification.
Am i a nerd? :D

The Dead Rising Brian Keene Zombie books have zombie animals, a development that would have spoiled the two books if they weren't disappointing in their entirety anyway.

And of course, who can forget the zombie kitty in Reanimator?
 
I've read those books also. To be fair they weren't entirely without merit. Regarding the re-animator cat, this is clearly a case of resurrection through experimentation rather that a naturally spreading infection. I still think that the bulk of evidence would suggest that animals would be immune.
 
paulsamfreya said:
Hopefully the Beeb or another freeview channel will buy it and put it out for those of us who cannot justify/afford increasing our digital package to include the FX channel!

There really is nothing else on FX worth watching, however I believe they were the first to grab the British rights even though the programme came with a very obvious pedigree.
 
Seems it's on FX in Britain, though. :D

I have watched the first two and am enjoying these shows immensely. It's just fun to have a serial zombie story on TV. It's not the best show I've ever seen, but it's really good and I am finding the character development very interesting. I also appreciate how each show has taken a small step in opening up to a new level of a bigger story than the previous show gives us. I was concerned about it being a tad bit soap opera-ish, and also concerned about all the derivative elements, but am just choosing to look at them like homages and not take it too seriously.
 
UsedtobChrisFord said:
mr_macabre said:
The lead character's reaction to bike girl sums up how much thought has gone into the script, so that instead of just leaving it/her to fester he actually returns later on to put it out of its misery.

actually this series is an adaptation of a very well executed comic book series and that whole interaction is taken directly from the pages of the comic (however in the comic the woman moans "help me")

Yeah I know, I've read the comics too. However the script writers didn't have to leave that bit in, but they obviously felt it tells you so much about the character it deserved to stay. I appreciated that sentiment and was pleasantly surprised they included it.
 
I've seen the extra scenes.

Zombie 1: I haven't eaten for a week!
Zombie 2: Yeah, me too, I could eat a - hey!

;)
 
Second part keeps up the quality of the first and introduces some interesting new dynamics. Plus more gore for those who like it!

This show is very well done, real cinematic quality to it. Makes up for the disappointment that The Event is developing into.
 
Just watched the first episode and :shock: :shock: :shock:

The precredits bit doesn't leave much doubt about what we're in for, good suspense and creepyness, then the back third lulls you into a false sense of security for that bit where he goes around the corner :shock:
 
Quite enjoyed the 3rd ep. Interested to see where they are going to go with the redneck on the roof storyline. He could be a handy character... :lol:
 
I won't be staying on that campsite. It's a bit dear. Cost an arm and a leg.
 
The first part of this was on Channel 5 last night, I know, something worth watching on Channel 5, I was surprised too. Anyway, I wasn't very impressed at first, thought the dialogue was pretty bad and the whole 28 Days Later waking up in hospital is hackneyed by now.

But as it went on, it grew more tense, and by the time the cop was in the tank I was looking forward to seeing what happened next. Including Lennie James is always a wise move, so I hope he returns. Still, I'm sort of glad I didn't shell out for the box set, I did feel as if I'd seen it all before, though that's the appeal of zombie fiction these days I suppose, you know what you're going to get.

It's repeated on Friday night if you want to see it but missed it.
 
I guess the whole "waking up in hospital only to find the world has been invaded" business goes back at least to Day of The Triffids?
I really enjoyed the opening episode of The Waking Dead but will watch the rest on catch-up to avoid Channel 5's ads which seemed to arrive every 5 minutes!
 
paulsamfreya said:
I really enjoyed the opening episode of The Waking Dead but will watch the rest on catch-up to avoid Channel 5's ads which seemed to arrive every 5 minutes!

I know what you mean, I recorded it to skip the ads.
 
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