Dead men walking

Halloween may be over, but the dead won’t get to rest because of Robert Kirman’s zombie survival show The Walking Dead. Premiering on AMC channel last Sunday with 5.3 million viewers, the episode was able to garner the strongest ratings in AMC’s history, even beating its own wonder boy Mad Men, which only averages three million viewers. The viral effect of The Walking Dead was expected as it had the geek world’s full support, being the adaptation of Kirman’s comic book series. As such, top comic book sites had an almost daily barrage of Walker plugs leading to the premiere. It was impossible not to get bitten. I certainly did and had to tune in and unite myself with my undead geek brethren.

Haunted spaces and eerie silences

The premise of The Walking Dead is the true and tested formula of any zombie story. It begins in a small town and, in this case, with sheriff Rick Grimes who wakes up in a hospital after a gunshot operation to discover that most of his world has turned into walkers (since zombies can’t run). The twist, according to author Kirman in an interview for the comic news website IGN, is that he “set out to do a zombie movie that never ends.”

Thus, there is likely no cure to the horror that inhabits Kirman’s world. In the comics, he succeeds in setting this mood of desperation and survival by having the series done in black and white. This lends well to light and shadow preying on the reader’s imagination as the walkers appear out of the darkness. Making TV have its own trademark mood could be deadly but the pilot has shown that the show can rise on its own. Although in color, the TV version works with eerie silences punctuated by the slow grotesque growls of the zombies. At the same time, the director, working with the graphic novel as a guide, contains viewers with intimate shots that bring up the chill of haunted spaces. Many scenes are almost claustrophobically tight that the paranoia of the undead unexpectedly appearing can be felt.

A race against death

At the heart of it, The Walking Dead brings out the soul of the zombie genre rather than the usual hide-and-seek story. With its distinct sinister mood, it captures our primal fear of death, whether ours or that of our loved ones. As the hero Rick Grimes instinctively shoots his first walker and grey matter splatters about, you feel the knee-jerk intensity to preserve oneself, especially when dealing with the unknown. When one of the survivors sees his wife turn into a walker, you grasp his denial that his beloved has passed on to the ugly thing that is death. With these really graphic moments, Walking Dead becomes palpable and real rather than the usual chomping zombiefest. It becomes a literal race against death as the zombies adequately personify it.

Final words

Although starting strong with good ratings, becoming a hit and putting a stake in the likes of True Blood is something I can’t predict. Yet, if it manages to expand on the zombie mythology like its vamp counterparts and continue its distinct mood, Walking Dead will certainly be raising the standards of the dead from the mere mindless zombiefest to an intelligent and emotionally pulsating horror genre.

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Walking Dead’s official site: http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

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E-mail me at readnow@supreme.ph.