The good thing about AMC’s The Walking Dead is that it puts zombies on the forefront of the public’s cultural consciousness. They’ve become the monster that still remains scary. The show has also allowed for new fans of the genre to seek out other classic zombie films and stories that they wouldn’t have bothered to check out if it hadn’t been for this show. One such classic zombie film would be another of Lucio Fulci’s gorefests from the early 80’s. It is a film which also has my latest “Scenes I Love” and one that continues this month’s horror theme.
Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (aka Seven Doors of Death) has one of my favorite scenes in horror. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that I love pretty much everything Fulci has done and each of those films always have several memorable scenes that would imprint themselves on fans. My favorite scene from The Beyond has to be when the film’s two protagonists (played by regular Fulci actors in Catriona McColl and David Warbeck) find themselves under siege by zombies in a hospital. Warbeck’s character tries to fend them off with his trusty six-shooter, but seems to have forgotten to read the memo about shooting them in the head.
Every miss lessens their chance and when the creepy little red-haired girl suddenly makes her appearance as she attacks McColl’s Liza then the payoff in the scene finally happens. It looks like Warbeck’s character suddenly remembered what will kill them undead and decides to test it out on the little red-haired girl. To say that this scene was shocking when seen by a 9 year-old boy would be an understatement. I think even now that soon to turn 38 years of age young boy would still react with utter shock at this scene.
“It’s nature correcting itself…restoring some balance.” – Hershel Greene
[slight spoilers]
The new season of AMC’s The Walking Dead arrived with a major bang. The season 2 premiere episode, “What Lies Ahead”, was seen by over 7.3 million viewers which more than eclipsed the show’s own high-ratings pilot premiere from 2010. It’s no surprise that the episode would do so well with the network having pushed the new season through most of the summer. With fans of the showing growing with every passing month (DVD and Blu-Ray sales of the first season also helping keep the show in the public’s consciousness) there was really no doubt on whether the new season would come back firing.
“What Lies Ahead” saw Rick and his group fight through their very first experience of a zombie “herd” and how this event led to the two kids in the group in extreme danger as Sophia goes missing after the herd encounter on the highway and Carl getting himself accidentally shot to end the episode. While I would think that the writers would begin episode 2, “Bloodletting”, soon after the events of the premiere episode we instead get a flashback moment. A moment in time before the zombie apocalypse arrived and Lori waiting for Carl outside his school and confiding to a friend about her and Rick’s relationship. The emotional impact of this scene is not that Lori and Rick were having marital problems, but its from the arrival of Shane to inform her that Rick has been shot (seen in the pilot episode “Days Gone Bye”) and now she has to tell Carl. We see in this sequence the look of anguish on Shane and, most likely, the seed of his love not just for Lori but Carl as well.
This flashback will segue into Rick running desperately with an unconscious and bleeding Carl in his arms with Shane and Carl’s shooter, Otis, right behind them. For those who have read the comic book shouldn’t be surprised how this scene plays out, but I know that many who have not and only been following the show will be hoping for the worst for the youngest of the Grimes. Soon enough Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vance) leads them to the farm, the Greene family farm, where it’s patriarch might be able to help Carl survive the gunshot. We get to meet Hershel Greene (Scott Wilson) and his family, from the eldest daughter Maggie (Lauren Cohan) to the youngest Beth (Emily Kinney) and, for the moment, we only see how this family will be able to help Rick and Carl. For fans of the book this family will prove to be integral to the continued survival of Rick and the original group.
“Bloodletting” continues the theme established with the premiere episode in that this new world is going to be about slim chances even if logic says there’s none to be had. There’s only the slimmest chance that a country veterinarian doctor will be able to save Carl. It’s the slimmest of chances that T-Dog may survive the wound he suffered from the previous episode. Only the slimmest of chance that they will ever find Sophia. Finally, the episode ends in another cliffhanger which gives Shane and Otis the slimmest of chances to survive their trip to an overrun FEMA station for much needed medical supplies and equipment.
This episode’s title also makes for a proper description for Rick and what he’s been going through since he woke up from his coma in the hospital. It’s not just the literal bloodletting he must endure to help save Carl’s life, but just every waking moment since the pilot episode. Rick has been trying to remain the bedrock of optimism and provide the sort of calm leadership his group of survivors need in this new world. Yet, we see how much every moment has cost him even before leading up to Carl’s incident with a wayward bullet. he’s being bled not just literally in this episode but figuratively. It helps that Andrew Lincoln’s performance during the first two episode of this new season has been great, so far. We get to see some genuine emotion as Rick must watch someone else try to save his son. The look of utter grief and impotence in Lincoln’s face as he tries to do anything and everything to save Carl continues to make Lincoln’s work in this show one of the reason to continue watching it.
The Walking Dead wouldn’t be the fan-favorite it has become if it skimped on any sort of zombie action. While it doesn’t have the high gore quotient that the previous episode had it still had enough zombies to sate the show’s fans until next week’s episode. Most of the zombies appear close at the end of the episode at the FEMA camp and it’s also in this sequence where we get the show’s heart-thumping moments as Shane and Otis must figure out a way to get out of their predicament which ends the episode on another cliffhanger.
“Bloodletting” doesn’t do much in terms of finding Sophia or even whether Carl gets to live. It does make a good job of introducing a new set of characters without making them feel extraneous. While we only got to know a few of these new additions there’s a sense that they will (at least some of them) become important ones during this first half of the season. Finally, those who have been fans of the comic books should accept the reality now and admit to themselves that this show has become it’s own growing tale. While still remaining on the basic path Kirkman set for them through the comic book the show has taken on a life of it’s own and it’s unpredicatability and changes in that path should make things interesting moving forward.
Notes
Once again Norman Reedus continues to make Daryl Dixon a badass. He also has done a great job in making what happened been a stereotypical redneck role into a character with hidden complexities and layers. I was reticent on this character being added specifically for the show, but each new episode has made me a believer and thankful to the writers for doing it.
Liked how Daryl nonchalantly tells the zombie that had been attacking Andrea in the woods to “shut up” before sending a crossbow bolt through the side of it’s head.
One final great moment with Daryl is his surprise to the rest of the group concerning the hidden stash of “meds” that was Merle’s stash. He may be a Southern good ol’ boy, but Daryl continues to prove just how much more of a survivor and team player he has been to this group despite first appearances.
One of the changes made from book to show has been the physical casting of veteran genre actor Pruitt Taylor Vance as the Greene ranch hand Otis. It’s an interesting choice, ut having Vance as part of the cast overrides any fanboy reaction to having a much larger actor portray the slimmer Otis from the book.
Lori continues to become a stronger character this season and Sarah Wayne Callies does some very good work in this episode by becoming the steel to talk some sense to a grief-stricken Rick.
I think the show’s didn’t need the brief, fever-induced paranoid rant from T-Dog about how he being the only black person in a group of Southern good ol’ boys. While part of me hopes all that talk from T-Dog was due to the fever from his injury I have a feeling he won’t be with the show for long. The way he’s talking makes him this season’s “Dead Man Walking” role.
There was a positive, albeit very disturbing, moment involving T-Dog in this episode and that was when he noticed the baby seat in the back of the car he was looting for supplies. His growing expression of horror at seeing the bloody baby seat with bits of flesh on it was one of this episode’s best moments. I’m sure I wasn’t the only viewer who wondered what happened to the baby in that seat.
It was a nice bit of detail work on the writers of this episode to populate the FEMA camp with zombies from the soldiers, FEMA workers and refugees who were overrun prior to Shane and Otis arriving. Rarely do we see such detail in zombie films and stories. What else but the very people who were suppose to be in the camp would become zombies once they’ve been overrun.
Can’t end this without mentioning Glenn’s look at seeing Maggie come riding in like Arwen from The Fellowship of the Ring. I do believe the boy’s been struck by cupid.
Kevin Smith’s 2011 film was a major departure for him. It wasn’t the usual comedy (his last one being the very awful buddy-cop comedy, Cop Out) but instead his first foray into one of film’s earliest film genre: the horror film. Say what you want or feel about Kevin Smith (and there’s a huge range of people who either love the man or hate him like the second coming of the Antichrist) but when he decides to make a film he puts everything of himself on display and he wears his emotions on his sleeves when it comes to his films. It’s this aspect of Smith’s personality which has gained him such a loyal following, but has also earned him the scorn and, for some, hate of film bloggers who now constitute the bulk of film criticism in the digital age. This first horror film for Kevin Smith would be called Red State and it would be a film that would continue to expand the gulf between those who hate him and those who support him. Lost in this playground-like tiff was whether the film would be a return to form for Smith or just a continuation of some very bad films in the last half-decade.
Red State could almost be called a coming-of-age story since the film begins with three high school boys joining together to travel to a neighboring town where they hope to engage in some sexual extracurricular activities. It’s also in this very town that we learn very early on in the film that the Five Points Church calls home. This church and it’s congregation has one Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) as it’s leader with it’s membership either related by blood to Cooper or by way of marriage. In this picture would arrive an ATF task force led by Special Agent Keenan (John Goodman) to investigate the illegal doings of Cooper and his flock. It’s between these two groups that the three teenage boys would find themselves in a horrific situation with their lives in the balance.
Let’s just say that this film had much potential in it’s plot and how it’s initially set-up. The character of Pastor Abin Cooper and his flock was definitely patterned after the Westboro Baptist Church led by Fred Phelps who’re infamous for picketing funerals of soldiers and for being outright homophobic in their teachings and ideology. The ATF group with Keenan in command looks to be set-up to represent the Federal government and it’s police agencies run amok in their attempt to fight terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. Then Smith drops in three horny teenage boys in the mix and it sure must’ve read like a surefire story with horror and action.
What we get instead was a film which didn’t seem to know how to proceed with the initial set-up. The film began and played out like something similar to Hostel and films of a similar vein. Unsuspecting teens lured by sex to be made an example of by a group of people extreme in their passions and ideas. If the film had continued with just those two groups as the core of the film’s story then it could’ve made for a decent survival horror film, but the addition of the ATF task force and how they impacted the dynamics between the congregation and the teens unbalanced everything. Now what was suppose to be a horror film turned into an action-drama.
The performances by the cast was also inconsistent. This could be due to the weakness of the screenplay which tried too hard to push Cooper and his people as batshit crazy through overly long sermons. Sermons by Abin Cooper that was delivered by Michael Parks in convincing fashion at times and then mumbled incoherently at others. The three teens were also a problem in that they weren’t sympathetic by any means. Even knowing what awaited them didn’t lessen the fact that these three teens were obnoxious and vulgar to the point that we didn’t care if Cooper and his people tortured and killed them.
One would expect that the addition of John Goodman as the ATF special agent and Kevin Pollak as his assistant would at least bring some serious acting chops to the proceedings, but their characters were so thinly-written and their dialogue so forced that one couldn’t believe them as real characters. It’s a shame that the film’s overall screenplay couldn’t provide the necessary foundation for a cast that had a very good veteran ensemble which included Melissa Leo, James Parks and Stephen Root.
Red State really failed in the very thing that was suppose to make this film the beginning of a shift in Kevin Smith’s career. It failed as a horror film in the most general sense. There was never any true feeling of horror to be had throughout the film. Even the first death of an unnamed homosexual kidnapped by the congregation to be used as an example during one of Cooper’s sermons failed to elicit any form of horror. This was a film which had much potential for some horrific sequences but it never explored it. The film doesn’t even work as a thriller which would be the closest this film ever got to be. Even the ending of the film which tried to inject a semblance of the supernatural didn’t even work as it turned out to be a major bait-and-switch that didn’t come off as creative once it was explained.
Does the film justify some of the venom hurled at it from Kevin Smith’s detractors?
I would say no in that the film wasn’t the worst thing he has made by a long shot. It did have some moments that hinted at something special could’ve been made if someone else was involved or if the film had more time to be worked on. I do believe that if Red State was made by anyone else other than Kevin Smith it would be considered average to good. But having such a polarizing figure as it’s creator and marketer might have blinded some in actually watching this film with an open-mind.
Does this mean Red State was actually a good film?
I would say no with the reasoning I’ve mentioned above. But I will say that the film wasn’t dull or boring. As unnecessary as the ATF task force to the story as a whole their arrival and the subsequent reaction of the congregation to them made for some exciting few minutes. Even Michael Park’s performance was quite good despite some of his line deliveries coming off as incoherent mumblings.
If Red State was to be Kevin Smith’s attempt to try and move away from his history of making comedies then it was a failed one. While it was a failure I wouldn’t mind him going back to the genre to hone his skills in doing more horror. If Uwe Boll could continue making even worst materials then surely Smith could be given another chance to make another and fix the very things which he did wrong with Red State with another horror film project. One thing for sure he would not be lacking in actors wanting to work with him.
Lisa Marie Bowman had chosen her favorite scene from Dario Argento’s Suspiria as her latest “Scenes I Love” post and it’s quite the scene. I will match her choice with a horror scene which remains one of my favorite scenes in film history. It is also a scene from one of the best scifi-horror films ever made and, I would dare to even say, one of the best films ever created. The scene I speak of comes from Ridley Scott’s classic and iconic film Alien.
Anyone who has ever watched this classic scifi-horror will always gravitate towards talking about one particular scene. The scene is the first time the crew of the space tug Nostromo gets together to a meal as a group after the crisis which saw one of their own crew members attacked by an alien creature. This scene started off quite normal. Professionals enjoying food and good company. It’s through Ridley Scott’s direction and the exceptional performances of all involved which elevates the scene to one of the greatest. Through the scene’s depiction of normalcy we start to get a sense that something may not be right even before Kane begins to cough and have convulsions. For me it was a prolonged shot of crew member Ash during the banter around the table. His expression is all subdued smile then for just a split second we see him glance at Kane eating and being merry but he knows something is wrong and about to happen.
Even if people didn’t pick up that moment from Ash it still created a subconscious effect on the audience so that when Kane did begin to cough and convulse uncontrollably the audience was already on the razor’s edge. When the climactic event which punctuates this scene finally occurs the surprise on all the actors, especially that of actress Veronica Cartwright, has gone done as in film history as a classic. It helped that their reactions were quite genuine. Even knowing that the chestburster alien would pop out it was not being told that fake blood would squirt out that made their reaction of surprise and disgust so real. The extended version of this scene even had Cartwright slipping and falling as she screamed in horror at all the blood which had splashed on her.
One last thing which made this scene one I love and also one which I think makes it one of the greatest scenes in film history is that it was done in one take and that single take came out perfectly. This is a scene that has influenced many filmmakers since but its effect has never been fully replicated.
Before I returned to posting something about horror I needed to post another “AMV of the Day” entry after discovering and watching this happy little AMV earlier today. This latest anime music video is the aptly named “Who’s That Chick?” by amv creator gloobe90.
The video’s title comes from the Rihanna song which when listened to perfectly encapsulates the Teppen Toppa Gurren Lagann character of Yoko Littner. This anime is part of the shonen mecha genre. It pretty much means it’s an anime series aimed at boys and young men using action and mecha (giant robots) with some comedy and fanservice thrown in just cover all bases. The character of Yoko Littner pretty much has all four of those traits. She’s quite able in the action and fighting department and while she doesn’t pilot one of the many mechas in the series she does take down more than her share of them. Yoko also happens to be a sort of comedy relief in the series both in her actions and attitude but also in the fanservice way she’s drawn and how others react to her due to her appearance.
It’s really not a surprise that Yoko Littner ended up being one of the more popular anime characters ladies end up cosplaying at conventions and anime events. The trick though is whether they can pull of not just Yoko’s look, but her infectious cheerful attitude. This video certainly captures all of that and more.
Anime: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Song: “Who’s That Chick?” by Rihanna feat. David Guetta
A brief break from the day-to-day posts of horror reviews and such brings us the latest “AMV of the Day”. This particular AMV is unique in that it’s the type people in the hobby call an MEP as in Multi-Editor Project. This video uses one song but has several different editors taking section and editing in their chosen anime scenes. All these different editors must bring in their section in as smooth as transition as possible.
This first MEP is “Just the Way You Are” and uses the Bruno Mars of the same title. The video has ten different anime from which the 11 editors ended up using to fill up the length of the Mars track. The editing tricks weren’t too complex in this video and that’s probably due to having so many people involved in creating it, but the quick editing and some of the scene transitions were done well enough that the scenes chosen worked well hand-in-hand with Bruno Mar’s cheerfully romantic lyrics.
For an MEP this particular AMV is actually quite short. Most AMVs of this kind tend to run 10 to 20 minutes long as the different editors don’t just edit in their chosen anime scenes, but also must edit in their chosen song as well. These type of AMVs usually will have 3-5 songs mixed in together. For now, I think I’ll start with this short and simple kind.
It is hard to categorize John Landis’ contribution to the Showtime horror anthology series, The Masters of Horror. Landis made a name for himself in the horror genre as the director of the classic early 80’s werewolf film, An American Werewolf In London, and the cult classic vampire-noir film, Innocent Blood. With his “Deer Woman” episode, John Landis reaches back to his past work and comes up with an episode that mixes horror, absurd situations and a healthy dose of black comedy.
“Deer Woman” has something in common with An American Werewolf In London in that this episode deals with a creature born out of folklore and myth. This time around its a creature from Native American folklore. The creature in question is the Deer Woman. A legendary creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman from the waist up and that of a deer from the waist down. The Deer Woman will then go on a spree of seducing random men then trampling them to mincemeat. In this respect she has a bit of the mythical succubus mixed in with the shapeshifting. It is during the aftermath of one of her killings that we’re introduced to the main player in this horrifically absurd little tale. Detective Faraday (masterfully played with a dry wit and comedic timing by Brian Benben) gets called in to the scene thinking it is an animal attack, but the crime scene leaves him confused, perplexed and a tad more than intrigued by the case after it’s unceremoniously taken away from him.
We learn through the length of the hour-long episode that Faraday is a disgraced cop due to an incident in the past that’s made him a pariah in his own department. Faraday’s sidekick in his hunt to solving the murders and thus finding the Deer Woman is a beat cop played by Anthony Griffin. Former Brazilian, and still smoking hot and stunning, Cinthia Moura does duty as the abovementioned Deer Woman. She goes through the entire episode without uttering one line. Her eyes, expressions and body language conveying whatever motivations and thoughts may be in her head. She did pretty well and it didn’t hurt she looked very natural baring it all on the screen.
The dialogue in the episode was where the absurdity of the moments in the story shone through to give “Deer Woman” its black-comedy. The characters in the film react to murders and the clues leading to what might be their only suspect with incredulity, denial and dismissal. Yet, no matter how much the characters of Faraday and his partner try to deny what they know in their mind is the real killer, they inevitably see the truth of the matter dangerously up close and personal. The teleplay for the episode was primarily written by Max Landis (the director’s son) with some brief rewrites and treatments by John himself. They both run with a very absurd situation and run with it fult-tilt and non-stop. They both know how silly the story sounds and its that silliness that makes this episode memorable. In fact, if I really had to categorize this episode I would call it a comedy with small bits of horror slipped in (horror and gore effectively done — once again — by the master effects people from KNB EFX.
Despite “Deer Woman” being closer to a comedy-horror than a straight-up horror tale, I found the episode to be very entertaining and worth the viewing. John Landis stuck to his guns in crafting an absurd tale and making it believable to his audience. With shades and hints of An American Werewolf In London, Landis’ contribution to The Masters of Horror marks a bright spot in the an uneven series, so far. Landis’ has once again shown that horror and comedy are more intertwined than most people would think.
Tamara was a good entertaining horror/teenage angst movie in the same vein as De Palma’s Carrie and pretty much most of the teenage revenge/slasher flicks of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Such horror films involved the high school jocks and popular cliques getting their comeuppance by way of the nerdy student who has had enough. This time around the nerd in question is one Tamara whose shy, bookish and frumpy nature makes her an easy mark for every other kid in school.
Newcomer and extremely hot Jenna Dewan plays the title role and she does a very good job pulling off the dual personality role the film requires from her. The first half of the film has Dewan as very believable as the mousy and nerdy student whose low self-esteem adds to keeping her ostracized from the rest of the student population. It doesn’t help that she begins to misread one of her teacher’s (played by Matthew Marsden) attempts to help her as some sort of loving attention she so craves. There’s a small bit of a bright side to her daily existence in the form Chloe (played by Katie Stuart), she of the popular girl with a heart-of-gold role. Tamara’s life soon turns for the worst as her attempts to show her love for her helpful teacher gets rebuffed and her published article about drug-use in athletics puts her in the crosshairs of a couple of jocks with much to lose.
Typical of such teenage revenge horror films, the cruel jocks and popular kids concoct a plan to humiliate and embarrass Tamara, but just like those past films their plans backfire and the target of their plans gets killed during the the prank. The filmmaker really don’t add something new to this tried and tested formula. Instead of calling for the authorities to report the accidental death of their schoolmate, the kids decide, through the bullying by the alpha-male in the group, to bury Tamra instead and forget anything ever happened. This plan probably would’ve worked if Tamara wasn’t dabbling in witchcraft as ostracized teenagers are wont to do. Tamara’s spell prior to the prank to spellbind her teacher backfires as its activated by the spilling of her blood and to the surprise of the students who did her harm she returns alive, healthy and completely different the start of the new school week.
To say that Tamara returns utterly different in more ways than one would be an understatement. Ms. Dewan does a vampy, sometimes campy, job portraying the new and improved Tamara. Dewan goes from nerdy, plain-jane Tamara to ultra-sexy, barely there skirt wearing teen seductress whose touch does more than seduce those she has targeted for revenge. Jenna Dewan as the reborn Tamara steams up the screen with her overt sexuality and she practically saves the film from just being an ok, by-the-numbers horror film. Tamara was Ms. Dewan’s film from beginning to end and she does a very good job of keeping the story interesting even if it meant just being on the screen.
This film doesn’t break new ground in the realm of teen horror. In fact, it’s a mish-mash of alot of past teen horror flicks of the past that one could see the many influences in its story. Tamara was part Carrie, Black Christmas, The Craft and, more recently, Diablo Cody’s Jennifer’s Body. The direction was adequate at best and that’s really all one could hope for in a genre film like Tamara. What makes this film entertaining and worth watching was the joy of discovering the new scream queen talent in Jenna Dewan. Tamara might not be a great horror film, but Ms. Dewan sure more than tries to make it more than it’s B-movie pedigree.
The first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead was a runaway hit for the network. Despite the inaugural season being a a truncated 6-episode long one the series gained a huge following that included long-time fans of the Robert Kirkman long-running zombie comic book series, but also new ones. The Walking Dead would have it’s showrunner and tv series creator Frank Darabont to thank for bringing it to a wider audience which is why this second season premiere brings with it a sense of bittersweet to the proceedings. This past summer saw Darabont fired from the very show he had helped create due to creative and financial differences with the show’s parent network in AMC.
Does this mean the show will suffer as it moves forward without it’s leader at the helm? If the premiere episode of season two is any clue then the show has hit the ground running and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to stop to mourn the firing of it’s leader.
“What Lies Ahead” begins with the survivors soon after their narrow escape from the destruction of the CDC in Atlanta. The group’s number is now one less and any chances of a cure to what has caused the zombie apocalypse and a hopeful future seems slim at best and a hopeless exercise in futility at it’s worst. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) continues to be the group’s de facto leader which seems to wear on him now that he doesn’t just have his wife and son to think about but others as well. The episode does show that Rick’s acceptance of leadership in the group might be more out of necessity and less about him wanting to lead. No one, from his partner Shane (Jon Bernthal) to the wise, old Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) seem to want the job and everyone seems willing to blame Rick for every instance of danger the group finds itself in.
Just like the pilot episode of the first season this new season doesn’t skimp on the tension. Frank Darabont wrote this first episode and his handling of the group’s first encounter with a moving “herd” of zombies show’s that he hasn’t lost the ability to create tension and just build it past the point of unbearable. This entire sequence with the group hiding beneath abandoned cars on the interstate with countless zombies walking past just inches away has to be one of the signature scenes of this season and more than a match for Rick’s solitary walk through the empty hospital in the pilot episode.
The bulk of the episode doesn’t come down too much from the tension and dread built up during this “herd” scene. It continues to keep the tension level at a fever pitch as the group must now search for one of their own who has gone missing during the “herd” march. The tension doesn’t just come from the situation Rick and the group find themselves in, but from the cracks and fractures that has begun to appear within the collective group. It’s these fractures which becomes the impetus for some character building that the first season rarely seem to have time for.
We still see repercussions from decisions made in the last season continue to make itself known. Whether it’s Shane wallowing in self-pity for losing what he thought was a ready-made family he had created for himself once Rick reappeared right up to Andrea’s bitterness towards Dale for having saved her from her choice to commit suicide in the last episode of the first season. It’s through the interaction between some of the factions being created through these particular characters that we begin to see the stress of this new world beginning to wear on them. Not to mention how they all seem to blame Rick for the situation they find themselves in. Which made it a suprising turn of events when was left to Lori to defend her husband and put everyone in their place. Her little speech near the end of the episode went a long way in establishing her character as one who sought redemption not in self-pity but in supporting the one person she understand to be the most qualified to see them through alive.
The episode wasn’t all positive. What hampered the first season was still quite evident in this season two premiere. While most of the writing was much improved from the first season there was still some parts in the episode when the dialogue seemed forced and not something which came about organically. It’s a testament to the performances by the whole cast that most people watching the show wouldn’t notice it much. Some stand out performances has to be the husband and wife team of Andrew Lincoln and Sarah Wayne Callies. Then there’s Norman Reedus as Daryl who continues to grow as a character beyond the typical redneck many thought him to be during the first season. With Reedus’s portrayal of Daryl one could see that he might not agree with some of Rick’s moral choices and decisions but he respects the man for actually making a decision instead of being wishy-washy. Daryl knows and understand, just as Lori does, that Rick is their best chance at surviving.
“What Lies Ahead” is a great start to a new season of The Walking Dead. While the firing of Darabont as showrunner from the show (replaced by a more than qualified Glen Mazzara) does hang like a dark cloud over the premiere that still shouldn’t detract from this episode’s quality. It’s an episode that really doesn’t dwell on allowing the rest of the world to catch it’s breath from start to finish while at the same time still allowing for characters to grow. This episode even ends in a cliffhanger that should be quite familiar for fans of the comic book, but should be quite a shock to the system for those who haven’t read a page of Kirkman’s comic.
Rick said in the beginning of the episode, after seeing the destruction of the CDC and getting the news that there’s really no more way to turn back the clock on this apocalypse, that it was all about “slim chances” now and from what this episode showed even slim might be too hopeful a word. These are people living on borrowed time and one can say that they’re already the walking dead. Time to see if Rick’s word’s will be rewarded with safety and salvation or just new levels of hell they must navigate through.
Notes
Chandler Riggs as Carl looks to be getting more and more comfortable in the role. His line delivery don’t seem as flat as they were in the first season.
Steven Yeun didn’t get as much time on the screen, but his gleeful reaction at being handed one of the bladed weapons was priceless. Like a kid in a candy store.
I noticed that while Frank Darabont wrote this episode the name shown during the beginning of the film was the name Ardeth Bay. For genre geek fans that name should sound familiar. It was a nice touch and better than just using the usual Alan Smithee.
We see more clues as to zombie behavior in this episode as Daryl once again proves that the stink of the dead bodies will hide living humans from zombies as he drapes corpses over himself and T-Dog during the “herd” march.
Love the line reading by Norman Reedus as his Daryl looks up at the large crucifix in the abandoned chapel and says “Hey J.C….taking requests”.
Gore content in this episode still continues the series trademark of being quite high for a network tv series. I’m still surprised at how much the show has gotten away with. Tonight’s signature gore scene has to be the impromptu zombie autopsy and trying to find out if their missing group member is in its stomach.
This episode deviated very much from the comic book, but when it mattered most it used one of the early shockers in the comic book series to end the episode on a huge note.
Joe McKinney’s debut novel, Dead City, is quite an impressive piece of writing for a first-timer. It’s doubly impressive for taking the zombie tale and just making it unfold as one long nightmare with little or no prelude or wasted exposition about what led up to it. McKinney’s novel is not overlong or full of filler chapters that does nothing but try to extend the telling of the tale far longer than necessary.
Dead City is not too different from many of the zombie novels and stories that continues to see a renaissance of sorts these past couple years. McKinney takes a more novel approach in his setting by using the hurricane disasters which plagued the Gulf from Katrina and onwards. It is during the aftermath of a series of non-stop super hurricanes hitting the Texas Gulf Coast where we meet the main protagonist of this novel. Eddie Hudson is a police officer in the San Antonio Police Department who we see balancing the problems he’s having with his wife with that of the devastation left by the passing of the major hurricanes over San Antonio. The action and horror begins pretty quickly as Hudson and his partner for the night head off to a disturbance call in one of San Antonio’s neighborhoods. What they encounter at the scene is one they’ve not been trained for. Confusion and lack of relevant knowledge to combat the newly zombified citizens of San Antonio leads to disaster for Hudson and the rest of his police and emergency services brothers.
McKinney does a great job of showing the confusion and disbelief Hudson goes through as a real-life horror film comes to life in front of his very eyes. There’s the disbelief in seeing their attackers continue to move towards him and his partner with a focused determination despite being pepper sprayed at point-blank range, then hit by shotgun beanbags then to lethal gunshots to the body. It is only when shot cleanly through the head and thus destroying the brain do their crazed assailants finally stop for good. This revelation comes way too late from most of Hudson’s fellow police officers and he’s left to his own dwindling supplies of ammunition and a vow to get to his own family before the nightmare he’s seen reaches them. Along the way Hudson meets up with other survivors from undocumented workers, a high school teacher and amateur zombie researcher, to other fellow officers who have managed to survive the first few hours of the zombie outbreak.
Throughout Hudson’s attempts to get to his wife and six month-old son, more of the extent of the zombie outbreak makes itself know to Ernie and those who tags along with him as they travel the streets of a devastated San Antonio. McKinney gets high marks from this fan of the zombie genre for not shying away from describing the sort of damage these zombies can do to a human body. The gore quotient in Dead City is quite high and I think one that would satisfy any fan like myself. In fact, I will very much like to see how this novel will look like adapted into a film. The story is pretty simple and a horror road trip through a devastated city with the simple goal of a man trying to find his family amongst all the horror he has seen and still to see.
Dead City is by no means a perfect novel and at times it shows. Characters sometimes have a certain cookie-cutout feel to them. From the gung-ho and adrenaline junkie cop whose wisecracking attitude is suppose to balance out the near-desperation and panic Hudson seems to be in all the time. Then there’s the angry black man whose mistrust of the police makes him blind to the need for cooperation. Some characters seem to be there looking to become a major role in the making then quickly gone thirty pages later under the assault and tearing hands and teeth of the zombies. I think the size and length of the novel may be one reason why characterization on some of the people on the periphery got a bit shortchanged. It doesn’t bring down the overall quality of the story but it does show that this is indeed a debut novel. But with the amount of quality storytelling McKinney was able to put together I am more than confident that this writing style will improve with each successive book.
In the end, Joe McKinney’s Dead City is one roller-coaster ride of a debut horror novel which doesn’t pull its punches. The story never lets up for a moment to give our main protagonist a moment of respite from the dangers around him. Like Officer Ernie Hudson, the reader becomes bombarded with horrific images after horrific images and only until the end to we find the respite and time to relax. I hope McKinney has more tales of the undead ahead of him and that he shares it with those likeminded people who displa the same kind of interest in the black sheep of the monster genre. I very much recommend Dead City to those who enjoy a very good zombie yarn.
Through the Shattered Lens 