The Walking Dead: Episode 1 review

by Luke Jones.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the zombie genre had little left to offer given the plethora of media featuring the shuffling hordes over the past fifty years. From the groaning masses of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead to the rage-infected non-zombies of 28 Days Later, via Shaun of the Dead’s loving parody, zombies have been done, well, to death.

Based on a cult comic series, The Walking Dead is the the latest high-budget American TV project to come with the backing of major film talent, in this case Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and director Frank Darabont. Darabont is best known for his close relationship with Stephen King, having adapted King novellas The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption into successful feature films. The Walking Dead comes as a natural fit for the director, given that his last film was 2007‘s critically lauded The Mist. Both are gritty, bleak horrors that deal with apocalyptic scenarios, and both remember that sometimes the human race can be the biggest monster of all.

Episode one opens quietly, with Kentucky Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes (played in I-know-that-face fashion by Teachers’ Andrew Lincoln) scavenging alone for fuel at a deserted station. Confronted with a zombie-fied child, Grimes has a moment of reflection... before pulling out a gun and shooting her between the eyes. It’s a statement of intent from Darabont, and the first of many shocking moments that make this opener something special.

This scene is quickly shown to be a flash-forward, and after the opening credits the story goes back to Rick’s life pre-zombieland. After a drug-bust goes wrong, Rick ends up shot and wakes up weeks later in hospital. The place is deserted, the power is gone, and there’s something groaning behind a chained door that has ‘Do Not Enter, Dead Inside’ scrawled on it. It’s all very Day of the Triffids but Darabont stages it well, and there’s a chilling pay-off when Rick finally escapes the building. From there the tension never lets up, and while the episode is short on big scares it does a great job of establishing a sense of never-ending dread.

After one episode it is difficult to judge the mostly unknown cast, but Andrew Lincoln excels in the lead role. Perfectly capable of being the heroic American everyman when needed, he also delivers in the quieter moments. One scene sees him shooting a crawling, half-bodied zombie, his face full of conflict, neither fully compassionate or angry. I can’t wait to see where Lincoln takes this character in the coming weeks, with a sub-plot involving his adulterous wife sure to result in fireworks.

Romero’s Dead films were famous for their low-budget approach to film-making, but some serious money has been thrown at The Walking Dead, and it shows. The make-up is uniformly excellent, with some minimal use of CGI, and the deserted city shots are as ethereally beautiful as those found in 28 Days Later and I Am Legend. The whole season has been shot on 16mm film, meaning it looks amazing if you’re fortunate to have a High Def TV.

Even after one episode, The Walking Dead is shaping up to be an interesting entry in the world of zombies. With five more episodes of this first season, and the possibility of a thirteen episode second season if this one does well enough, it seems there’s life in the zombie genre yet.

The Walking Dead is currently showing Friday’s at 10pm on FX and FX HD.