SUNDAY night has become zombie night thanks to Five’s latest American import, The Walking Dead.
Zombies are an acquired taste, even for horror fans. There’s something essentially comic about them as they shuffle around looking gormless and feasting on hapless passers-by.
The Walking Dead is pretty formulaic. Anyone who has seen Danny Boyle’s movie 28 Days Later will find plenty of familiar references. For this made-for-TV series sees a clean cut cop wake up in hospital to find the world is populated by zombies. It’s not clear what brought on this catastrophe but the few humans not affected by zombie-ism (if there is such a word) are hiding out trying not to get bitten.
Among our survivors are, miraculously, the good cop’s wife and son and his partner, who is also his wife’s lover — reality TV this ain’t!
There are plenty of yuck moments for those who like that kind of thing. The special effects team clearly had a great time with the make-up and some of the ways of dispatching the living dead are ingenious. Of course it’s complete nonsense. The plot has more holes than a Swiss cheese and any attempt to apply any kind of logic to the storyline is a complete waste of time.
But it’s pretty good fun if you like ‘switch your brain off’ TV with plenty of gore thrown in.
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