The Walking Dead

Now up & running is a review of Anchor Bay's shiny Blu-ray edition of The Walking Dead [M], AMC's rather daring series which premiered in 2010, and returns in the fall of 2011 - meaning those hooked on the series won't be sated with more tales of emotional trauma from a world overrun by zombies for MONTHS.

Damn!

I still think series creator Frank Darabont benefitted from the allowances ABC made towards the makers of Lost, whereby stories often focused on the offside, private moments of characters rather than the next big pre-ad break shock; and the upped gore level in Dead Set (2008), the brutally violent U.K. series that made it okay for filmmakers (and satirists) to indulge in slimy viscera and serious bodily trauma on TV. Darabont gave free license to effects meisters KNB, and the results are pick-axes to the head, gunshots inflicted upon various facets of the head, and a lovely moment involving the smearing of rotting internal organ matter on clothes.

Bear McCreary's sparse score isn't yet available on CD, but in our interview [M] last year, he reflected on working with Darabont, and some of the scoring ideas for the series.

Coming next: thoughts on the recent screening at the Tiff Bell Lightbox (TBL!) of Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and a review of the 1988 TV remake. What? Didn't know there was one? I'm sure stars Patrick Duffy and Loni Anderson also forgot. Or tried to, after firing their agents.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com