Director	Frank Darabont
Writers	Frank Darabont	Tweet
Starring	Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Lennie James, Adrian Kali Turner
Genre	Zombie
Tagline	None Listed
Country

Review

Deputy Rick Grimes is seriously wounded in a shoot out between Police and villains and winds up in hospital, apparently suffering through a semi comatosed state for an undefined time. Okay the flowers his partner Shane Walsh delivered to the hospital room look to be about a week old when Rick finally becomes fully awake. Though given his problems walking it could have been longer. Who knows, and if you really want to be a smart arse just mention 28 days.

Anyways Rick wakes and finds the hospital deserted, except for these ominously groaning people behind a chained locked door that has “Don't open dead inside” written on it. Rick takes that advice, especially since he has previously seen the remains of a half eaten woman. Finally making it outside Rick discovers bodies everywhere and his home town deserted. He finds his wife and son missing from the family home but teams up with fellow survivors Morgan Jones and Morgan's young son Duane. Morgan gives Rick the good oil, which involves pretty much a zombie apocalypse, end of humanity, and no more seasons of True Blood. Rick decides to find his errant wife, and the best place to start would appear to be Atlanta, as there is meant to be a refugee center in the city. Rick is in for one hell of a surprise!

Okay before people start going off the deep end here, yes I'm aware that there is zero Downunder involvement in this excellent series by AMC, but since we got sent the first season to review you are going to have to kind of suck it up. The series is the one allowance we'll make for “It Followed Us Home” in the episode guide section here at ScaryMinds, so don't worry we're not going to make a regular habit of featuring Johnny Foreigner shows. Besides as the name would imply The Walking Dead is jam packed with zombie goodness, who can resist that with a steak knife.

Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist) takes time out of his busy Stephen King adaptation schedule to direct the first episode. And what a ripper of an episode he throws onto the barbecue, we're talking a lot of steak behind that sizzle folks and I was spellbound from first scene to last scene as Darabont nailed it. Though one does wonder if the content of this show might not be slightly over the top for television?

Darabont gets the first season out of the starting block in quite some style, I'm rocking with this one.

Darabont rips into the episode with a classic opening scene that did have me wondering if my DVD had somehow gone haywire. A police car gradually drives from a distance into the foreground and a very southern looking cop gets out, clearly he's after some gas. There's mass carnage in evidence at the gas station, a clear road accident with burnt out trucks and cars, but more worrying a whole bunch of cars harbouring the corpses of people who have been clearly shot in the head. Anyway the gas station is out of petrol making the stop pretty futile besides giving, as we later learn, office Rick Grimes a chance to stretch his legs. On the way back to his patrol car Rick becomes aware that he is not alone. He spies a young girl walking away from him, who momentarily stops to pick up a stuffed toy. Rick naturally calls out to her in a scene, if you have never even seen a zombie flick before, that is meant to be a shocker. The girl turns and her right lower jaw has been eaten away, folks we have our first zombie of the evening, and the makeup rocks! Rick naturally has to shot her in the head, the only acceptable way to put down a zombie in Romero land, which immediately indicates that The Walking Dead is going to be taking some serious risks, you don't lightly kill children, undead or otherwise, without having a full leash on that idea. Get it wrong and the protesters are apt to be outside your office with tar and feathers. Welcome to The Walking Dead you are in for a good time.

While keeping the plot rocking Darabont takes time out of his busy schedule to deliver any number of money shots that had me grooving to his beat. Rick riding a horse into Atlantic, the outbound lane jammed packed with vehicles, the inbound lane totally empty, was just a sensational composition that had me high fiving fellow viewers like a demented orangutan on speed. Likewise when Rick gallops around a corner in Atlanta itself and runs into a horde of zombies it's a startling vision that is apt to send the odd nightmare your way. Darabont is on his game and letting the screen do the talking. And did I mention the scene where there's a chain locked door, behind which there's plenty of groans and fingers plaintively reaching through the gap, simply awesome stuff bringing to mind a classic Romero scene from Day of the Dead. Days Gone Bye ends with one cool cliff hanger, and just the hint that Rick might have some light showing at the end of this particularly dark tunnel.

And if you think Darabont is all about the visuals then spend some time with his script. Besides setting up the situation, a slight hint of 28 Days Later there for mine, we're talking a pretty unique trip down the decay highway of living death. Rick Grimes is eventually just after finding his family, and doesn't that promise an epic journey and a half, while keeping the armies of the undead at bay. What I found interesting is that Darabont takes time to explain the situation, via the device of fellow survivor Morgan Jones, for those who might not be up on zombie lore while not overly pressing the point for those of us wise to the ways of how these outings work. Overall we're talking a plot that keeps things rocking along without losing the pacing at any stage. I'm wondering how people who don't normally dig the dark genre are finding this excursion into hell?

Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) simply blew me away with his portrayal of a small town deputy who is forced to confront the unimaginable. Lincoln owns the role, makes it work for him, and adds the necessary gravitas to the situation. If a practical dude like Rick can overcome unbelief in the zombie apocalypse, then so can we the Audience, Lincoln freaking nails it.

Just a quick note on the makeup and effects going down. The zombie creations are simply awesome, there were a couple of the undead shuffling onto my screen that were outstandingly conceived. The team behind the zombie creations are matching the best that the sub-genre has to offer.

One of the things that does make me wonder however is the reasonably high level of gore going down, you don't want to know what happens to Rick's horse in gory detail. Since when did this level of violence become acceptable on Prime time? I'm not complaining, and gorehounds will be all over it, but I can't imagine your average civilian is going to terribly impressed with blood and guts colouring up their nightly viewing.

It's been one hell of a wait but I finally got a chance to sit down and groove to The Walking Dead, got to say the wait has been worth while thus far. And thanks to the reader who sent the DVDs in our direction, much appreciated Bro. I'm always up for a zombie apocalypse and Darabont delivers on that front, returning the sub-genre to the character driven storyline that remains one of it's great strengths. Yeah I'm grooving to the whole thing and can't wait to see what direction Darabont may take us in from here. Please note I haven't read the source comics, ergo have no basis of comparison, reviewing the television series over here yo!

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...