THE DEAD TIMES
DEAD ARE COMING...
The Walking Dead Movie: What I want to see
The Walking Dead is a vast conglomeration of things; comics, books, TV shows and games - there is no doubting its popularity (even if it has not always been a smooth ride). In 2018, a new branch was announced as the infamous universe was set to play host to a brand-new trilogy of movies. Very little is known about these three films; the first, due to be released in 2020, will star Rick Grimes and cover what has happened to the character since he left the TV show but that is, quite literally, all we know.
Below is a list of the top five things I want to see from this movie spin-off.
Great Zombies
A highlight of The Walking Dead, at least for me, is the Zombies; their whole ‘grounded-ness’ in the rules set out by ‘Godfather of the Dead’, George A. Romero, is absolutely brilliant for Zombie-fans. They don’t run, there are no outlandish spitters or other strange special infected with unconventional superpowers, they are relentless in pursuit of their prey (unless distracted), they clearly have very little intelligence; repeatedly walking into obstacles, tripping over things, clambering at forever out-of-reach targets - and they have no fear of pain or dismemberment (this being very graphically shown in countless episodes of the TV series). This faithfulness to the roots of Zombie-mythology must continue into the film - I would not be totally annoyed if the powers that be do introduce some kind of new Zombie - provided it is not totally outlandish - but it must be a rare freak amongst the horde, not the mainstay.
Zombies, no matter how they behave, are not Zombies if they do not like undead creatures, returned from the grave. They should be dirty, their skin mangled and hanging off in places, ripped and torn in others, revealing nasty wounds, or that skin must be dried to inhuman levels, stretched tightly over partially exposed bones. The Walking Dead really excels in this area thanks to a wonderful make-up effects team led by Greg Nicotero, even having particular themes over the seasons and imagining how decay would have affected the grotesque ghouls during the long timespan of the fictional universe. It is totally awesome to see the creative team putting so much love into its Zombies and this is one feature that absolutely must be carried over into the film.
There is one thing I’d change about the Zombies though. In the TV show, the Zombies have become more of a nuisance to the survivors now Rick's weary crew have perfected the art of Zombie killing (the Zombies having been around so long, it being only natural that they are no longer a threat - the survivors having mastered the rules of Zombie apocalypse survival, simply by remaining alive since day one). What I really want the movie to do is to bring that threat back. The show has previously experimented with Zombies carrying disease and Zombies who 'turned' wearing armoured helmets but, a lack of budget has stopped the series adding Zombie threat in the most obvious way; extremely large hordes.
An interesting story
No one wants The Walking Dead movie to be simply a really long episode of the TV show; I mean, why pay cinema-ticket prices just to watch something that is basically the same as what you can watch at home - it makes no sense. Luckily, Scott Gimple - chief content officer for The Walking Dead TV show and its multiple spin-off shows - has confirmed that the movie will go in "wild new directions", stopping short of explaining what those directions might actually be. Will they be radical enough to attract, not only TWD fans to the movie, but also complete newbies; those that just want to see a good Zombie movie (and who doesn't want to do that)?
I want to see some experimentation; things that break the mould and go beyond what you would think of as 'normal' for a Zombie movie. Zombie films are usually set in North America, right? Not this one; this should be set on an island, maybe a harbour town with rural environments and a distinct look, somewhere like Newfoundland that's not too far from North America to explain how Rick could have been taken there in a fuel-limited helicopter, without bleeding out, yet far enough away from the mainland to make returning to his family (something the character would immediately try to do) an impossibility. This also spices things up by allowing the storywriters to play with harsh weather and, if set in winter, the extreme cold outside of towns.
The plotline should be simple and, as I've said before, it should have ties to the main Walking Dead series but be independent from it - you'll get more from it if you know the background but you don't need to know anything about Rick Grimes to enjoy the movie. That being said, it would be very easy to slip into the trap of simply remaking the classic 1985 film, Day of the Dead. All the setup is there already; a helicopter going to a place where there is some limited safety from the dead, where scientists, civilians and the military (what's left of it) bicker and violently argue about how best to deal with the living dead - the Walkers in this case. While this may actually be cool - I would love to see a Dr. Logan type character introduced to the Walking Dead universe, madly experimenting on the Walkers, even growing an affection for them -, a quality remake has been tried several times before and all efforts to capture the original magic have failed, most in spectacular fashion.
The story for this movie should primarily be about survival and trying to get some form of cure or vaccine for the walking death conundrum. Remember in season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead, episode 5 - 'The End of Everything', Althea ('Al') was in the company of a secretive group of people who controlled a helicopter and talked about trying to find a solution to the whole end of the world thing? Well, that helicopter had a symbol of three connected rings on the side and, if you look closely at the logo for the The Walking Dead movie, those same three rings are visible in the text; looks like my hope may come true! However, the narrative must keep the Walkers central - this is a Zombie movie based off a Zombie comic and Zombie TV show; go in the 'good human tribe versus bad human tribe' that saw the massive audience drop-off in seasons 6 through 8 of the TV show and, honestly, what's the point in making the film at all?
Lastly, it should not be too scary or too violent, too "80s" - yes, I would really love this but that is really not The Walking Dead at all. The Walking Dead is a very modern Zombie story, taking the old rules and applying them to the 21st century; the film should maintain this theme. That said, the TV show has often left Easter Eggs harking back to classic 80s movies such as The Evil Dead, Night of the Comet and, of course, Day of the Dead both in terms of sets and Zombie design - one or two such 'nods' to the days of old would be a welcome sight for Rick's latest outing.
A future
To be frightfully honest, I never really wanted a The Walking Dead movie, even when the show was in its prime, when the first season was released, back in 2010; it just never seemed to be something that could fit the conventional two-hour movie format. So, when 2018 came around and, not one, but three, The Walking Dead movies were announced, I was taken aback - there had been rumours floating about, sure, so I was not completely shocked, but still, quite surprised, especially given my next point. You see, at the time, the TV show was haemorrhaging viewers - the life-blood of any TV enterprise - and had been since season 6, about 4 years ago. The lack of 'pulling power' the show once had was apparent to me even without having to scan the viewer ratings; the quality of the content had dropped significantly. Now this was seen as a sign of the show's gradually downfall to many (and, I'm ashamed to say, me as well) but, after way more than 100 episodes and Robert Kirkman's original comic series having now officially concluded, was there any doubt that the show would be, 'slowing down'. Also, so astronomical were the ratings at primetime that even losing a whopping 6 million viewers had very little effect on the overall 'selling-power' of the show - it is still one of the most watched TV programmes to this day.
That's my main point of this article; above all else, I want The Walking Dead to be a high-quality movie, to attract in large audiences and make waves in the box office, both for the further two planned movies and the TV series as a whole. A future, that’s all I want from this movie - anything else is just icing.
Larger set-pieces but not too big
A major problem for the TV show is that it is very divided; there are all these different settlements with all these different characters - it can feel like it just does not know which way the future lies and so tries desperately, and failingly, to keep each story arc going with enough 'good stuff' to maintain interst. This is definitely not what the movie should do, it needs to maintain the focus on Rick and where he is located. But more than that, I want to see bigger set-pieces with more detail; more grime, more of that lived-in feel. There should also be larger structures - guarded command posts, watchtowers, things seen in the distance that you never get to see up-close to suggest a larger world, make-shift power stations, large 'undead against human' battlefields where Zombies are set on fire, research laboratories for studying the walking dead, and so on. The important thing is that none of these are CG (computer generated). The Walking Dead is all about bringing the Zombie apocalypse into the real world, with real people - putting those people and Zombies against some fantastical computer generated backdrop rather ruins the point.
A flashback to the start of the walking death plague and a hint at its cause
Seeing as this movie needs to be a standalone experience to be successful - it cannot just pander to the hearts of fans of AMC’s TV show to make a considerable splash at the box office -, cinema-goers will want some sort of explanation, or even hinted explanation, of the Zombie plague (note that I did not write virus here, as there are a myriad of other ways Zombies can come into being). George Romero really mastered the art of telling the audience things without really telling them, simply hinting at causes and showing different factions arguing constantly - the debated crashed satellite bringing cosmic radiation in Night of the Living Dead for example. I would love to see, and think it would be fitting of the universe to see, some sort of wide scale panic in the form of Romero's 1973 film, The Crazies; scientists and military working at odds to try and contain the ravaging outbreak before it goes global, civilians coming to hastily put together 'safe zones' for shelter that the over-stretched authorities cannot provide, local police trying to maintain order in a world they no longer understand - essentially, individuals doing whatever they can to help but having no central leader to organize the time-critical chaos. This being said, the main reason I want footage from the early days is to witness Jon Bernthal's epic portrayal of Shane, Rick's partner in crime, one more time.
I do feel that some form of flashback to the early days of the Zombie outbreak is possible in the movie. Rick is badly injured, almost dead in fact at the end of season 8 episode 3, when he embarked on the fateful helicopter ride and departed the TV show, so he is going to need time, as well as the obvious medical care, to get back on his feet. During this time, he's very likely to drop in and out of consciousness - heck, whoever is saving him might even put him in a medically induced coma for a while; the perfect situation for a flashback style dream.
DESCRIPTION:
2020 is, at the time of writing, the official release date for the first The Walking Dead movie. With next to nothing to go on, here are the top five things I want to see in the film.
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DATE UPLOADED:
01/03/2020