This is a great time to be a genre TV fan. Game of Thrones is about to return, and The Walking Dead is ready to end its third season.
Dead came back stronger this season stronger than ever, and the ratings made television history. There’s lots of great zombie stories, but with a show like Walking Dead, it delivers something far beyond the usual undead fare.
The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story about whether this season’s ending will be faithful to the comics. We won’t have any spoilers here, but make-up master Greg Nicotero promised, “It’s going to get pretty bloody.” This is certainly no surprise, especially considering Nicotero’s make-up company, KNB, are the modern day masters of gore.
“We’ve spent a lot of time setting it up, and it’s not going to end well,” Nicotero continued, and when you’re dealing with the undead, who knows who will survive among the living? “That’s the trick of the Walking Dead. You never know. It’s kind of sad that nobody is safe, but we’ve already shown that in the first half of the season.”
This is also one of the keys to effective horror movies, setting up an atmosphere where anyone can get it. Look at the first half hour of Jaws. The shark eats a naked woman, a kid, and a dog, which means that anyone who gets in its way will become food. With great horror, there is indeed dramatic struggle for life and death. You know The Walking Dead isn’t just going to end quietly then go on to the next season.
Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, said, “Things are going to be pretty intense; it’s a huge conflict, and we’re been building to it this entire season. There’s definitely going to be some dire consequences, and there will certainly be some casualties.” One Dead exec promised there will be a “big body count,” and that “it’s going to surprise you, no doubt about it.”
So be prepared. Sounds like the Walking Dead season finale is really going to be a corker that’s building to something pretty epic. It’s often an interesting guessing game to see who will survive a zombie uprising, it’s been that way since the Romero films, and soon we’ll see who’s left to keep fighting in season four.
