While we’re usually more concerned with what’s happening with the human characters on The Walking Dead, and which new faces we’ll be seeing, there’s something to be said about the walkers populating this post-apocalyptic world. And that something is: “Shit, that’s nasty.” For instance, this split-faced monstrosity.
I can’t tell if this guy is winking at me, or if that pizza slice-shaped chunk of his face is completely detached from whatever nerve endings are still in place. (I’m not what anyone would call a professional in the ways of walker anatomy.) What is inarguable though is that this makeup work from gross-out mastermind Greg Nicotero is about as far out as it gets on non-premium TV these days. That little flap of skin hanging off the side of the chin looks like the shreds of meat that have to get cleaned out of a grocery store slicer.
And from lunch meat to sausage we go.
I mean, seriously, what has to happen in order to get a walker’s intestines tangled with a tree? Are other walkers starting to play pranks and no one has any shoelaces to tie together? This guy looks like he got trapped inside a rotisserie long enough to turn his hair white. Probably got some tender rib meat, though.
While those creepshows were actually out an about on location, AMC also showed off what these horrifying extras look like outside their element, and the details are beyond disgusting. Although, technically I guess a pitch black area can also count as “their element.”
Nicotero and showrunner Scott Gimple have talked about how the world surrounding Rick and the other survivors is now populated by walkers who have essentially just been rotting and turning to shit all this time. It’s hard to believe that these things are still strong enough to attack people and aren’t just passed out from exhaustion. There are still new human-turned-walkers out there, but the numbers have to be dwindling at this point. If they look like this during Season 6, we have to assume that a day will come when the zombies are too far gone to continue serving as a threat, which would lead us to Robert Kirkman’s ideas for how the series (both TV and comics) will end. We’re gonna need a lot of mops.
Have your barf bags at the ready for the Season 6 premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday, October 11. Before that, though, fans will be able to see how it all started on Fear the Walking Dead, which will take on the outbreak as it was first happening. I expect that makeup work will be equally disgusting.
Photo Credits@AMC
