Return of the Living Dead reference.
Surprised no one mentioned it. Melting zombies and toxic waste. Nice nod to Return of the Living Dead.
shareRight on!
Loved ROTLD
MovieChat Forums > The Walking Dead (2010) Discussion > Return of the Living Dead reference.
Z NATION, actually.
shareWhy do you say that? It's not likely. Return of the Living Dead, although sort of a dead evolutionary branch, had a huge influence on zombie pop culture. People still talk about zombies eating brains, because of that movie. Z Nation, though I love it, basically just riffs on pop culture and TWD.
shareTWD has been aping Z NATION on a regular basis ever since ZN appeared. Most of TWD's best moments from its last few seasons, in fact, are really ZN-inspired. Showcasing different kinds of zombies has been one of ZN's central features throughout its run. This is more in that vein that anything having to do with RotLD (which I also love but which has no obvious connection to this particular business).
shareIt might seem reasonable on the surface but the connection you are making is fragile. TWD has shown squishy zombies from early on, burnt and rotten zombies. In the first episode they had the half woman zombie who looked more like something from ROTLD than Romero. They had the well walker. And they weren't different types of zombies like ZN, just regular walkers that melted, burned, or rotted. I would sooner believe they didn't have anything in mind, or maybe The Toxic Avenger, than to believe they are copying Z Nation. Now if they start showing zombie rainbows, znadoes, znamis, or killing zombies with the Liberty Bell then I will admit you're right.
shareCarol's great personality transplant shortly after ZN appeared (now, alas, long gone), Daryl's liquidation of the Savior bikers, the great zombie "lawnmower" sequence last season (the best thing to happen on the show since the season 5 opener), the carnival overrun by zombies gags--all of that was an attempt to ape ZN; TWD had never even tried for that kind of vibe pre-ZN. This doesn't always work--the ep where Jesus first appeared, for example--but the writers are definitely watching ZN and taking notes.
shareYou're just saying things and then claiming they are ZN references, they're not. I read your blog excerpt which is written much the same way ... you summarize a scene then call it "ham handed," or some other negative phrase. The phrase is actually ham fisted, btw. You seem to fall into the trap of believing that critique is writing negative things, it isn't. Criticism in this context is being able to deconstruct a scene, movie, or film into parts and analyze it while understanding where they come from. You see ZN in everything because you probably have little experience in Zombie movie history. I find that most Millennials compare all science fiction to Battlestar Galactica and all zombie fiction to TWD because that's the limit of their experience. You're doing the same thing but turned on it's head. All these things you are naming are not exclusive to ZN, even the zombie carnival "gag" predates ZN.
shareMy reviews do their job just fine. I'm quite a bit older than Millennials. Comparing notes on who has the longer fan pedigree when it comes to zombies wouldn't go well for you, I assure you. While all of these items precisely replicate the tone and feel of ZN, their zaniness and black humor was not a feature of TWD prior to ZN's appearance; TWD was, in fact, notoriously humorless as what seemed like a guiding ideology (and was certainly a defining characteristic). And "ham-fisted" is derivative of "ham-handed."
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By all means, if you think you can impress me with your "fan pedigree," go for it. To some extent I agree that the shooting scenes this season and some of the other action scenes have been less than stellar. And I'm not real hip on the whole Negan story even though JDMorgan is killing it. But it's ludicrous to say that TWD has copied the tone and feel of ZN. Look, I really like Z Nation but TWD is in an entirely different league. Seriously, what is more likely: that TWD is paying homage to a zombie classic; or ripping off a low budget show with a tiny fraction of the viewership? There is only one reasonable answer to that question.
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