The Walking Dead Trailer is Here

Today AMC released the official trailer for the Frank Darabont's latest creation, The Walking Dead. I'm not sure if I've been clear enough in my past mentions of the show, but this is easily my most anticipated production of the year. Yes more so than any movie, tv series, album, book, or whatever. There was a bootleg of it released from Comic Con, but seeing it official is a whole different monster. Saying this looks amazing is an understatement. I really can't bring to words how absolutely fantastic this looks. It's been a while since a piece of zombie fiction has been done well (not including the fantastic novel, World War Z, obviously) and this looks to deliver in ways unimaginable. Sure the Dawn of the Dead remake and 28 Days Later (which technically doesn't have zombies persay) were both great movies, but this seems to make it a seriously done piece on a zombie outbreak. Despite how silly and ridiculous the thought of walking dead people are, zombies are very relevant to our times and if taken seriously can really be something. Hell just look at the recent swine flue scare. Imagine if the swine flu made people come back to life and start eating each other? Yeah, some scary shit, right?

Now obviously I'm a huge fan of the genre and think that's while it hasn't gone down the shitter exactly, there hasn't been the definitive zombie movie/series made yet. With both The Walking Dead series and World War Z film adaptation (though I still think it works better as a mini-series) coming out, this can really set the bar high for what zombie films can be. Of course most people write them off as silly and campy, which can be very true. But I'm of the thinking that they provide a really great medium for social and political commentary on the world. And not just the Romero-esque, "humans are the real enemies" type thing either. Just think about the ramifications of a worldwide epidemic of any fatal disease; it would quite possibly cripple every social and political structure that exists. People panic and with no promise of a cure, it would only be a matter of time before chaos broke out. Now add to that the danger of the victims getting back up and eating people? So not only do you have to deal with the living people going nuts, but the dead people trying to eat the survivors as well. That's a giant mess and not one anybody is or can be prepared for. The only thing I've ever seen capture that tone is World War Z. It is possibly my favorite novel of all time and if you haven't read it, do so immediately. So here's to The Walking Dead and the 90 minute session of sheer zombie ecstasy that will come our way October 31st (Halloween night, how perfect) at 10 pm.