The Walking Dead: 5 Ways The Show Improves The Zombie Genre (& 5 Ways It Doesn’t) – Screen Rant

During the late 60s and early 1970s, the zombie movie genre truly came alive (or is that undead?) thanks to the masterful imagination of George Romero and his classic Night Of The Living Dead. The genre shuffled its way through the 1980s before taking a rest, only to experience a 21st-century resurgence that gave way to The Walking Dead.

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The show has now become the face of the entire zombie genre, thanks to 10 seasons and a cast of memorable characters. However, for everything the show does right, it does do a few things wrong. Here are 5 ways that The Walking Dead improves the zombie genre, and 5 ways it harms it.

The Walking Dead has done more for zombie gore than anything which came before - even George Romero's "Dead" films. While it clearly took its cues from movies like Dawn Of The Dead, advancements in digital technology and makeup effects allowed showrunners to create far more grisly depictions of on-screen gore that had never been seen before.

Of course, this is a major plus for horror movie aficionados and those who love the zombie sub-genre, as a whole. Each new season presents a slew of sumptuous gore, with characters getting killed in a variety of uniquely grotesque ways!

While there are a ton of zombie films out there, the ones most remembered by fans are the original three "Dead" films by George Romero. For a time, the Italian horror scene was populated with a variety of ultra-gory alternatives such as Doctor Butcher, M.D. (aka Zombie Holocaust), and Lucio Fulci's 1980 classic Zombie. However, these lacked the clever social commentary peppered in by Romero.

The same is true for The Walking Dead. The show is largely devoid of the satire that made Romero's films so clever, and social commentary essentially boils down to humanity's difficulty in working together. Past that, there are a few references to faith, spirituality, and redemption, but these pale in comparison to using a zombie-infested shopping mall as an allegory for the mindless pursuit of material possessions.

Zombie movies hit their peak largely in the 1980s before the genre was put on ice. The resurgence of the format occurred in a much different time period that was more about realism. After all, reality TV was in full swing, and consumers had become fully ensconced in the corporatism of the 21st century. In many ways, we'd become the very thing George Romero prophesied in Dawn of the Dead.

Though it was based on a comic book, The Walking Dead went for realism over the comic book-style that zombie films had embraced up until that point. This was a plausible real-world dealing with the effects of a viral contagion that was reanimating the dead. Same premise, yet an altogether different feel. The Walking Dead feels more grounded and relatable, rather than a piece of escapism.

Zombie films are all about scares, and they come from the titular creatures, themselves. The Walking Dead started out very much as a tension-filled horror series featuring a group of people constantly under threat of being consumed by the living dead, but it has changed over the years.

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The show lost its tension around the end of the 5th season when the focus shifted dramatically from the walker threat to the human one. Zombies took a backseat to the infighting between human groups, which was exacerbated by the arrival of Negan and his Saviors. Contrast this with iconic zombie films of the past, where the threat of beaten eaten alive by hordes of the dead was enough to pull the stuffing out of armchairs.

No pun intended, but this one is a "no-brainer." The zombies of The Walking Dead are the best ever committed to film, bar none. While Romero's zombies were the catalyst for the genre, they mostly consisted of some corpse paint and a few skin-scuffs to sell their menace.

WD's zombies are the stuff of nightmares. They're half-decomposed, they're missing limbs, eyes, jaws, you name it. These are accurate depictions of what real-world zombies might actually look like if the apocalypse ever befell us. The seminal first episode of Season 1 introduced viewers to these new and improved zombies with one pivotal scene featuring Rick stumbling upon one that had been severed in half at the torso. The rest is history.

Within the context of the zombie genre, humans are stuck in a permanent fight-or-flight mode. Either they're cornered and forced to beat back the ravenous zombie hordes, or they're running from the ghouls as they slowly close in. With seemingly nowhere to run, the action never lets up for a second, and that's an important staple for the genre.

The Walking Dead features humans who have made a life for themselves amidst the zombie apocalypse, and it's now the norm. Without the threat of a massive herd on their doorstep, there's no real reason for this fight-or-flight mode to kick in. While this does present the opportunity for good drama to unfold, it also robs the show of one of the core fundamentals of the zombie genre.

The Walking Dead is spoiled when it comes to characters, thanks largely to the comic book it was based on. These were smartly written characters with real-world aspirations and agendas that seem to play out in plausible fashion. Also, the serialized multi-season format of The Walking Dead means these characters can be expanded on indefinitely, as opposed to a 2-hour zombie flick.

While it could be argued that the quality of writing for particular characters has peaked and valley'd over the years, there's no denying that they are easier for the audience to relate to. By fleshing them out, we're better able to form a bond with the show for the long term.

This is not to suggest that some of the more outlandish zombie films of yesteryear have a better story. Rather, The Walking Dead suffers from the creation of its own making - a story that must continually evolve. Eventually, humans will have faced most threats and emerged victorious (albeit battered and bruised).

The story began on a high note, but as humanity has settled and new threats have emerged, it feels like it's running out of ideas. The showrunners now face a major challenge, as there's only one more storyline from the comic books to draw upon. If the show doesn't evolve, the zombie genre as a whole could be adversely affected. After all, what's left to do, when everything has already been done?

Once again, a serialized show allows for greater expansion of the story, which can sometimes tiptoe across several seasons. The Walking Dead contains many plot twists dating back to the first season, and they all helped keep audiences on their toes when it came to the characters.

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There might be room for one, possibly two plot twists in zombie films, but that's about it. By contrast, The Walking Dead can subvert expectations, even for those who already know the comic book stories inside and out.

Zombie films are dark and scary for a reason, but all of them were created with a tongue-in-cheek approach. They were, after all, vehicles of escapism. The original Night Of The Living Dead was arguably nihilistic from start to finish, but it was done so in a satirical manner so as to entertain.

The Walking Dead took nihilism to its most extreme at the beginning of season 7 and hasn't let up since. While the show is big on hope for a better tomorrow, and the value of human bonds, it's still inescapably bleak. The victory against the Saviors in season 8 should have signaled a shift in tone for the show, but all hopes of this were cut down in the season 9 episode "The Calm Before," and an infamous scene featuring the severed heads of ten characters on spikes at the Whisperer border.

NEXT:The Walking Dead: 10 Burning Questions That Need To Be Answered In The Next Season

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Derek's been a pop culture nut since he was a wee lad. When it's time to yell "Get off my lawn," he'll be dressed up like Kratos until the cops arrive. Derek loves contributing to both ScreenRant and TheGamer.

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The Walking Dead: 5 Ways The Show Improves The Zombie Genre (& 5 Ways It Doesn't) - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero