While Fear the Walking Dead has been taking us back to a time with zombies so fresh that they’re kinda sexy, the crew behind season six of The Walking Dead has reached a point where their walkers are so decomposed that they can no longer be created with traditional special effects alone. Walking Dead executive producer Greg Nicotero had a chat with the Hollywood Reporter on what’s going into making the undead in season six extra creepy:
“We’re doing a few things we haven’t done before, which is digital augmentation of [a] couple of walkers,” says Nicotero, who designs the undead on both shows. “We’re moving noses and putting a cavity there. Taking the area underneath the ribcage and shrinking it down. Kind of Bernie Wrightson style. That stuff is what makes it more exciting because it gives us more opportunities.”
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“Every season we sort of refine [the walkers],” he notes. “We refine the teeth even more and we just keep changing it up, and every season it’s been different and we just keep pushing it a little bit more. It’s been really fun. We sculpted full muscle arms and then we added sagging flesh off of them as everything is about to drip off. [Showrunner] Scott [M. Gimple] has one very specific thing that he is conscious of, which is that it can’t be a Ray Harryhausen. It can’t be a walking skeleton. It always has to be muscles. It always has to be something that is motivating the movement.”
For those of you unfamiliar with undead special effects lingo and references, Ray Harryhausen was the man behind many of the classic stop-motion effects of the ’50s and ’60s, including the ‘walking skeletons’ from Jason and the Argonauts seen here:
Ditching that element is probably a smart move for a couple of reasons: First, skeletons ain’t zombies, and The Walking Dead is a zombie show. Secondly, even the special effects guys from Game of Thrones tried and failed at making undead skeletons work, and it resulted in one of the most derided scenes in the series:
Meanwhile, Bernie Wrightson was one of the early pulp horror comic book artists who locked in many of the stylistic conventions still used in zombie art today. If you’ve seen the Creepshow movies or Swamp Thing, then you’ve seen Bernie Wrightson.
Nicotero also touched on how ambitious this season is regarding the number of walkers involved in several scenes. One particular day of production involved 300 undead, the most the show has ever used. According to Greg, “When Scott pitched the season, he went, ‘This is when the zombie threats are going to elevate and escalate.'” Which doesn’t sound very promising for the residents of the Alexandria Safe Zone. It does, however, sound exciting for those of us a bit sick of all the family drama and lack of walkers on Fear the Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 11.
(via the Hollywood Reporter)
