The dead are upon us: every channel searched, every book read, every costume party thrown—Zombies are here, there, and everywhere. But, with the plethora of zombies in pop culture, it is interesting that AMC’s The Walking Dead still has fans talking after seven seasons of zombie-filled plotlines.
The show’s special effects makeup designer, Greg Nicotero, and his army of make-up specialists, keep viewers on their toes with extremely realistic visuals and bloated or dried out walking corpses.
Recommended for you
While the first season has great special effects in the makeup field, each season gets better as Nicotero learns the ins and outs of what works.
Season One:
Season One has to be the most important season when it comes to the show itself, for it sets up what the visuals will look when it comes to bringing the dead to life. Nicotero, in an interview, claims that “[he] used the graphic novel for inspiration”. This in itself brought a whole new tone to what zombie makeup was.
Rick Grimes, the first main character introduced into the story, has his first encounter with the little girl walker, and she is the first zombie that we see. This is probably one of the most important scenes in the whole show, since it sets up what the zombies are. Clues are given that it has only been a few weeks into the apocalypse, so most of the zombies should have pretty fresh bodies. Nicotero nails it with the little girl—the clothes are still pretty much intact, and the makeup isn’t extensive. Only one large wound is shown, which gives it an “out of the grave” effect. From shots taken afar, most of the walkers look like they could pass off as people (except for the totally disgusting bicycle zombie, with only half of her body intact).
Season Two:
Season two seems to be slightly less important for setting up zombie visuals in the show, but Nicoreto and his crew want to show real time passing, and for dead bodies, that means decomposition. Most of the zombies seem to still be pretty intact, but a large change is their eyes. In the first season, there were a lot more yellow and slightly infected eyes, whereas in this season, they seem to be more yellow, murky, and red.
Clothes start to be something that is a little less common. While most of the walkers are still clothed, they wear blood stained rags that have been torn off during their wanderings for flesh. Decomposition has just started to take a turn for the worst.
Season Three:
Season three is really where Nicotero starts to show his creative side—eyeballs are either super murky and swollen, or yellow and shriveled. Bloating seems to be less apparent and bodies replaced with skinny, gaunt, and shriveled versions. Blood is less common since it has been a long while since the zombies formed. Many are starving for humans that simply don’t exist.
Nicotero exclaims “this season, one of the things we wanted to do is be able to bash, crush, smash, destroy some of our walkers". Honestly, this makes the zombies more realistic, since they have been wandering around harsh landscapes and constantly tripping, being banged into, and even harshly mutilated.
Season Four:
Welcome to Walkerland: population decomposed. At this point in the show, fans have estimated that we are about a year into the apocalypse. Our zombies have started to dry out and skin is sagging. Hair is starting to fall out, and zombies find themselves in worse situations as many are burned, battered, and torn by natural elements.
The detail of the charred walker is amazing. To not only make the zombie look like a decomposing zombie, but also turn it into a burn victim, is an amazing example of Nicotero’s growth and style in this show, something that is lacking in most zombie thrillers.
Season Five:
Season five is where we start to see more bones and less eyeballs. At this point, if there are eyes, they are just white, lifeless balls hanging on by a thread. We see more teeth and less limbs. These zombies do not resemble humans at all anymore, contrast to those in the first couple of seasons.
In the zombie above, we see the detail of the bones underneath the skin and whatever muscle is left on the body. It looks ghastly and the stench would most likely be unimaginably horrible. Even though the viewer cannot smell the zombie, it just looks stinky.
Season Six:
At this point in the show, season six is the last full season that viewers have been shown. Zombies are more skeletal at this point, almost mimicking a ghoul-like look, something that zombies in pop-culture have not experienced much yet. Even though these zombies are skin and bones, there is still an emphasis in skin. Without skin and some muscle, zombies would not be zombies, just lifeless bones. But, to be true to the nature of a decomposing, dead body, viewers are shown the disgusting reality of what zombies should look like after the passing of time.
While this fella might be more bone than skin or muscle, you can still see the vivid details in the skin that is still clinging to the bones. It is skeletal, but still moving because of the slight muscle there is. It is surprising that there is still that much hair on a zombie that is this decomposed, which is an interesting take on the old zombie.
Season 7: What Does It Hold For Us?
Season 7 has just started and released the second episode of the season. Viewers are all excited at the intense plot-line of the show, but what seems to be even more interesting is how Nicoreto and his team uses the zombies to make the viewers frightened, creeped, and grossed out, just like they have in every other season. At this point in a show, zombies should not have much to do with the plot-line, they seem to be scary for only a certain point in most pop-culture zombie movies and shows. But, as for The Walking Dead, viewers squirm at the thought of these grotesque, realistic zombies that seem to change realistically with time.
The scene where Rick is clinging onto a zombie that has been hung with a chain is the perfect example of the realistic decomposition taking place throughout the show. In this scene, the zombie is slowly decapitated as the remaining, rotted flesh of his neck is pulled from the rest of the body. Not only is this a huge gross-out factor, but it is only that if the special fx makeup done to the zombie is successful in the first place.
While the current plot-line of season seven is conflicting for most viewers, it can be agreed that there is a whole lot more to come for the progression of The Walking Dead’s walking dead.
