AMC's The Walking Dead

I'm not much of a horror fan. I've never minded a good scare but most movies that fall into this genre are nothing more than gore fests where blood and guts seem to be the main attraction. It takes a scary movie with a story and a good hook to get me into it. Movies are supposed to be stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is something that most horror films lack; the story that is. Or they become huge franchises like Saw, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, to name a few. Their allure for me is limited.

Conversely, the zombie movie genre is one that has always hooked me. George A. Romero's work with his classic films Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, etc is legend in the entertainment world. Something about zombies holds an irresistible sway for most people. What that sway is is debatable. Maybe it's the horror of what man can become under the wrong circumstances. Maybe it's the whole "end of the world" scenario; the one where most all of us think we'd be the ones to survive. Or maybe it's just a macabre fascination with life after death that mankind has always had and been fascinated by. Whatever, this is a genre of the horror category that always seems to score big with audiences.

Which is probably why AMC's new original series The Walking Dead is gobbling up viewers by the millions. This story of a policeman from a small Georgia town, almost mortally wounded, who goes into a coma in the hospital and wakes up a couple weeks later to find that the world has become infested with walking corpses intent on dining on warm flesh, is really attracting huge audiences. Starring British actor Andrew Lincoln, whose southern accent is quite convincing indeed, the show just keeps topping itself with each successive episode and has now been optioned for a second season by the network. It's that popular.

In the trailer from You Tube, one can see the attraction this series is exerting over its viewers. Not for the weak of heart - or stomach - this show has quickly become a favorite of mine by simply showing a human side to the horror and giving us heroes to get interested in while the zombies keep us fascinated. Whether or not this is your cup of tea, I dare you not to feel compelled to watch just a little.