Movies
TV: It’s a ‘Walking Dead’ Bonanza! Featuring, a Motion Comic, Contests and More!
Gearing up for the San Diego Comic-Con, AMC TV unloaded all sorts of goodies surrounding their live-action TV series of The Walking Dead, a new zombie epic beginning this October. The show is based on Robert Kirman’s comic, which has been animated into a special online comic now available inside! Also beyond the break, you’ll find a new behind-the-scenes image and interview with Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd, along with details on how YOU could transform into one of the undead and win a chance to be a walk-on zombie!
MOTION COMIC
“Since you’ve read every issue of Robert Kirkman’s epic zombie comic book series and you’re eagerly anticipating Frank Darabont’s upcoming adaptation, you may also be wondering what to do with your additional spare time? Why not witness the beginning of The Walking Dead in full-blown animation. See how it all begins when artist Tony Moore’s original artwork is brought to life by the animators at Juice Films and voice actor Phil LaMarr.”
INTERVIEW WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GALE ANNE HURD
AMC posted the following interview with Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd:
The producer of such genre hits as The Terminator and Aliens describes The Walking Dead’s blockbuster potential, its commonalities with Piranha, and what makes zombies only the second-most dangerous characters in the series.
Q: What attracted you to The Walking Dead?
A: I have been a longtime fan of the comic. I also love the zombie genre, my zombie fandom going way back to Night of the Living Dead. And The Walking Dead is truly the ultimate representation of that sensibility in the comic book genre.
Q: You began your career working for Roger Corman. Does The Walking Dead remind you of his horror movies in any way?
A: Roger produced classic genre films as well as straightforward exploitation movies. If you go back to his Edgar Allan Poe films, the unpredictability of human nature is at the core of both. From Roger’s New World Pictures films, especially those written by John Sayles, like Piranha, they share the complex character elements of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series as adapted and directed by Frank Darabont.
Q: Frank Darabont directed the pilot, but other directors are helming the following episodes. Have you found it difficult to balance their visions with Frank’s?
A: No it’s actually been ideal since Frank directed the pilot adjacent to the subsequent episodes. Typically a pilot is shot months in advance, and there’s an intervening period during which the cast might lose the cohesiveness they shared while filming the first episode. In out case, the cast worked with Frank for our 14-day pilot shoot and then immediately began work on the next five episodes. In addition, Frank has spent a great deal of time on set, and is always available to us. Frank’s writing is both evocative in setting the tone and feel of each scene and quite specific vis a vis character, so it’s pretty easy for our directors to stay on the same page.
Q: You’re known for producing blockbusters like Terminator and Aliens. How is The Walking Dead similar?
A: I think what our series shares in common with those films in particular is that the best genre films are character driven. And while they have an intriguing premise and terrific special effects, at the end of the day they’re rooted in complex characters and great stories. At the same time, neither compromises on production value: Every eight days we shoot a miniature version of a tentpole movie. What’s so wonderful about The Walking Dead is that we’re able to explore human nature in its most depraved as well as its most humanitarian in each episode. We strip each character down to their most basic survival instincts — or lack thereof. It’s actually the zombies who are the most predictable: You know what zombies are after. What you can’t anticipate is how one surviving human is going to interact with another. And that’s what keeps the series fresh and compelling.
Q: Robert Kirkman has said he hopes the show goes on for 27 seasons. Can you envision that?
A: Oh absolutely! He’s sitting next to me right now, and we’ve talked about how our ensemble cast members either transcend or fall victim to their baser human instincts, so there’s plenty of fodder for at least 27 seasons.
Q: You’re getting ready to head to Comic-Con. As a veteran there, what are you looking forward to?
A: We’re absolutely thrilled that AMC has agreed to let us screen exclusive footage from Frank’s pilot episode for our Comic-Con audience, for the very first time anywhere. Frank and I are fans ourselves, and we want fans of The Walking Dead to see sequences that can really sink their teeth into [Laughs]. I’m hoping there will be a great deal of zombie love.
Q: Now that we’ve gotten a good look at the walkers, tell me honestly: Do they creep you out?
A: I love them, are you kidding?! I’m a genre girl from way back — this is my idea of heaven. Yesterday we were all looking at zombie bite tests Greg [Nicotero] created that almost made the videographer throw up, and all I could do was say, “That’s awesome, I love it!” I think that anyone who’s a fan of the genre or a fan of Robert Kirkman’s work will not be disappointed when they see the series.
Q: Speaking of Greg, he got dressed as a walker for one of the episodes. Do you have any inclination to do the same?
A: Well, you know, [Laughs] maybe Season 2. You don’t want all of your dreams fulfilled in the first season. So I’m very much hoping that we’ll get an order for Season 2, and I’ll be first to send in my application to attend zombie school!
ENTER TO BE A ZOMBIE!
“Ever dreamed of being a zombie? Now’s your chance, with AMC’s The Walking Dead Sweepstakes. Visit the site and fill out the online form and you’ll be entered in a random drawing to win a four-day, three-night trip to the location of The Walking Dead’s Season 2 production, plus the opportunity to become one of the undead in a Season 2 episode of The Walking Dead. (Exact specifics of the walk-on role will be determined at the producer’s sole discretion.) The sweepstakes will run from Tue., Jul. 20, through Sun., Aug. 15. Entrants may enter the sweepstakes one time only throughout the entire sweepstakes period.”
COMIC-CON
“Want to get an early look at The Walking Dead? If you’re attending Comic-Con this year, you’ll have a chance since AMC’s The Walking Dead Comic-Con booth recreates a scene from the pilot episode.
At the booth, attendees can either watch zombie footage playing on nearby televisions or use touch-screen monitors to “zombify” themselves. Also at the booth, staff will be distributing free swag like postcards, buttons and other goodies. On Fri., Jul. 23 from 4PM to 4:45PM, The Walking Dead’s Executive Producer, Writer and Director Frank Darabont will be at the booth to sign posters.
Can’t make the Con? Don’t worry! AMCtv.com will be on site updating you with photos, videos, news and more — so much so, you’ll swear you were there.“
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
You must be logged in to post a comment.