Movies
New Insane ‘Walking Dead’ Zombie Image, Interview
In a new interview with David Boyd, cinematographer for “Friday Night Lights” and “Firefly”, he explains to AMC how you make daylight terrifying, while also comparing The Walking Dead with Westerns and describing how Walkers are more dangerous than Reavers. In addition, inside you’ll find a fleshy new zombie photo that’s just as gruesome as some of the previous looks. AMC has slated the Frank Darabont pilot to air this coming October.
Q: How did you get involved with The Walking Dead?
A: Gosh, I don’t even know. I’ve never worked with Frank Darabont before; I think they just looked at a bunch of reels and resumes and called me up. That was it.
Q: Had you ever had a desire to shoot a zombie series?
A: No, but you know I came up through the camera department in horror movies — I crewed on Re-Animator, From Beyond, all those Empire Pictures movies. So I’m used to things like that.
Q: Horror movies usually take place at night. This series takes place mostly during the day. What are the challenges to that?
A: I think the challenges are to just get the idea that there’s something to be afraid of around every corner. Because it’s daylight you’re not normally scared — we’re scared at night. But the levels of this are brilliantly laid out by Frank: The rooftop is a little safer than street level, street level is really terrifying, and below street level gets safer. So the scary places start to be the safe places, and the safe places start to be the scary places.
Q: What kind of visual tricks do you use to enhance this feeling of danger?
A: Just to play it as normal as possible, and prey on the fact that everyone knows that it’s scary [Laughs]. We do tricks like we make it a little cooler — like the warmth has disappeared from the world. And we use film so that the blues come out a little stronger, but I’m trying hard to keep it purely on a psychological level. Also, it’s normal policy to make a camera perfectly level with the horizon, but not here. We don’t do the obvious tilt left or right, but all things are a little bit off. My aim is to make it off-kilter enough to where there’s just something subconsciously wrong with every image — it starts to become a world where nothing’s right.
Q: You’re responsible for the show’s lighting and color, but your source material is a black and white comic. What inspiration can you draw from it?
A: Oh all kinds. Everything comes from the comic book. And then Frank’s taken it to its own place where it needs to be for us. Photographically all I’ve done is take most of the color out — I’ve desaturated things and I’ll bleed the color out. It’s still a color image, it’s still acceptable for television (because you can’t put a black and white show on television any more) —
Q: You’d like to try, I take it?
A: I would love to try. I think we should just do it! Any convention out there I think we should put our foot through it. That said, we have to do it with color, so we’ll just take the color out a bit, and bring it back within the realm of what was originally intended by Kirkman.
Q: Is that a situation where the decision to shoot on 16mm film is useful?
A: 16mm is the perfect choice. Regardless if we did it in HD or 35mm film, we’d add grain in the end to make it have this look. It calls up the language of what we’re used to seeing in a horror film. George Romero’s stuff was all grainy. It’s like looking at a documentary, and you instantly get into the 16mm documentary world. And if you take those same cameras and put them into The Walking Dead, it begins to be a believable, real experience. We were looking at a day exterior the other day, and it actually becomes scary — the moment when you realize it’s possible to do something this frightful in broad daylight.
Q: You’re used to shooting Westerns, having shot a few episodes of Deadwood and all of Firefly. Do you see any Western themes in The Walking Dead?
A: [Laughs] Yeah, I think that’s encapsulated in Rick Grimes, right? I actually find myself thinking about Firefly from time to time on set. In both we made the choice not to embellish an image — in my lexicon it would be not adding backlight, which is a product of working on a soundstage. In a practical location like where we are, we choose not to make it pretty, and to instead have it be a bunch of people on the edge of life.
Q: Speaking of Firefly, which is scarier: Reavers or Walkers?
A: You know those Reavers were awful scary, but these Walkers don’t have a purpose other than to eat things. So they’re slower, but they’re more inexorable. They’re just not going to stop, no matter what, so I’d go for the Walkers. The Walkers occupy my thoughts at night a lot more than the Reavers. The Reavers I could kind of laugh off. [Laughs]
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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