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“The Walking Dead” Just Took Horror to an Uncomfortable New Level

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We thought we were prepared. We were not prepared.

While the horror movies that air during AMC’s annual FearFest may be trimmed of gore, curse words, and well, all the good bits, the network sure doesn’t give the same treatment to their biggest original series. I’m of course talking about “The Walking Dead, which kicked off Season 7 last night with an episode that I’m not sure we’ll ever stop talking about.

If you haven’t seen it, please exit this post RIGHT NOW.

Oh who am I kidding… I’m sure some idiot already spoiled it for you.

The hotly-anticipated Season 7 premiere, appropriately titled “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be,” finally answered the question of who Negan killed at the end of Season 6: it was Abraham. Oh and it was Glenn too. And he almost made Rick cut off Carl’s arm. One of the most disturbing hours in the history of television left us with two of the most beloved characters lying in literal pools of their own blood and gore, and it also ended with Rick a completely broken man and Negan completely in charge of the whole group. The show, as we knew it to this point, will truly never be the same again.

But did “The Walking Dead” go too far last night? Was it just a little too much?

I’ve been watching disturbing entertainment my entire life. But you know what? The Season 7 premiere of “The Walking Dead” was the most grueling, upsetting thing I have honestly ever witnessed. Sure, I’ve watched plenty of movies and television shows wherein characters I fell in love with met brutal, awful demises – many of those upsetting deaths came courtesy of, go figure, “The Walking Dead” – but I don’t recall ever feeling the way I felt last night, glued to the couch and forced to endure a seemingly endless barrage of cruelty. I found myself questioning why I even enjoy watching violent entertainment, and what I felt more than anything, maybe for the first time in my life, can best be described as true horror.

The horror genre is often fun, especially when it’s at its most violent. There are few things I love more than gruesome practical effects, and when characters are torn apart by zombies or sliced in half with machetes, I often find myself cheering and reveling in the gore. We all do. And that’s okay. It’s all fake. It’s all fun. But last night was different. I wasn’t impressed by the sight of Abraham’s splattered head on the ground, and I damn sure wasn’t admiring the effects work that went into literally popping Glenn’s eyeball out of its socket. Instead, I was in tears. I was shaken. I was thoroughly and unmistakably horrified.

Not only were the brutal deaths incredibly realistic and way more grounded than some of the over the top violence we’re used to on “The Walking Dead,” but the episode dragged both of them out to a downright nauseating extent. Negan must’ve bashed Abraham’s head in with at least ten blows from his trusty baseball bat, but it was Glenn’s murder that was particularly hard to stomach. After one blow to the head dislodged his eyeball, Glenn was left to suffer for an excruciating amount of time, only able to utter a single line before being finished off: “I’ll find you,” he told pregnant wife Maggie, barely able to get the words out.

And that was just the beginning.

After several more blows, we saw Glenn’s head literally explode like a watermelon, his arm flop around on the ground afterwards, and then to top it all off, the camera lingered on a shred of his scalp that was stuck to the barbed wire of Negan’s baseball bat. Talk about pulling no punches.

In horror movies and television shows, especially “The Walking Dead,” characters die. That’s a foregone conclusion. We’ve seen countless characters die on the show, and it’s always upsetting. But the sheer brutality of Glenn’s murder, a character we’ve spent the last six years with, was quite unlike anything I have ever experienced before. There was no catharsis. There was no closure. We watched a man who was about to have a child with his wife get beaten to a pulp by another man. We saw every second of it. It looked the way it probably would in real life. And it was truly awful. It was revolting. It was disturbing.

Did “The Walking Dead” go too far last night? Unquestionably. But that’s what was so brilliant about the episode. Because horror entertainment isn’t supposed to be safe. It isn’t supposed to be comfortable. And it isn’t supposed to make you feel good. If “The Walking Dead” ruined your night last night, and if you’re angry at the show for crossing a line, I assure you that’s only because the creative team did their job and they did it really damn well. They wanted to ruin your night. They wanted you to be angry. More importantly, they needed to shake you to your very core.

“The Walking Dead” just became the most horrifying horror show in the history of TV.

And for the first time, I’m scared to watch next week.

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Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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