Editorials
We Need to Talk About the Pathology of the Zombie Virus on “The Walking Dead”
The thirteenth episode of the second season of “The Walking Dead” is a particularly noteworthy hour, as it was the one wherein Rick revealed to the group that it’s not actually a bite from a zombie, per se, that turns one into a zombie. “We’re all infected,” Rick told the group. “At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it.”
In other words, *anyone* who dies in the world of “The Walking Dead,” unless that death causes their brain to be destroyed, will return to life as a walker. We’ve seen this exact sort of scenario play out before, perhaps most notably with Shane; Shane was stabbed in the chest by Rick, and soon thereafter re-animated as a zombie.
But we’ve also seen bites turn humans into zombies, right? Well, not exactly. We have indeed seen several characters die after sustaining zombie bites, but it’s actually been the infection and/or loss of blood, brought on by those bites, that has ultimately killed them. So it’s not the bite that infects characters in this world with the “zombie virus,” so to speak. Rather, they’re all already infected with the airborne virus, doomed to the fate of returning to life as flesh-eaters whether they die from a bite or heart attack.
That’s all pretty easy to wrap your head around, but why then did a character like Carl have to die after being bitten by a zombie? The bite itself wasn’t severe enough to cause Carl to bleed out, but the infection that the bite caused did end up taking Carl’s life. With the right antibiotics, given what Carl’s own father told us about the pathology of the virus back in Season 2, couldn’t Carl’s life have been saved? If the infection that the bite caused had been cleared up with the proper medicine, couldn’t he have survived?
Knowing what the show has told us, and knowing what Rick himself most definitely knows, why did Rick not at least make an attempt to get the infection under control?
In the wake of this past Sunday night’s episode, I find myself even further confused about the pathology of the virus. Last night, we saw that Father Gabriel has been infected by what appears to be a lesser form of the zombie virus, presumably as a result of his recent exploits with the show’s patented “zombie cloaking device” technique; Gabriel and Negan covered themselves in walker guts to avoid detection, which seems to have passed some sort of infection into Gabriel’s bloodstream. Not, however, into Negan’s.
Gabriel has been slowly dying from the infection, and last night he was rendered almost completely blind cause of it. And yet, the infection isn’t going to actually kill Gabriel, it seems, as happenstance (or perhaps it was a divine act from God himself) led to him stumbling upon a couple bottles of antibiotics. It seems the antibiotics will get Gabriel’s infection under control, at least for the time being, thereby saving his life. So if antibiotics can save Gabriel from zombie-transmitted infection, why not Carl?
To add even more confusion to this whole thing, the episode ended with Negan devising a new plan of attack. Partially inspired by Gabriel’s health troubles, Negan realized that the blood of zombies can be used to intentionally infect his adversaries. The Saviors are going to coat their weapons in infected zombie blood, allowing them to administer “kisses of death” at their leisure. Presumably, this form of infection will play out similarly to Gabriel’s, rendering untreated victims sick, blind and, eventually, dead.
Negan told his group, “You all know how it works. You get a bite, some kind of wound from one of these things, something from them gets in you, and you die.”
But wait a second. Didn’t we learn in Season 2 that EVERYONE is *already* infected, the virus inside of them only triggering upon their death? If that’s the case in the world of “The Walking Dead,” then why is Gabriel even infected after playing around with zombie guts? Similarly, why would a stab from a zombie blood-covered knife do anything more to a human character than a stab from a knife *not* covered in zombie blood? Well, according to what the show has shown us in the recent past, it actually wouldn’t.
Not only have characters multiple times rubbed zombie blood and guts all over themselves, without getting infected, but you may remember an incident involving a machete and Rick’s hand back in Season 6. In that season’s third episode, titled “Thank You,” Rick cut his hand on a machete that was literally embedded inside of a zombie. The machete was no doubt covered in that zombie’s blood, which presumably got into the fresh wound on Rick’s hand. Alas, however, Rick never got infected.
So again we ask, how exactly does one get infected with the zombie virus on “The Walking Dead”? Is every remaining human on the planet, as revealed in Season 2, already infected, or does it require a bite and/or zombie blood entering one’s bloodstream in order for one to become infected? If the former is the case, Gabriel’s infection doesn’t make much sense, nor does Carl’s 100% unavoidable death or Negan’s new plan. These continuity issues date back much further, as you surely remember Hershel’s leg being cut off in order to stop the spread of the infection after he was bitten back in Season 3. You could argue that zombie DNA exacerbates the infection already inside everyone, but again we point to the incident involving a machete and Rick’s hand.
Are we missing something or are the rules ever-changing to fit current narratives?
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
You must be logged in to post a comment.