Editorials
“The Walking Dead” Just Killed These 10 Characters in One Harrowing, Horrifying Episode
Spoilers. Obviously.
Not since Negan bashed out Glenn’s eyeball has “The Walking Dead” been quite so harrowing as it was last night, as ‘The Calm Before’ went full “Red Wedding” and left us with our jaws open and our hearts shattered. We knew it was coming. But we definitely were not prepared. Season 9’s penultimate episode was titled ‘The Calm Before.’ Yeah. So much for that.
Setting the tone right off the bat, ‘The Calm Before’ kicked off with two lovebirds from Hilltop traveling to the Kingdom’s fair on their anniversary, armed with big smiles and bigger hopes. But that happy, bright future was cruelly shattered by Alpha and her Whisperers, who massacred the couple en route to Kingdom; to create her own disguise and slip into the fair undetected, the bald Alpha scalped the young woman and turned her hair into a flowing blonde wig. Mind you, even those who haven’t read the comics probably knew that the fair wasn’t going to be a very joyous experience, but the opening sequence of ‘The Calm Before’ ensured that a dark cloud was hanging over the fun proceedings before they even began.
There were some happy moments during the fair, at least, which included everything from a dunk tank to a movie. Reunions between Carol and Judith, as well as Connie and Kelly, were incredibly emotional, and it was nice to see some of the characters cut loose and have a good time for a change. The leaders of each community even managed to sign a bill into law that ensured their unity going forward: if someone wrongs one community, they’re wronging *all* communities. And, well, let’s just say that Alpha had no problem forcing that into effect.
Alpha snuck into the inter-community fair to take back Lydia, but she quickly realized that her daughter isn’t quite her daughter anymore. Lydia finally stood up to her mom and severed the ties that bind, sending Alpha on an emotional and devastating warpath. But Alpha’s goal wasn’t to kill the major players involved with taking her daughter from her. Not yet, at least. Wanting to cut even deeper, Alpha targeted their own friends, family and loved ones.
The episode was capped off with a definitive statement from Alpha and the Whisperers, in the form of TEN human heads on pikes. Members of Alexandria, Hilltop, Kingdom and even the leader of the Highwaymen were attacked and brutally beheaded by the Whisperers, their heads cut off – brains still in tact – and stuck onto individual pikes as the ultimate threat from Alpha. It was a brutal display of dominance that would make even Negan shake in his boots.
The lives lost in ‘The Calm Before’? Some big names were among the fallen:
Henry (Matt Lintz)
Enid (Katelyn Nacon)
Tara Chamblers (Alanna Masterson)
Ozzy (Angus Sampson)
Tammy Rose (Brett Butler)
Alek (Jason Kirkpatrick)
D.J. (Matt Mangum)
Frankie (Elyse Nicole DuFour)
Rodney (Joe Ando Hirsh) & Adeline (Kelley Mack)
The most gut-wrenching loss was Henry, the son of King Ezekiel and Queen Carol. Not just because Henry was so young, but also because we had to endure seeing his mom’s reaction to Alpha’s disturbing display. For Carol, who had finally found happiness with a loving husband and son, it was a devastating return to the dark days when her daughter Sophia had to be put down after turning into a zombie. No character on the show has been put through the wringer quite like Carol has, and for her, losing Henry was arguably more heartbreaking than if the events had played out like they did in the comics, where Ezekiel’s head ended up on a pike.
For us, as viewers, we had spent even more time with two other characters who didn’t make it out of ‘The Calm Before’ alive, with Tara having arrived in Season 4 and Enid coming onto the scene back in Season 5. We didn’t actually *see* any of these characters die, but seeing their heads up on pikes – and subsequently being told the story through Siddiq’s eyes, wherein he revealed how heroic they each were in their final moments – made for some of the most genuinely devastating losses in the show’s history. And with 10 characters being killed off in one shot, ‘The Calm Before’ simply had to be the single most gut-wrenching episode to date.
If this was ‘The Calm Before,’ we shudder to imagine what’s coming in next Sunday’s ‘The Storm.’ Needless to say, it promises to be one of the most must-watch finales of them all.
Season 9 isn’t messing around, you guys. We hope you’ve been watching.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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