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Could “The Walking Dead” Lose its Carl Grimes?!
One of the many reasons that television shows come to an end is the increasing cost to keep the main cast together. This bodes well for a series like “The Walking Dead”, since it’s structure allows for the filmmakers to kill off anyone they want without any notice. Some tough decisions may be looming over the heads of AMC and the “Walking Dead” producers.
While Carl Grimes’ storyline continues to go strong in Robert Kirkman’s comic, the actor who portrays him on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” adaptation – Chandler Riggs – is about to hold the show’s success over their heads.
Here’s what we just learned, thanks to William Riggs, Chandler’s father (via a Facebook post that has since been removed):
“7 year contract completed! Grateful to AMC, Cast & Crew, TWD fan base, and especially Chandler for always being 100% dedicated. Whether is was getting up at 4 AM, working in the freezing cold past 2 AM, leaving his friends and carefree kiddom behind, scrambling to make up missed schoolwork, he has done it without complaint and always made me proud & amazed to be his dad!”
There are a few ways to take this news, with some outlets spinning it as the father’s goodbye to the cast and crew spoiling Carl’s ultimate demise at the end of the ongoing seventh season. I think that’s far from the truth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this season’s cliffhanger leaves fans wondering if Carl is dead…
You see, the father did only one thing here that’s clear to this writer: he leveraged his son’s position on the show, and got fans all heated as if they may lose their favorite underdog. You see, if he gets the fans screaming on social media, it gives William and Chandler huge leverage over AMC to sign a massive contract to continue on for the next several years. The off season pressure is going to be immense, and costly, and now that’s it’s out in the open there’s going to be a lot of panic. I love the chaos this simple Facebook post is going to cause, but it’s also a reminder of how difficult it is to keep a show on the air. What does this mean for the other actors, such as Andrew Lincoln? What happens when their contracts are up? Are their contracts up too? Will AMC have to make some tough decisions come the end of this season?
AMC has already announced an eighth season, and showrunner Scott Gimple is already talking movies, so they’re going to have to lock in their dream team for the next decade to avoid everything falling apart in the next few years.
This should be interesting…
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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