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[Breaking] “The Walking Dead” Lost Another Half Million Viewers
AMC’s “The Walking Dead” continues to free fall.
Showbizdaily has posted the cable ratings for this past Sunday’s episode of “The Walking Dead”, now in its seventh season, and it has dropped significantly.
A few days ago we wrote about the show’s steady decline, resulting in the worst ratings since Season 3. This season’s premiere pulled in a record 17 million viewers, only to see a massive 25% drop down to 12.46 million, and then 11.72, 11.40, and eventually 11 million. Today’s report claims that AMC’s zombie series has dropped yet another half million viewers, down to 10.4 million. Is it time to hit the panic button?
Yes, in the sense that there’s a steady decline that’s becoming a trend. We are talking about five straight weeks with a substantial drop off, negative press swarming the show, and angry fans that hit peak frustration when the producers decided to opt for a cliffhanger at the end of Season 6.
With that said, 10 million or 17 million, that’s an insane amount of viewers; even with another slide in ratings the show could survive for another few seasons.
But this is still alarming because of the rate of decline. We’re talking about a half million people per week, which could have “The Walking Down” to its worst ratings since Season 2 by the mid-season finale on December 11th.
[Related] “The Walking Dead” Must Combat Declining Ratings By Breaking the Obvious Pattern
And here’s the biggest question mark: AMC already has the next two episodes in the can, meaning that there’s nothing they can do to try and salvage the damage that’s been done. What decisions have been made this time around leading into the mid-season finale? What if – and hear me out here – the showrunner, producers and writers wanted to rub the angry fans’ faces in the cliffhanger and do it again? Would they be so bold as to think they were immune to those bullets when filming commenced earlier this year?
No matter, AMC has got to be panicking at this point. There’s two episodes left and if they lose another million viewers before the break, will they be able to get them back by the time the show returns in 2017? There are many thoughts as to why “The Walking Dead” is floundering – Squires shares his opinions in this piece – but none of them matter if AMC can’t figure it out before it’s too late.
Bloody Disgusting readers, do you still watch “The Walking Dead”? What are your thoughts? Is there something you adamantly hate about the show? Or do you still love it to death? What do you guys think is going on?!
Let’s all cry together…
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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