WALK LIKE THE DEAD

Oh horror of horrors, THE WALKING DEAD has come to it's season finale! I am lost! Every week, I was there amongst them. Now I feel like an ambling zombie on the hunt for a meal.

I'm surprised the walkers didn't besiege that farm long ago. One good-sized herd, well it finally arrived. Actually it was more like an army! They should have smelled those things coming. Because they all look like they really stink!

Not long ago, I saw DEAD GIRL on Chiller. Guess it's true what they say about teenage boys. They'll have sex with anything! Ewww, didn't any of them notice she smelled dead.

Wouldn't all that decaying flesh eventually rot away? But I suppose strolling skeletons no longer have the shock value they once did.

My introduction to walking corpses came way back in 1971. I saw the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD on the big screen. It was the 2nd of a double feature. The 1st was THE TRAVELING EXECUTIONER. But it was the zombie flick I really came to see. I'd read a newspaper review declaring it ghastly and sickening. I knew immediately it was my kind of picture!

I was 20 yrs old. My companion for the evening was my father's new mistress. The woman destined to become my stepmother 18 yrs later. I had only met her months earlier. We were still friendly. -- That was short-lived!

Dad was at a Florist convention that evening. She was stuck with me. But I got to choose the movie.

The original DEAD was released in black & white which made it scarier. It was the 1st horror flick that made me squirm in my seat since I was a child. "Avis" my future stepmother watched it with her eyes closed. It was truly frightening! We both left the theatre shaking.

We returned to her house. Which just so happened to border a cemetery. A high, latticed concrete wall stood at the end of her back yard. You could actually peek through the lattice and see tombstones on the other side. I teased her about the climbing dead.

As Dad and I drove home to Stuart, the hour seemed especially long. Every hitchhiker looked like a zombie to me. I was too unnerved for sleep that night! For a month, I had trepidation entering a dark room. -- No movie had ever affected me this way before!

My father was amused. He thought all horror movies were just a lot of silly ballyhoo and no real scares. Several years later, it showed up on TV in color. I forced my father to watch it. -- And he agreed, it was indeed scary! He enjoyed it, too.

But I was hooked. I had to see every zombie movie ever made. But often I was forced to wait until they hit network TV.

After my father's death, there seemed to be a plethora of zombie films to come out of Hollywood. I had freedom now, and wheels, too. I was practically living at the movies on weekends.

When the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD came to Vero, I was there despite a severe migraine. As I sat in the darkened theatre, my head throbbed in such dire agony, I debated whether or not to go home. But once the film started to roll there was no way I was leaving. I became so engrossed, I actually forgot about my pain. -- I was too terrified!

After the matinee, I collapsed into bed upon returning home. Where I stayed for 3 miserable days of migraine torture. My house stood dark with shades drawn. Scary shadows everywhere!

About 2 yrs ago, I awoke at 2:30 A.M.. Unable to sleep, I walked downstairs to watch the big TV. Browsing the TV library, I found DEAD SNOW. I knew it was a zombie flick. Also a Norwegian film. I figured reading subtitles would make me sleepy. -- Actually reading subtitles makes you more alert. Also zombies get your heart pumping to the point you feel it's going to jump out your chest and clear across the floor!

Which is the reason I always record THE WALKING DEAD. It's not a show to watch right before bedtime. Otherwise the following day, I'll be doing the zombie shuffle.