Exclusive interview: Director Michael E. Satrazemis talks The Walking Dead ‘Guardians’

While 908 was overt horror the whole way through, the terror in 912 is much more subdued. The music is dissonant. It’s a slow burn.

It was important to me to establish how the Whisperers operate. How they hide, how they live. When they’re out in the world you would never see them. You see the real walkers milling about but when you go behind that wall of trees you see that they can live there and there’s a whole community.

They’re big on establishing a community where if they disappeared or if it rains you would never have seen their existence and that’s how they could live this long, and into our story, without being notices. We had to hold true to them, having them walk in the shadows and when Alpha stops they mill about around her and she’s in the center like a queen bee.

There were a lot of rules that I talked with Angela Kang about to establish and hold true to, and it made it fun. I always love when we get to go behind the curtain with a group. And I was so excited, not being on the show full time anymore (Author’s note: Satrazemis is full time on Fear the Walking Dead now) to get 908, the mid-season finale, and this episode…it’s giving me chills. It’s so exciting to be able to tell this story and be wrapped up in Michonne’s story as it feels like everything’s slipping while this dark force is moving in. The way the Whisperers move , and how Alpha as a character was going to move was slow and in the shadows.

And having the chance to have Cassady as Lydia and Ryan Hurst and Samantha in this society was great. It’s an honor.