The Walking Dead: Who were those feral cannibals?
By Renee Hansen
The Walking Dead gave viewers quite the horror film in its most recent episode “On the Inside.” We saw Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Virgil (Kevin Carroll) battle some gruesome beings in a haunted house. This was Connie’s return episode, and the creators didn’t waste time bringing her right back into the thick of things.
The duo seeks shelter in what they think will be a safe location from whatever is chasing them. Little do they know they are actually being herded to this house by cannibals.
Angela Kang shared some insight on Episode Insider that they always planned to bring Ridloff back with a big re-entry. They wanted to do an old-fashioned haunted house horror story, and this was the perfect opportunity. The idea was to show how people become too far gone and where people in desperate situations can end up. Kang talked about the photos on the walls with the eyes scratched out and that they were most likely relatives of the ferals. Plus, they thought it was a creepy addition.
The Walking Dead feral cannibals
In “On the Inside,” the group living in the house, or rather the walls of the house, that Connie and Virgil are herded to crawl on all fours, barely wear clothing; they are filthy and unkempt. Add to that; they are cannibals. How would someone come to this point?
Perhaps they were a group of children whose parents were killed and were left to their own devices, which was the only way they could survive. They never talked; they only grunted. This is a group that was never taught to properly walk or communicate with one another. They knew how to hunt their prey and lure them to the house to capture and eat them. Their fighting skills were like wild animals.
The scratched-out eyes on the photos have been used in horror before. Most of the time, when someone doesn’t want their ancestors to see what they are up to. Many elements gave nods to other horror films.
In a Q&A with AMC, director, EP and SFX guru Greg Nicotero sighted Drag Me to Hello, Evil Dead II, People Under the Stairs, all movies he has worked on, as inspiration for this episode. He also mentioned an Audrey Hepburn film Wait Until Dark, where she played a blind woman whose home was broken into and the helplessness of not knowing what was going on. That, and of course, the Night of Living Dead farm house scene with all the zombies surrounding the home.
It was a fantastic sight to behold. The team who worked on this episode did an amazing job.
dark. Next. The Walking Dead On the Inside – one of the best episode of the series
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 3 with “Promises Broken.” This episode is available now to stream on AMC+.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond returns to AMC with its season two premiere on October 3. This episode is available now to stream on AMC+.
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