Living in the same universe as The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in Los Angeles, a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counsellor Madison Clark and English teacher Travis Manawa have managed to assemble.

The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and the dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.

Why we’re looking forward to this: If you’re already a fan of The Walking Dead then you may have even seen the first six episode season of Fear The Walking Dead already, but for those who haven’t or are unfamiliar with Robert Kirkman’s ridiculously successful creation, Fear aims to fill in the gaps between the start of the zombie, sorry, walker outbreak that The Walking Dead fans are half a decade into already (on the television, and well over a decade in the comics) and the original series’ main man Rick Grimes waking up from his coma thirty (not twenty eight) days later.

Having seen it already here at This Is Horror, we can highly recommend the two disc release that’s coming out in a couple of weeks because while Fear doesn’t quite hit the same stride or heights as its parent, which to be fair was a little underwhelming in its own second season, it is different enough and strong enough to stand on its own two shambling feet, particularly in the latter half of the season.

Fear The Walking Dead is released on Blu-ray and DVD at the beginning of December.

RICHARD COSGROVE