The Top Ten Most Shocking Moments of “The Walking Dead” Season FIve

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AMC’s “The Walking Dead” steam rolls on as a pop culture phenomenon and has gained incredible momentum since season four. It’s almost as if the producers have rebooted the series, and it shows as season five has a different energy a new sense of urgency, and adheres much more to the comics than ever before. Sure it is still its own animal from the comics, but there are many recognizable elements and storylines in season five fans of the comics will recognize immediately. Season five is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD, and it’s a bang up season of a show that just gets better and better every year. To celebrate the release of season five, we give you the ten most shocking moments of “The Walking Dead” season five. Warning: There are massive spoilers to every episode discussed, so be cautious.

What were some of your favorite moments of season five?

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Orion (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Orion starts with a prophecy to which the film comes back a few times, a prophecy about a virgin mother giving birth to a child who will become a tree and about a traveler who will change the course of things. The movie starts with the traveler seemingly going from place to place aimlessly and the virgin mother giving birth only for the magician to plan her baby to her dismay. She wants to leave but has little hope for survival, until the traveler comes upon their door in need of shelter and food and the magician decides to take him in for the night, and then commences the long process of saving her and himself from the magician who, according to rumors, cannot be killed. All of this happens in a desolate wasteland after what looks to have been an apocalypse.

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Blade Squad (1998)

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1998 was a big year for FOX television. Despite handing audiences turkey after turkey (Nick Fury Agents of Shield, anyone?), you have to appreciate their relentless pursuit to deliver genre fare. “Blade Squad” is one of the many failed attempts to build a show out of a TV movie that works as a glorified pilot. As a kid I spent a lot of time in front of the television, and I caught “Blade Squad” one dull Friday night. Suffice it to say despite its interesting concept, “Blade Squad” is a missed opportunity and really dull execution. It’s also a really unique artifact of a decade obsessed with futuristic punk and neon colored dystopias.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

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It’s a good thing that “The Hunger Games” has so much interesting story and undertones about the power of the media and propaganda behind it. It skirts dangerously close to a movie that’s nothing but set up to the second half of the final film. It’s padded and filled with a lot of discussion that seemingly goes nowhere, but through its flaws, I appreciated where it brought the story of Katniss Everdeen. It doesn’t hurt that Jennifer Lawrence single handedly keeps the movie from diving in to the deep end with her powerful turn as the reluctant heroine. As I mentioned, “The Hunger Games” dealt with various stages of Katniss’s life as a celebrity. She built a revolution in the first movie, had to maintain her celebrity status in the second movie, and here she’s now a pawn for a rebellion.

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Insurgent (2015)

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We were so close to having a nearly good new movie series with the “Divergent” adaptation. While the first movie was admittedly mediocre with some entertaining aspects to it, “Insurgent” takes that big leap in to pure abysmal depths and never quite comes up for air. “Insurgent” begins on a high note and never quite recovers, transforming in to a mind bending journey through the consciousness that is dull, monotonous, and painfully tedious. I was bored senseless through “Insurgent,” which is a feat because almost anything starring Shailene Woodley grabs my attention.

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Excess Flesh (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Jill moved to Los Angeles to start her career and now lives with her friend Jennifer who she has known for a while. Jill is a bit of a shut in, not finding work, slowly falling into depression. Jennifer is a working model and a party girl who is obnoxious and mean to Jill. Jill keeps trying to get Jennifer to pay attention to her, to be her friend, but Jennifer has better things to do. Jill just wants her friend as she knew her, understanding and supportive. Jennifer is being anything but. As things escalate, Jennifer becomes flat out abusive, sleeps with the man Jill was interested in, and treats Jill like a lesser person in general. The more Jill does to be liked, the less Jennifer respects her. That is until Jill cracks, she breaks down mentally, and goes batshit insane. She chains Jennifer in her room and tortures her more sadistically as her insanity reaches new levels.

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Fantastic Four (2015)

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I’m not one of the people who were hoping for “Fantastic Four” to be a bad movie, but I’m not surprised it’s a bad movie. FOX has proven to be so embarrassed by Marvel’s original property, that I’m actually surprised “Fantastic Four” isn’t simply called “The Four.” It takes all opportunities to rework the source material, so who’s to say this wasn’t suggested at some point? When you fail to properly adapt source material (that I still say is impossible to adapt in to a good film), you can’t really be surprised when too many cooks feed us “Fantastic Four.” It goes without saying that “Fantastic Four” is a lousy movie. It’s a movie about four people whose worst enemies are themselves, and face off against a foe that looks like HR Giger’s version of OZ’s the Tin Man.

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