Walking Dead: In the Dead Water

"In the Dead Water" is a documentary relating to season two of the AMC survival horror television series The Walking Dead. The documentary can be found on disc four of the The Walking Dead: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray collection. The feature focuses on a quintessential scene from episode 2x04, "Cherokee Rose", wherein the group must try to haul a bloated well walker up from a cistern.

Notable production crew members who appear in this featurette include episode director Billy Gierhart, producer Denise Huth, Gregory Nicotero - head of the makeup effects team, David Boyd - the director of photography, production designer Greg Melton, art director Doug Fick, special effects artist Andy Schoneberg, actors Jeffrey DeMunn, Lauren Cohan, Laurie Holden and Steven Yeun as well as lead mold designer Brian Keith Hillard who has the unfortunate task of being fitted in a large walker body-suit on what sound mixer Bartek Swiatek describes as, "...the hottest day of of the year".

The well used in the scene is actually on six-foot deep as per the on-location shoot. The scenes where Glenn Rhee must descend into the well were actually shot on an elaborate twenty-two foot deep scaffold in-studio.

Greg Nicotero designed the body-suit that Brian Keith Hillard wore in the scene. He mentions how the abdomen was filled with water balloons to help give the character the bloated effect, and that he used bladders for the bulging eyes for right before the walker is torn apart. Green and brown fluid were mixed with the intestines and the prop rig (sans actor) was set to a timer to tear in half.