AMC's 'The Walking Dead' resurrects zombies in time for Halloween night Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/10/31/2010-10-31_

In the 100-degree-plus heat of a deserted stretch of downtown during the filming of the pilot for AMC's "The Walking Dead," director and executive producer was getting blank stares from his zombies.

"You can imagine what it's like for them, standing around in the heat and humidity in makeup," Darabont, who directed "" and "The Green Mile," tells The News.

"The tricky thing always with our zombies is to get them to understand how fast they can move," says Darabont. "I don't want my zombies to run any faster than the first zombie we see in the cemetery in ',' because that's [genre pioneer George] Romero."

British actor Andrew Lincoln, who plays their potential victim, didn't need much help getting into character when he spied the 180 extras charging toward him. To him, the zombies were moving fast enough.

"Everything you see [from me on screen] is exactly what I was feeling," says Lincoln.

Stock up on the canned peaches and board up the windows. The zombie apocalypse is upon us, starting at 10 o'clock tonight. That's when the first of six episodes of "The Walking Dead" — based on the award-winning comic-book series by writer and artists and — airs on the cable network.

The people behind "The Walking Dead" are aspiring to wrest the horror genre from series like "" and "," whose monsters are possibly too gorgeous to be scary. "There's no tension of which zombie am I going to make love to," says Kirkman, who doubles as a producer on the show.

Darabont says what attracted him and fellow producer to the story wasn't just the zombies — although he's been dying to work with them since he first saw "Night of the Living Dead" in the early '70s. The people who populated the comic books were also a big draw.

"The Walking Dead" follows (Lincoln), who wakes up from a coma in a hospital bed after being shot in the line of duty only to find his small town littered with corpses — some of which are moving.

Grimes journeys to find his wife, Lori (), and young son, Carl (Chandler Riggs). Believing him dead, they have fled with a group of survivors led by Rick's old partner and best friend, Shane (

Shane, however, has grown cozy with Lori while trying to fill Rick's boots — and may not be thrilled about the prospect of a reunion. Darabont favorites and , along with newcomer round out the cast.