Rick Grimes Found Evil Dead’s NECRONOMICON On His Last Episode Of The Walking Dead

What Comes After was directed by special effects artist Greg Nicotero, who is also an executive producer on the show and has directed 26 other episodes to date. Nicotero often likes to work in subtle homages to horror movies and TV shows, often in the design of zombies. Over the seasons, there have been zombies designed as tributes to Romero’s DEAD films, ROBOCOP, CREEPSHOW, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, the list goes on. While making What Comes After, Nicotero went even further with the homage, dropping in a location and a prop from the EVIL DEAD franchise.

The location was the cabin from THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD II (as well as episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead), and while being pursued by a herd of zombies as he was nursing a wound and fading in and out of consciousness, Rick sought shelter in the cabin. Not only did Nicotero have the Walking Dead crew recreate the exterior of the cabin, but he even included a shot of a deer head mounted on the wall while Rick was inside the cabin, and put the Necronomicon, the Deadite-summoning Book of the Dead, in another shot.