It starts out so innocently, like every advertisement for every online dating app and website ever. A pleasant-seeming, outwardly normal young woman named Kimmy (Kimmy Foskett) is matched up with a pleasant-seeming, outwardly normal young man named Chris (Chris Tabet), and soon they’re enjoying mimosas and small talk in a charming little restaurant one fine afternoon. A love story appears to be in the making. But then, Chris gets up to the bathroom, and Kimmy checks out his Facebook account on her phone. And everything turns to shit. Welcome to “The Stalking Dead,” a clever little short from CHIX Productions, the comedy duo behind last year’s body-conscious Game Of Thrones parody, “Shame Of Thrones.” This year, Foskett and her partner in comedy, Liza Renzulli, have set their parodic sights on AMC’s The Walking Dead, though fans should not expect flesh-eating or gun play. The violence here is strictly of the emotional kind.
For Foskett’s inquisitive character, that first innocuous Facebook peek turns out to be the beginning of her descent into utter madness. Soon, she’s Googling her online paramour and mainlining cheap red wine. From there, it’s the FBI’s sex offender registry and the Ashley Madison database. Icons flash by as the tense Walking Dead theme ramps up on the soundtrack: Snapchat, Instagram, Spotify. She strives to learn everything she can about this man, sacrificing her own humanity in the process and becoming, essentially, a zombie. Eventually, she just shows up uninvited in Chris’ neighborhood, leading to a confrontation that jolts her back into reality. Unfortunately, the strange encounter only starts Chris on his own downward spiral into Google-based insanity.