Who knew that MTV would start to go for the horror audience again? They haven’t courted us since Fear went off the air, and that was decidedly a low-budget affair. Teen Wolf is a love or hate affair for many good reasons. It’s more in the Twilight vein than even the Teen Wolf film vein. Death Valley, however, is the kind of horror/comedy show a genre fan can get behind.

A strange San Fernando Valley Police subdivision has emerged recently. This is in response to the unexpected arrival of zombies, werewolves, and vampires exactly a year ago to the date of the first episode. Zombies are to be killed on sight, werewolves are to be rounded up like DUI and public nuisance offenders, and vampires are to be treated with caution because they run an underground crime ring. The officers are followed by camera guys–Cops-style–and we get a front row view of the efforts to capture, contain, and kill the zom/were/vamp threat. Think of it as Reno 911 in its darkest moments crossed with Shaun of the Dead and 70s B-Movies.

Since I had such a great time with the debut episode, I thought it would be fun to do a photo recap/review of the first episode. I’ll stick with it so long as the show doesn’t so degrade in quality as to make watching it a chore. Remember, I did make it to episode 5 of the last season of America’s Best Dance Crew before I couldn’t take it anymore. That was three weeks after I really lost interest in the program.

Do I need to warn you there are spoilers after the jump? And images of zombies, werewolves, vampires, and blood? Good. Click away.

The premiere episode of Death Valley opened cold with two of the officers, Officer Joe Stubeck and Officer Billy Pierce, chasing down a mysterious woman through the streets and shops of LA. The woman turns out to be a violent fresh zombie.

Cut to the precinct. All of the officers are having a meeting about the one year anniversary of the arrival of the zom/were/vamps. Captain Frank Dashell has sworn not to rest until–

That must be our surrogate for the first episode, Rodney. Rodney is the sound guy on the film crew following this LAPD subdivision for the night. He just views this as another job, even offering sound tips to the officers. No one cares.

What were you saying, Dashell?

Yes. Destroy the night-walking/perpetually shuffling scum. We’re in agreement. Go team zom/were/vamp killers!

Paired up tonight are Officers Carla Rinaldi and John “John-John” Johnson and Officers Stubeck and Pierce. Stubeck and Pierce are doing a vampire prostitution sting, while Rinaldi and Johnson are investigating a zombie sighting in a bakery.

Stubeck and Pierce bust in on known vampire prostitute Sophia at the local motel. Sophia is not having it. Why do you have to pick on the working girls?

What do you mean you were draining his blood out before anything else? Shoot it. Shoot it in its lying face. Why are you waiting? Bag and tag her. Get on with it. Too late.

Oh look, her pimp was hiding in the back room. Who could have imagined that? Thanks to some quick thinking from Pierce and the presence of the sound guy, the vampire pimp is killed with a snapped off boom mic to the chest. Sophia is hauled off to the precinct for booking and we all live happily ever after.

Meanwhile, back at the precinct, Captain Deshell has become quite enamored with the new recruit, Officer Kirsten Landry. He’s so smitten with her that he leaves her on desk duty for the busiest zom/were/vamp hunting night of the year and acts like she’s incapable of doing anything else. I wouldn’t trust a commanding officer who didn’t know you could kill a zombie with a golf club.

Officer Stubeck walks in with Sophia just in time to stop Captain Deshell from embarrassing himself any further. Can we talk about these vampire eyes real quick? I’m loving the blood red glow. You can almost read its innermost thoughts.

And like that, Officer Pierce has been abducted by the vampire mafia for killing the wrong vampire. The only way to get him back is for Officer Stubeck to show up in the middle of the woods, unarmed, with the body of Sophia’s pimp. Despite his protests, Stubeck is stuck driving in an unmarked car straight into vampire territory by himself. And by “by himself,” I mean with a film crew in tow.

Oh yeah. Officer Landry kills a zombie with a flower pot to the head but no one cares. She’s just a rookie.

Meanwhile, it’s time to take care of a 1-11 at the donut shop. 1-11 is the code for a slow lumbering zombie. Death Valley is going with a mix of old Romero and remake Romero logic. Fresh zombies can still run, jump, and climb, while old zombies can only lumber along very slowly. Officers Rinaldi and Johnson show up to find a weathered zombie gnawing on a human hand, oblivious to the world around him.

Really great zombie make-up so far, wouldn’t you agree? That 1-11 is creepy looking.

The sound guy is ambushed by another zombie hiding in the back room. Officer Rinaldi insists that Officer Johnson check out the backroom by himself. Why? Because he only wanted to eat donuts, not do his job as a police officer on this stop. He doesn’t find anything other than a can of food coloring dripping on the floor.

Over in the woods, Officer Stubeck shows up to meet the vampire mafia. He is greeted by the kingpin and patted down for weapons and other contraband per their agreement. The kingpin will not even let Officer Stubeck see that Officer Pierce is alive until the vampire pimp’s body is delivered. Stubeck forces the vampire mafiosi to drag the body out of the car. The kingpin forces Stubeck to his knees, hands above his head. Last rites are performed on the pimp’s body.

Beautiful shot.

The kingpin then decides to start fighting dirty. Officer Pierce is brought out, hobbling from the punishment they inflicted upon him for the murder. A knife is pulled out against Officer Stubeck as the Kingpin begins to grunt out instructions in Spanish. Stubeck reaches inside the pimp’s body to pull out a gun he hid in case this happened. He starts firing away. He turns on the headlights with the car’s remote keypad–burning the vampires and sending them into the woods–and gets Pierce into the backseat. It’s a thrilling sequence that still manages to fit the tone of the rest of the show.

At the donut shop, it turns out the Officer Johnson was wrong. The backroom isn’t empty at all. It’s loaded with much faster zombies than the initial 1-11.

Officers Rinaldo and Johnson fight them off with everything they can get their hands on. Johnson uses a gun and a baseball bat, while Rinaldo fights for her gun and eventually settles with a fire extinguisher. It’s everything a good zombie fight scene should be.

I believe our surrogate for the episode, Rodney the sound guy, wants to share some insight.

It’s all fun and games until you almost die.

Correction: it’s all fun and games until the police have to put you down because you were bitten by a zombie in a donut shop. Sorry to lose you, Rodney.

The episode ends with a short sight gag about a routine werewolf stop. Officer Stubeck finds a man driving while transforming and pulls him over. They begin to do standard DUI-like tests when the werewolf runs away. Stubeck lets him go, saying that werewolves are allowed to leave if they can run that fast.

For a first episode, Death Valley sets some very high standards. The cast is solid and the make-up effects are terrific. The comedy can be a little hit or miss but the action is strong. If the show can keep up this momentum, it could be a great live action horror/comedy series.

What did you think? Sound off below.