TV-MA, 2017
WISE Score
A bloody game of pass-the-parcel where the parcel is a deadly blade and the players are mostly zombies.
Red Machete is a well-crafted bit of fan service that follows the journey of Rick Grimes' favorite toy. It’s creative in its execution, but let’s be honest: it’s a highlight reel of stabbings and survivalist misery.
It’s not 'wellness' content by any stretch of the imagination. If you're an adult fan of the franchise, it's a neat five-minute snack. If you're a parent looking for something for the kids, keep this one locked in the tool shed.
This is strictly for the 17+ crowd. It's a supplement for a mature horror franchise, so unless your teen is already deep into the main series, there's no reason for them to be watching this.
It’s a story about a murder weapon in a world where everyone is either dying or trying not to. While it shows human connection, it’s mostly through the lens of survival and lethality.
Using an inanimate object as the protagonist to bridge different storylines is a smart, creative narrative choice that adds depth to the existing lore.
This is The Walking Dead. It features extreme gore, visceral violence, and the kind of horror that will give anyone under 16 nightmares for a month.
It offers some insight into cause and effect and the history of objects, but it’s primarily fan service and action-oriented entertainment.
Red Machete isn't a traditional show. It's a series of digital shorts that functions as a lore-expander. If you’ve ever watched a horror movie and wondered where the killer got such a specific, reliable weapon, this is the answer for The Walking Dead universe. It starts in a mundane hardware store at the very beginning of the outbreak and follows the weapon as it’s picked up, lost, and reclaimed by various survivors.
The storytelling here is actually quite clever. Because the "protagonist" is a piece of cold steel, the human characters are disposable. We see them at their most desperate or their most brutal, and then they're gone. It’s a cynical way to view a fictional world, but for fans who find the main series a bit too soap-opera at times, this is a refreshing, albeit grim, change of pace.
The 7.6 IMDB rating is a fair reflection of the quality, but don't let the short format fool you into thinking it's "TWD Lite." It is actually concentrated. In a standard episode of the main series, the gore is spaced out by dialogue and travel. Here, because the machete only changes hands when someone dies or fails, the violence is the primary engine of the plot.
It is essentially a supercut of the franchise’s most visceral elements. You get the squelch of the blade, the desperation of close-quarters combat, and the bleak reality that in this world, even a tool designed for brush-clearing becomes a symbol of survival and murder. If your teen is sensitive to body horror, the brevity of these episodes actually makes them more intense, not less. There is no downtime to recover.
If your kid has already binged their way through the main show, Red Machete is a harmless (if bloody) side-quest. It doesn't add vital plot points that they’ll miss if they skip it, but it rewards the kind of viewer who pays attention to the background details. It’s the ultimate "I see what they did there" moment for a superfan.
However, if they aren't already fans, this is a terrible place to start. Without the context of the larger world, it’s just a series of disconnected, depressing vignettes about people dying in the woods. It lacks the emotional core that makes the franchise work. Think of it as a bonus feature that escaped from a DVD menu. It’s a well-made curiosity for the initiated, but for everyone else, it’s just a very well-produced way to feel bad for a few minutes.
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