The Walking Dead has always had its roots in the old zombie horror movies made by legends of the genre like George A. Romero. The zombies, or "walkers" as the show refers to them, are a slow yet relentless force of nature that has brought the world to its knees, and, throughout its 11-season run, this fact has undoubtedly influenced the show's atmosphere.
Specifically, the show's settings, while often bleak and desolate, often veer into this classic horror feel in order to create suspense or just simply scare the viewer by bringing the characters (and the viewer by extension) to overtly scary settings. Indeed, there are more than a few of these kinds of locations in The Walking Dead that can make one's spine shiver.
6 The Prison
The idea of being in prison is scary enough, but what if that prison also happened to be infested with the undead at the same time? The Walking Dead answers this question in its third season, in which Rick and the gang discover the infamous West Georgia Correctional Facility, more simply referred to as "The Prison" by the characters and fans.
Though the prison would eventually become a temporary home for Rick's group, upon initial discovery, it was absolutely flooded with zombies and needed to be cleared first. This task would take the group from the courtyard all the way into the belly of the prison itself, known as "the tombs," where they would find themselves navigating a dark labyrinth of concrete corridors, with the undead lurking behind every shadow.
5 Hershel's farm (Season 2 Finale)
While normally a peaceful and safe location, the arrival of a massive horde of walkers turned Hershel's farm into a straight-up nightmare for the main group. Several characters were swarmed and eaten alive by the endless stream of zombies erupting from the misty forests surrounding the farm. This horde had traveled all the way from Atlanta to the farm and was alerted by Rick killing Shane.
This event ended up being so traumatic for the survivors that it caused a massive shift in not only the group dynamic, but also its general disposition, with many becoming more hardened and grim as a result of losing so much so fast. They would be much more nomadic for a time until eventually discovering the prison.
4 The Hospital (Series Premiere)
The first episode of The Walking Dead is still arguably its best due to how well it sets up the world and tone of the show. The viewer is as ignorant of this new world, just as Rick is, and is forced to slowly come to terms with it one horror at a time as he feverishly stumbles through the empty, dilapidated corridors and pitch black stairwells of the hospital he'd been left unconscious in.
Some of the series' most iconic horror moments are witnessed in this particular location as well. The famous "don't open dead inside" (or, "don't dead open inside" for some) doors with the long and emaciated fingers of a zombie clawing through make their first (though not last) appearance in this hospital.
3 City of Atlanta
The commonly stated rule about zombie apocalypses is that the last place anyone would ever want to be is in a city. The Walking Dead certainly proves this to be worth following, as the city of Atlanta is shown to be overwhelmed with walkers. Imagine NY City, congested as it always is, but instead of people it's thousands if not millions of hungry, undead zombies.
Atlanta proves to be a real nightmare scenario where the characters are surrounded on all sides, trapped within the concrete maze of a city, trying to stave off the walker hordes, who, at times, are merely inches away from them.
2 Terminus
Terminus might look friendly and inviting from the outside, but this is soon revealed to be a lie. It is actually a trap designed to lure in survivors so that Gareth and his group can imprison and eventually eat the people that wander in looking for safety. Rick and the gang get caught up in this trap at the end of season 4, though they're eventually able to escape at the beginning of season 5.
The Terminus group has turned the train station they occupy into a kind of meat farm for humans. They line prisoners up like cattle and kill them one at a time by bashing their heads and slitting their throats. The bodies are then left out in the open to be prepared for consumption. It's all very grotesque, even for a show about zombies.
1 D.C. Metro Tunnels
Anyone who has played Fallout 3 should be familiar with the post apocalyptic ruins of the Washington D.C metro tunnels. Needless to say, it can be a scary place, and The Walking Dead showcased this exactly in the first two episodes of season 11, where the main characters are tasked with navigating the pitch black, zombie infested subway tunnels as a thunderstorm pummels the ground above.
The setting itself actually invokes Resident Evil vibes more than anything, on account of the dark and claustrophobic nature of the tunnels. The storm raging above causes all sorts of uninviting noises as the characters travel deeper and deeper into the unknown. As a setting, it's very effective at creating tension.