1. You bring back the actual infection angle of it. Seeing Walking Dead characters getting sprayed with infected blood while they stab zombies directly through the skull with folding knives just ruins it.

2. Bring back the fear of being held down and eaten alive by a swarm. For such a fucking terrible death, zombie media seems to really pussy out on characters dealing with having to live in fear of that fate constantly. People would be getting flashbacks at the dinner table watching people eat ribs or chicken.

3. The zombies need to look like people, not monsters. Focus on the eyes. Walking Dead zombies mostly have glazed over glassy monster eyes. You need to connect to them as a human to get the full effect of the uncanny valley effect.