Army of the Dead doesn’t waste any time getting into the zombie action. There’s nothing intelligent about the outbreak, in fact, it’s pretty damn stupid and caused by the idiotic bumbling actions of a couple of clueless US troops delivering mysterious, top-secret cargo.
Before we know it, we are then introduced to a new kind of zombie, a mutated muscly and a very angry zombie who has a fetish for giving people deadly infectious blood hickeys.
I also loved the little Easter Egg to An American Werewolf in London
You’ll know what I am on about, it’s in the opening shots. When one of the u.s troops says ‘it’s hunting us’ what follows is basically a shot-for-shot reenactment of Jack and David’s werewolf attack. It’s obviously Snyder paying his respects to the horror classic. Well, I certainly hope so.
If you remember the opening credits for Dawn of the Dead, Snyder introduced us to the outbreak accompanied by Johnny Cash’s, ‘When the Man Comes Around’. For Army of the Dead, we get treated to the fantastic Richard Cheese (also in DOTD) covering Viva Las Vegas
During these opening credits we really find out Snyder means business – this is all-out zombie mayhem. There’s more action and gore in the opening credits than there is in most seasons of The Walking Dead. I also think that Snyder did a fantastic job with the trailer. Pretty much everything in the trailer happened before the opening credits even rolled. To say he saved us the good bits would be an understatement.
So, by now, I am sure you’re all aware of the plot: Scott Ward (Bautista) is offered an irresistible job: sneak into a zombie infected Vegas, steal a shit load of money and get out. Easy, right? Nope.
The zombies in Army of the Dead are the best I have ever seen on screen, and that’s saying something because I have pretty much seen them all. I am a life-long undevoted fan of all things zombie. The different stages of infection or decomposition are visible throughout the film. From when they just look like a fresh corpse to when parts of their bodies are falling off.
Now, what Snyder also does is he reinvents the genre. I am pretty sure this will divide some of the fans.
The only things that separate the smart zombies from the Shamblers (Romero zombies) are muscle and the ability to think, feel…and as weird as it sounds, love. They still decay, they’re not invincible. It took me a little minute to adapt to this new form of zombism but before I knew it I was all for it.
Years ago, Zack Snyder promised us that he would give us the craziest zombie film we could hope for.
Folks, he kept his promise. Army of the Dead is everything I hoped for and more. Some of the kills are just so good, so inventive and violent. There’s enough blood and gore in here to satisfy any gorehounds morbid cravings
Army of the Dead already has a prequel movie in the works. I doubt that is all we will get. This has the makings of a whole new terrifying and gruesome universe. I can’t wait for more. This will be a franchise I can get behind.
Army of the Dead is now available to stream on Netflix. As always, thanks for reading.
