‘Army of the Dead’ changes the game for zombies, say zombie experts

Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we’re obsessed with this week. 

Army of the Dead poses way more questions than it can answer. That’s annoyed some.

But for members of the Zombie Research Society, a network of thousands of academics and pop culture buffs who diligently research the living dead, poking at plot holes and fleshing out fan theories is an ideal method for testing their zombie expertise.

“This is the fun part of ZRS,” the group’s editor in chief Luke Boyd tells me over Zoom. 

“We see films where the origin of the zombie outbreak is just kind of a hand-wave. Some director or writer basically saying to audiences, ‘There. You have zombies. Just go have fun with it.’ But we like to get together and ask, ‘OK, sure. But how could that really happen?’ Army of the Dead suggested the outbreak came from space, but how could it come from space? Is it bacterial spores? Leftover, feces from astronauts? What is it?” 

“Is it bacterial spores? Leftover feces from astronauts? What is it?”

Boyd has a background in film, an archival knowledge of zombie cinema, and plenty of theories about Army of the Dead. The experience of his colleagues, however, span fields far outside entertainment. Neuroscientists, policy makers, psychiatrists, authors: ZRS recruits all kinds.

Also on our call is Dr. Cameron Carlson, an epidemiologist, doctor of public health, and active duty Navy officer. He joined ZRS as a survival expert, but has since come to represent the organization in broader discussions of zombie media. 

“The reason zombies have stuck around so long in pop culture is that unlike vampires and werewolves, where it’s a set origin story, zombies you can do anything with,” Carlson says. 

Genre-bending films like Zack Snyder’s apocalypse-heist hybrid, Carlson explains, are happening in the zombie subgenre constantly, and the accompanying plot developments are increasingly strange. “We’ll probably talk about it later, but like: zombie fetus baby. That was crazy, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to get a straightforward zombie horror film ever again,” adds Boyd. “Not a big-budget one that’s in theaters, anyway. That time has really passed.”

These zombie experts enjoyed Army of the Dead (“Who doesn’t love Dave Bautista?” Carlson offers to audible assent from Boyd and myself), but there’s plenty about the film ZRS members are still mulling over. After all, as one of the group’s foundational principles contends: “The zombie pandemic is inevitable, and survival of the human race is crucial. It’s simply a matter of when; so be prepared.” 

Films, ZRS argues, make for good apocalypse practice. So even if Army of the Dead isn’t realistic or probable — even by zombie standards — thinking it through is a valuable learning opportunity.

So to fully digest (yuck) what happened in Netflix’s zombie hit, I asked Boyd and Carlson to weigh-in on a few standout moments from the film. To be frank, I ended our call feeling wholly unready for any undead doomsday. But I am more informed about the ever-evolving monster breed ZRS says we’ll inevitably face in real life…or, at the very least, keep seeing on screen for years to come.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What were your reactions to the zombie breeds introduced in Army of the Dead? The “Alphas” and the “Shamblers”?

LB: You know, I don’t think they did anything different really in terms of basic ability. 

From the trailer you think, “Oh my goodness, they’re organized! Oh my goodness, these are smart zombies! There’s so much that’s different!” But there’s really not. George A. Romero was kind of already working towards that idea in his films. In Land of the Dead (2005), he actually had a leader called Big Daddy, who organized attacks on human survivor outposts, that’s pretty similar to Army of the Dead‘s Zeus.

“It’s fairly new to see two completely different zombie types in one film.”

The one thing I noticed in Army of the Dead that was different, though, is that it’s almost like a caste system. 

So you have the Alphas; they’re smart and kind of running things. Then you have the Shamblers, which are just dumb, shambling zombies. It was exciting to see two completely different kinds of zombies exist within the same film. The only time I’ve ever seen it done to that extent was Warm Bodies where you had something called “Boneys” and they were these flesh-eating crazy zombies opposite this handsome model zombie guy who could be saved by love. 

But other than that, it’s fairly new to see two completely different zombie types in one film. It almost felt like they weren’t part of the same infection or whatever made them zombies. It felt very different.

CC: If the outbreak in Army of the Dead is a true virus in the sense that we know it, whether it’s manufactured or not, the only way it could do that is (a) it’s very specific in its effects, and (b) it would’ve had to mutate to produce those different effects in a very specific timeframe. 

Viruses mutate all the time; that’s what they do. You could almost consider them as the perfect predator. But in the movie, it’s hard to totally grasp how it works. You can say, “Yeah, one virus created this and then it had an offshoot within a very short time that produced these exact effects.”

But if you look at the zombie interactions, it seems like more of a hive mind mentality than anything else. There’s talking among the zombies — I use the word “talking” loosely. But it’s almost like the old StarCraft games; it’s kind of a Zerg mentality. The Alphas do all the organizing and the rest of them do the bidding.

What did you make of the Alphas’ ability to procreate? Is that new to zombie lore?

CC: Luke, you’re going to have a much bigger background on this one, but I have never seen that in any films period. I’ve never…I mean, I didn’t even think about it.

LB: Are we talking about zombies actually procreating? Or are we just talking about zombie babies? Because Zack Snyder had a zombie baby in his Dawn of the Dead remake.

CC: No, here they’re actually procreating. That’s been confirmed.

LB: Yeah, OK. Then I agree with you 100%. I mean, it was positioned as a big plot point and then kind of hand-waved, which is basically Snyder just saying to researchers like us, “Here, guys. Take this vague implication and go study it for a year.” [Laughter] I feel like that’s what he did to us! 

Now, we have to decide: Are zombies having sex? How long does the baby gestate? Is the baby born with the virus? Is the virus in its DNA now? This is a whole new realm of zombie research and we’re definitely going to have to go down the rabbit hole.

CC: And it gives the film a much bigger twist! Now, it’s not just “shoot them in the head and move on.” These things can actually reproduce. They can actually multiply. That’s scary.

LB: Right? I hadn’t thought about it, but I don’t know why they couldn’t procreate, if the zombie infection or zombie virus effects them in this way. Obviously, their bodies aren’t breaking down, at least not the Alphas. So zombie decay theory isn’t really playing into effect, like we’ve applied it to other zombies. So if their blood is still moving, that means other fluids are still moving… Ugh.

Yeah, it’s a weird, interesting idea. I’m not exactly excited to research it, but I know now we have to.

How about the zombie tiger? Anything groundbreaking there? Like how would it even get infected? Did some idiot have to…bite a tiger?

CC: Zombie animals are not a new concept. The first time I saw them was in the original Resident Evil movie; they have these zombie Dobermans in the opening sequence that are pretty cool. 

LB: Yeah, it’s not new. The fun thing here though was that the tiger was domesticated. That was such a cool dynamic, especially for Vegas. That’s a really fun layer that I’m kind of eager to see played with in a video game or something.

CC: To answer your other question, it doesn’t have to be that someone suddenly turned around and bit a tiger. It’s more likely some offshoot of the main zombie virus. Biting a tiger would be super intense and super ballsy. I’m afraid of my 18-pound Maine Coon. I wouldn’t bite him let alone a tiger, even as a zombie I think. But that’s how the outbreak would spread across species, most likely. Just some strain with cross-species transmission. 

Makes sense. What’s your cat’s name?

CC: Mars Kitten God of War. But because he’s a purebred his real registered name is Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Amazing. And uh, what’d you think about that robot zombie? 

CC: OK, you get that really brief glimpse of that robot zombie, which in my mind, when I first saw that I was like, ‘Naaah.’ That’s basically taking the Terminator and mixing it with Night of the Living Dead, which could be cool, but where did that come from in your story?

LB: Wait. Sorry. Did I miss a robot zombie?

CC: If you look in the casino fight scene, one of the characters shoots one of them in the head and it sparks. Which again, what? It’s never explained. For them not to back that up, they’re kind of reaching. They took it a little too far. I mean, they didn’t give audiences anything to work off of there. So that kind of irks me a little bit. I’m looking forward to the sequel though, for them to explain it.

So, we don’t need to be actively worried about robot zombies in real life? 

CC: No, I don’t think so. Those are pretty separate threats.

I know you say you’re still mulling over the outbreak origin in Army of the Dead. But I’ve got to ask, based on your research, are there really zombies being kept at Area 51?

CC: There absolutely could be. Never having been at Area 51 and only hearing the rumors and the stories, there could be many things. Zombies wouldn’t surprise me. 

LB: Area 51 has everything, right? [Laughter] Zombies, spaceships, alien bodies, crazy viruses… What else is in there? Fairies and elves. Portals to other worlds. 

Obviously, I don’t know. But in the movie, I’m pretty sure the first zombie in the Army of the Dead outbreak was at one point a soldier. I think he had dog tags on at the beginning when he broke out of his little containment thing, which tells me that he’s not an alien or some purebred zombie. He was just infected by something that made him a zombie. Something they were storing at Area 51. 

That’s comforting, I guess. Anything else to add, guys?

LB: Remember: what you don’t know can eat you.

CC: Yep.

Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.