Zombies, casinos and tigers, oh my! Throw in a $200 million bank job, a rocket and a dozen citizens-turned action heroes and you’ve got Netflix’s engaging and gruesome Army of the Dead.
Mayhem ensues when a zombie infects Las Vegas, leaving it ruined as humans successfully wall off the city and contain the threat. But this genre mashup has a lot more happening than just the monsters in town.
Four days before the city is blown up and zombies are all killed for good, fry cook Scott (Dave Bautista) is approached by a former casino owner with a mission: assemble a team to retrieve millions in cash from a vault under the zombie-infested town.
This action-packed horror crime epic is everything you want in a summer adventure. It has big sets, big props, big stunts and big stakes - but that’s everything Vegas is about normally, right?
What makes the movie work is that it’s not really about the money, or even the zombies: it’s about the people. What does it take to make a team work? How the team pulls off the heist (and who does or doesn’t make it out alive) are great questions to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Las Vegas was the perfect setting for this genre hybrid. So many great heist films are set at sin city casinos - in a film about ethics in business and danger in plain sight, the destitute Vegas strip makes for a beautifully stark backdrop.
In terms of horror, it’s suspenseful and sometimes gross but never really scary. The real fear comes from the constant threat of when the zombie hoard is maybe going to attack. The heist crew spends most of the movie stealthily avoiding the creatures, and the most suspenseful moments are waiting for exactly when it’s going to happen.
On that note, what lacks in scary is made up for with intensity. Mark my words: Army of the Dead is a no-nonsense, gory, uncompromising spectacle. Not one drop of blood is spared or every bit of violence is shown on camera. The film has inescapable grit, dirt, grisly images and splattered…well, everything.
All this bombastic action has mixed success. While there’s admirable authenticity to what a zombie catastrophe would look like, it also undercuts the comedic tone naturally in the script and most of the cast performs with.
My favourite part was actually the opening scene: a direct line the film tastefully (er, as “tasteful” as a zombie movie can be in any sense of the word) makes to the origin and cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. It sounds silly but the threat, whether a coronavirus or zombie virus, only becomes dangerous when reckless mistakes let the problem get out of control.
Director, co-writer and cinematographer Zack Snyder is still guilty from the same characteristics that normally bog down his films: too large an ensemble, one subplot too many (here it’s a surprise rescue mission) and it’s hard keeping track of everyone’s names.
Still, this is Snyder’s best film since 2009’s Watchmen. The story is interesting and the cast is likeable. It’s also predictable and overly-grotesque. Even though it’s most fun and definitely exciting, the sad thing is that it’s also a gamble whether or not it’s worth two and a half hours of your time.
For the stalwart and open-minded, I think yes. For those on the fence, I think not.
Army of the Dead
6 out of 10
18A, 2hrs 28mins. Crime Horror Action Epic.
Co-Written and Directed by Zach Synder.
Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arneszeder, Garret Dillahunt and Hiroyuki Sanada.
Now streaming on Netflix for subscribers.
One more quick thought: despite the large ensemble cast and not every character being fully necessary, I tip my hat to the casting team for well-rounded, diverse casting with almost 50/50 gender parity. That’s a rare thing in blockbuster action movies and it’s both noticeable and for the better. Well done.
