Netflix's Army of the Dead clearly set out to subvert the established zombie "rules" in some unexpected ways, but not everyone was on board with the more out-there alterations.
While the movie did include the classic "shamblers," the Las Vengeance crew also had to deal with the faster, more intelligent "alphas." These lethal creatures were directly linked to Zeus, who may or may not have been alien in origin, and, as we'd soon find out in graphic detail, was able to procreate.
"I believe that some zombie love happened, some sweet zombie lovemaking. I don't know if it was sweet. It was probably pretty aggressive," Snyder explained to Esquire when asked about the introduction of a zombie fetus. "My theory is that the zombies in our movie are working toward not needing a human host to procreate their species, if you will. That's the ultimate evolution. They're like a better us. I think that's the fun genre part of it. They're no longer destroying their environment. They're not fighting with each other. They're less bad for everybody. They're less toxic. Unless you cross them, and then, well, it's not that good."
Some feel that having the zombies evolve into a completely different race kind of misses the point (they're supposed to mirror/represent society), but there's no denying that giving them the ability to reproduce does open the door to some intriguing possibilities.
"We had a hell of a lot of fun asking ourselves all those questions. Even the zombie baby was a thing that we all debated for a while," Snyder added. "But as far as I was concerned, the zombie baby was cool for a variety of reasons, and one of them was that it tests you, it pushes you. You think you know what the genre is."
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.