Michael A. Appel 
Zack Snyder is perhaps best known for his blockbuster CGI superhero films, but the latest upcoming film from the hit director, Army of the dead, brings it back to its rotten roots.
You might remember Snyder’s 2004 movie Dawn of the dead where he worked with zombie godfather George A. Romero to create what has been said is a witty remake of the 1978 original. The film was generally well received by zombie fans, but didn’t have much impact beyond that. Snyder didn’t really get his directorial wings until two years later with 300, and three years later with Watchmen.
But Snyder’s return to the zombie genre could mean some really good things for all of us zombie fans. Army of the deadThe premise of revolves around a group of mercenaries who plan a risky heist at a quarantined Las Vegas casino during a zombie outbreak. it will be the star guardians of the galaxyby Dave Bautista, Churchillis Ella Purnell, Sons of anarchyis Theo Rossi, and Fear the living deadby Garret Dillahunt.
While the next Netflix movie was originally announced in 2008, the franchise was recently updated to include an additional prequel film and an animated TV series titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas which serves as the origin story for the character of Bautista.
Since Garret Dillahunt is also a big part of The walking dead spin off Fear the living dead, a recent interview revealed a comparison between the two. “Yeah. It’s really different,†Dillahunt told Joblo.com. “Glad to see it too. Having different ideas about zombies, which is refreshing, I think, in a lot of ways. know I have to stay so vague. I’m sorry. I didn’t know one of the things was coming out now. Sometimes next year. But they got away from a lot of normal zombie cannons, to which, for some reason, everything the world sticks in. And you’re like, ‘Maybe they don’t have to be like that. What if they were like that?’ Oh, that’s a nice wrinkle. ‘Zombies are scary. will tell you Zombies are really fast and scary.
Well, yeah, unless they’re not. George Romero’s original version of the living dead included heavy, dragging zombies, which didn’t make them as scary as the 28-Days-Later variety that scared us in 2002. But the question of preferred zombie speed can fracture communities and dismantle friendships faster than a 2020 political debate.
Enter the Syfy channel The day of the Dead. This upcoming 10-episode series appears to be more of a young adult drama set in a zombie universe that’s (largely?) Based on the 1985 classic by George Romero. It will star Keenan Tracey, Daniel Doheny and Natalie Malaika, and will be directed by horror film veteran Steven Kostanski.
While there isn’t much information on this project just yet, we do know it will involve the story of six aliens trying to survive the first 24 hours of a zombie outbreak. The day of the Dead started filming in Vancouver recently and does not yet have a release date scheduled.
Admittedly, two big projects don’t equal a complete revival of the zombie genre, but 2019 and 2020 have already drawn a lot of attention to the living dead with films like Train to Busan 2: Peninsula, Dead Land, #Alive, Alone, Zombieland: Double tap, and TV shows like The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Daybreak, and Black summer.
Want to see what’s coming to the zombie genre for 2021 and beyond? Check out our full (and updated) list of upcoming zombie movies here.
