Behind the scenes for Army of the Dead – Picture: Netflix
Alongside the release of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead on Netflix today is a making-of companion documentary that runs just shy of 30 minutes in length.
Titled Creating an Army of the Dead, it gives you a comprehensive look at filming behind the film with interviews with all the main talent behind the camera including extensive time talking to Zack Snyder himself.
Here’s how Netflix describes the doc:
“Zack Snyder and his “Army of the Dead” team dive into the film’s wild stunts, groundbreaking effects and the evolution of the zombie genre.”
There’s plenty of comparison to the first zombie film by Zack Snyder, Dawn of the Dead.
You also see extensive breakdowns of all the VFX for the movie which was provided in part by Framestore VFX (who have worked on a number of Netflix Originals including most recently Jingle Jangle). There were at least 500 VFX shots for the movie which included everything down to creating hordes of zombies to the viral sensation, the undead tiger zombie that we’re told: “was based on Carole Baskin’s animal sanctuary from Tiger King!”.
Of course, the production itself didn’t film on the Las Vegas strip either so you get to see how they managed to digitally recreate Vegas in its entirety and was done by Cedarleaf VFX.
#ArmyOfTheDead BTS shots! 📷📷 pic.twitter.com/X1qAve6ER6
— What's on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) May 21, 2021
It’s not the first time a Netflix Original title has gotten a making-of companion documentary. Earlier this year, The Queen’s Gambit joined the rare few titles on Netflix that does come with one. Others include The Crystal Calls for Netflix’s The Dark Crystal series, Unorthodox, and Our Planet.
It’s always something we’ve advocated Netflix doing a lot more of and we hope to see many more of these in the future.
Most companion documentaries do end up on YouTube but as of publishing, that’s not yet the case for Creating an Army of the Dead.
Did you enjoy Army of the Dead and its companion doc on Netflix? Let us know in the comments down below.
