Army of the Dead Director Zack Snyder: Zombies Are Perfect For Social Commentary
The director of Netflix’s zombie movie Army of the Dead shares why zombies are perfect for discussing social issues.
In recent years, director Zack Snyder has been making headlines for such films as Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League.
His latest film is the zombie epic Army of the Dead—which is a homecoming of sorts for the director. In 2004, Snyder’s feature directing debut was 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, a remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 classic.
Army of the Dead, now streaming on Netflix, is co-written and directed by Snyder. Army of the Dead stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Garret Dillahunt, Omari Hardwick, Raul Castillo, Tig Notaro, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, and Ana de la Reguera.
In an interview for BadTaste.It, Snyder offered his take on why zombies are perfect for social commentary:
“That’s part of the genre. [We] use the zombies to hold up a mirror to ourselves and that's really why I feel like they've endured in pop culture. They teach us about ourselves.”
Monster Complex recently featured a number of zombie authors and creators, and several of them offered similar ideas on the subject.
Dread Nation author Justina Ireland:
“The original idea for Dread Nation and Deathless Divide came about in response to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I was reading that book and thinking: How could women who didn’t even dress themselves suddenly become zombie fighting machines? If anything, I thought, they would’ve had ladies’ maids to do the zombie-killing for them. And as I considered what that would look like in the United States, the first draft of Dread Nation was born. It featured Negro girls who went to special combat schools to better themselves, similar to the Indian boarding schools of the late nineteenth century. Soon, I had a book about zombies and pretty girls fighting the dead in fancy dresses with lovely blades. I like writing about issues of equality and representation of marginalized groups in fiction, because I think it’s something that terrifies people. The things that scare people are always the most interesting to write about.”
Read the whole article: Zombie Q&A—Justina Ireland: “The things that scare people are always the most interesting to write about.”
Patient Zero author Jonathan Maberry:
“Except in very rare cases, zombie stories are not about zombies. The zombie stories allow us to tell stories of people in real crisis, and it’s one of the reasons it’s so easy to use zombie stories as metaphors for anything else—I can’t imagine any fear not being able to be told as a zombie story. It’s also why the genre will never die. We’re not rehashing George Romero; George Romero told his story. Max Brooks told his story. Joe McKinney told his story. I tell my stories . . . and they’re all different.”
Read the whole article: Zombie Q&A—Jonathan Maberry: “Zombie Stories Are Not About Zombies”
Warm Bodies author Isaac Marion:
“My biggest peeve is just how nobody seems interested in the zombies themselves. They’re used as props and obstacles for the living characters and rarely ever explored individually. Many zombie stories make the distinction between zombie vs “human” but zombies are human. They’re people in some kind of horrific altered state. I don’t buy the notion that a zombie can be truly “mindless.” The actions they perform in most zombie fiction require some form of consciousness. I find it telling how quick people are to dismiss them as non-human cannon fodder the moment they stop behaving in ways we understand.”
Read the whole article: Zombie Q&A—Isaac Marion: “George Romero tried to touch on the humanity of the zombies.”
Zombiestan author Mainak Dhar:
“I’ve always enjoyed post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction because it’s fascinating to see how people behave when all the rules and norms we take for granted in society break down. The outbreak is in a way a metaphor for religious fanaticism and how those blinded by it seek to spread their message, even if it means destroying innocent lives. The key protagonists were chosen deliberately—a Christian Navy SEAL, a Hindu boy and girl, and a Muslim writer—all banding together to protect a child. That was done to show that irrespective of our religion or background, inherent goodness can unite us all when faced with evil.”
Read the whole article: Zombie Q&A—Mainak Dhar (Zombiestan)
As for Snyder, he isn’t worried Army of the Dead will be perceived as derivative, because he just did it his way. “I knew it would be different from anything else out there. It’s very particular to the way I see.”