Content Warning: This article contains descriptions and images of violence and gore.
Although it has garnered mixed reviews since its Netflix debut on May 21, 2021, Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead currently remains the #1 most viewed title on the platform. The sprawling zombie film about a band of thieves hired to retrieve $50 million from a Las Vegas casino in the heart of a zombie apocalypse has no shortage of frightening and fleshing-eating ghouls.
In the film, the zombies adhere to a specific hierarchy within the walled-in kingdom. There are low-level walkers called Shamblers, more aggressive and intelligent zombies called Alphas, and their superior leaders, Zeus (Richard Centrone) and the Alpha Queen (Athena Perample).
10 Zombie Elvis
While Elvis Presley impersonators are a dime a dozen in Las Vegas, there's something both morbidly humorous and horrifying about seeing a zombified King of Rock and Roll peruse the strip in the opening of Army of the Dead.
The six-minute opening credit sequence is littered with one violent zombie salvo after another, including the introduction of Zombie Elvis (Joe Rashbaum) as a plane crashes into the Eiffel Tower of the Paris casino. The King's gore-soaked maw and bloody shirt give the shambler an extra scary appearance.
9 Zombie Bots
On close inspection, there appear to be robot zombies in Army of the Dead. Although they are never referred to as such on any level in the story, Snyder has alluded to addressing robot zombies in the upcoming animated series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas.
As seen above with a metallic endoskeleton and glowing left eyeball, a robotic zombie is part of the onslaught inside the Olympus Casino. Whether or not they are addressed in the future, the idea of robotic flesh-eaters is a mortifying prospect.
8 Showgirl Shamblers
Las Vegas showgirls often provide delightful entertainment but in Army of the Dead, they provide abject carnage and deleterious evil. In the gore-sodden opening sequence, a throng of topless zombie showgirls exacts one of the bloodiest and most violent attacks in the film.
The barbarous onslaught comes when an unsuspecting Penthouse resident is brutally accosted in his jacuzzi by a trio of undead showgirls. After he is tackled in the tub, his body is devoured until a fountain of gore colors the walls of the hotel blood red.
7 Bloody-Mouthed Alpha
Roughly 90 seconds into the hyper-violent opening credit sequence, a terrifying shambler ambles into the frame with a bloodstained mouth as he peers up at the flaming Olympus Casino. In a brightly lit close-up, the shot offers one of the clearest and most detailed images of the ghoul's freakish facial disfigurement.
With a decaying gray skin tone, glowing yellow eyes, and blood around his mouth, the image establishes the grotesquery and terror to come.
6 Red-Pants Alpha
Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) faces one of his most challenging zombie combatants in the corridor of the Olympus casino as the team advances toward the safe. After seeing his friend, Maria, killed, Scott waylays a handful of Alphas before facing off with a ninja-like zombie in red pants.
In the lengthy hand-to-hand battle in which the scary bald zombie sweep-kicks Scott to the wall and nearly bites his neck, the audience isn't so sure Scott will prevail. Fortunately, Scott stabs the zombie in the hand and slams him down with a wrestling move.
5 Alpha General
Due to his grungy long hair and buff naked torso, the Alpha General (Albert Valladares) can be confused for Zeus in certain long shots in the film. However, the muscular Alpha General is his own frightening entity who lunges at Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi) with alarming intensity. Afterward, he drags his prey back to headquarters for Zeus to devour.
Ranking just below Zeus and The Queen for Alpha supremacy, the Alpha's scariness comes from his hyper-violent aggression, as well as his intelligence as a key decision-maker within the undead army.
4 Casino Flyers
One of the most thrilling moments of the film comes when Zeus sends his Alpha zombies to attack Scott and his team on the Olympus Casino floor. As the team does its best to fend off the swarming horde, a flying Alpha comes soaring over the slot machines towards Scott with bad intentions.
Supinated on a gaming table, Scott points his military-grade machine gun at another salivating Alpha as the ghoul somersaults through the air toward its prey. It's the scariest moment in the most action-packed sequence of the entire film.
3 Zeus
As patient zero and the ultimate Alpha leader, the almighty Zeus is easily among the top three scariest zombies in the film. His introductory scene alone, emerging from the shadows to slowly devour Burt, is one of the most terrifying moments in the film.
With superhuman strength, a frightening level of intelligence/sentience, and the power to command an undead army, Zeus is not to be trifled with. In addition to his godly status, his physical appearance is also deeply unsettling.
2 Alpha Queen
Zeus is bested by his scarier better half, The Queen, whose spastic body contortions and unnerving physicality make her one of the most unique foes in the film. She can also become pregnant and survive decapitation, at least temporarily, which is the stuff of hellish nightmares.
With jagged dirty green teeth, glowing orange eyeballs, and an inveterate hissing growl, The Queen is simply the most fearsome zombie in the film. Her feral introductory examination of Burt is suspensefully bloodcurdling, and her rabid onslaughts are among the most vicious.
1 Valentine The Zombie Tiger
Valentine the zombie tiger is by far the scariest monster in Army of the Dead. Described as "perverse" by Martin, who becomes the most brutalized victim of the ferocious feline, Valentine is also the most unique zombie in the film outside of Zeus' undead horse.
With a hollowed-out left eye socket, ragged blood-soaked coat, and huge, sharp fangs, Valentine roams the kingdom as a de facto guard dog. His lethal attack of Martin is the gnarliest death scene in the film, and that he could return for a sequel makes him an even scarier entity.
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