If you happened to watch Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” this weekend, you might have noticed something was not quite right. You weren’t alone — quite a few Twitter and Reddit users noticed that some scenes appear to have dead pixels, or completely white spaces, on various parts of the screen.
Army of the Dead Pixel pic.twitter.com/H14f40CHdB
— Paul Doherty (@thepauldoherty) May 24, 2021
One user wrote, “Army Of The Dead really had me thinking my TV was messed up with 2 broken pixels and turns out it was in the movie.”
Viewers questioned whether the pixel problem with Snyder’s zombie VFX opus was an issue with their TV screens or a Netflix glitch after the film dropped on the streaming platform on May 21. Eagle-eyed audiences instantly noticed the dead pixels and quickly weighed in. A Reddit user wrote, “It is not visible in every scene, as only one of the (I estimate three) cameras has a faulty sensor. For example, you can clearly see it in Dave Batista’s reverse shot when he sits down in the diner at the beginning of the movie.”
As the film goes on, the cluster of dead pixels at one point goes up to three. A few watchers commented on how distracting they found the situation and wondered why the glitch had not been fixed in post-production. A user who goes by Jake commented, “I’m amazed Zack didn’t notice.”
Snyder used RED Monstro digital cameras equipped with vintage Canon lenses to craft the distinctive look of the film, on which he served as director of photography.
A few Twitter users quipped that the film should have been called “Army of the Dead Pixels.”
However, other Reddit users have pointed out that this is not the first time dead pixels have been spotted on the Netflix service. A user points out they were first noticed during last year’s “Extraction,” while another noted it’s becoming more frequent, pointing out the glitch on recent VFX-heavy shows such as “Jupiter’s Legacy” and “Shadow and Bone.”
XEvilrobot wrote, “I’ve been noticing white pixels in lots of recent Netflix content lately, Shadow and Bone for example had several of them – they’d be there for some scenes and then not on others. Came and went, but always back on the same few pixels when it would be there.”
A graphics expert at a top visual effects company that did not work on “Army” said there were several reasons dead pixels could appear onscreen, though it would be “highly unlikely” they would have been missed in post-production. “If auto-processing was not available for the given camera settings or was turned off to keep the workflow as ‘analog’ as possible, it would likely preserve these dead pixels,” the expert said.
Netflix had no comment.
Here’s what viewers were saying about the strange glitch:
Army of the Dead Pixels more like, couldn’t anyone be bothered to fix these in post?
— V.I.N.CENT (@VINCENT97536095) May 23, 2021
Though I did think my new LG OLED was broken after watching Army of the Dead! Cant believe a film could be released with a few hit pixels like that. I was raging at first!
— Simon Edwards (@Turak64) May 24, 2021
Lmao wasn’t just me pic.twitter.com/vbzOIEIB5D
— Grimoire Vice (@uzionmain) May 22, 2021
Army of the Dead pixels pic.twitter.com/gg6Z4MTZ73
— Jack Painter (@JackPainterX) May 23, 2021
Army of the Dead was super fun. Even more fun when I realized that dead pixel issue wasn’t my TV so I could relax a little bit.
— keithkrebs (@keithkrebs) May 23, 2021
I mean ultimately the fact that #ArmyOfTheDead has a dead pixel in a bunch of shots is a very, very minor imperfection. But it is also quite funny, and the kind of thing that will drive some viewers absolutely bananas when they notice it. pic.twitter.com/Xg1U3UsTca
— Stephen McNeice (@maccytothedee) May 22, 2021
No it really doesn’t, do a search for army of the dead pixel on here. Pics don’t do it justice but here is one, having a super bright spot on your screen is super distracting. Think it only shows in 4k HDR, on lesser versions you probably wouldn’t notice it pic.twitter.com/jP7yap07dL
— K3v8az (@K3v8az) May 23, 2021