Army of the Dead is streaming on Netflix now, but some viewers have noticed the zombie heist movie seems to include some unintended white space – or what appear to be dead pixels on your screen. While the entire movie has a blurry visual effect, thanks to the Canon Dream Lenses used to shoot the film (check out our full guide to why Army of the Dead looks blurry here), the seemingly dead pixels do appear to be an unintentional issue.
Some viewers took to Twitter to point out the apparent fault:
Anyone else getting a reoccurring dead pixel in Army of the Dead? Tested other Netflix shows and it disappears.May 21, 2021
Scarier than the zombies pic.twitter.com/CeEXp6I7h7May 22, 2021
I found a dead pixel on the camera in one shot in Army Of The Dead.I was like 'OH THAT BETTER BE THE CAMERA AND NOT MY TV!'. It was the camera. pic.twitter.com/xK99rEuCmKMay 24, 2021
Tonight’s movie: Army Of The DeadSo far so good! But damn @ZackSnyder one of your cameras has a VERY obvious white dead pixel nearly center frame and it’s so distracting 🤣I’m there for anything @DaveBautista does. Guys a legend 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/BAorxzTDJAMay 22, 2021
A Reddit thread about the issue also popped up, with the initial post reading in part: "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 [Bautista's] reverse shot when he sits down in the diner at the beginning of the movie. I checked and it is [definitely] not a fault of my projector nor my TV and apparently only visible on the 4K version of the movie and is not visible in 1080p. Somehow interesting they didn't notice and correct it, as it is very visible even for daylight scenes shot with the camera." (H/T Variety)
Another Reddit user speculated the issue might be on Netflix's end: "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.. Also noticed it happening during The Irregulars and Jupiter's legacy. Doesn't happen with other streaming services, maybe a new change to their compression algorithm causing it? I have the 4K package, so also maybe only an issue with 4K/HDR content. Whatever the reason it it is pretty annoying."
It also appears (anecdotally) that the issue only shows up when watching the movie in 4K.
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/jP7yap07dLMay 23, 2021
Variety consulted a graphics expert at a major VFX company, who said: "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 also claimed it would be "highly unlikely" for the dead pixels to go unnoticed in post-production.
While it's still not clear what exactly is causing the issue, the good news is it doesn't seem to be a hardware fault – so if your screen is displaying the white pixels, you can rest easy.
Army of the Dead is currently streaming on Netflix, with a prequel titled Army of Thieves set to arrive sometime this year, and an animated prequel series called Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas also in the works. While you wait, check out our guide to the best Netflix movies to watch now, and see our ranking of the best Zack Snyder movies.
