Nato – Zombie Baby (Dawn Of The Dead)
Going along with Devil’s Due and birthing a horrendous monster, Zack Snyder pushed the boundaries of “faces only a mother could love” years ago when Mekhi Phifer’s wife Inna Korobkina gave birth to a slimy little undead baby unlike we’d ever seen before. Holed up in one of the many outlet stores located in our survivor’s new mall home, we watch Mekhi anxiously await the arrival of his new child (I hear it’s good luck when a kid is born during the apocalypse), but sadly for the newborn, because its mother was bitten and infected, the baby comes out equally zombified – and freakin’ angry.
Right, as if the placenta and all that child birthing grossness wasn’t enough, try adding rotted flesh to the mix and see what that does to your nostrils. Can’t be pretty I imagine, and thankfully Snyder doesn’t show it, but the birth of this zombie baby is surprisingly touching, as for one quick moment we believe a miracle is possible in such a doomed time, yet then we’re dragged right back down into the murky waters of despair. Poor Mekhi, gunned down just trying to protect his zombie family, taking the sensible old lady out who acted properly in the face of a zombie threat. Haven’t movies taught us anything? You see a zombie, you put a bullet in its head – even if it’s your wife or baby. Good shooting granny, it’s a shame Mekhi took you down with his own already deceased family.
Oh, but Snyder wasn’t done. Sure, we could assume Mekhi’s kid was a zombie, but then we get that final shot of Sarah Polley revealing an evil, zombie baby who reaches up at the camera and lets out a blood-curdling scream – and then we hear two gunshot pops off camera. Hey, a zombie is a zombie, no matter how old they are.