10 Recent Movie Effects You Thought Were CGI (But Weren't)

Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead is a film so thoroughly awash in glossy CGI that you'd be forgiven for assuming almost anything that isn't the actors themselves was a visual effect.

And when it comes to animals, often VFX stand-ins are the more logistically sound, humane option - hence why the film's famous zombie tiger was an entirely digital creation.

And so, while you might then assume that the undead horse belonging to the zombies' Alpha leader Zeus (Richard Cetrone) was created in post with the actor simply sitting on a green screen pommel horse on set, that's not the case at all.

A flesh-and-blood horse was indeed used for these scenes, with the film's makeup effects artists covering the horse in light zombie prosthetics designed to ensure the animal didn't get distressed during filming. Producer Deborah Snyder said:

"We built this nylon suit and then we put appliances on the horse. It was really fun. It was also really difficult because we were in New Mexico in the middle of the summer and the suits are not that breathable, so we had to have short times where we could shoot with him, and then the horse had to be wet down and we didn't expect that part of it. One of the challenges with a zombie horse."