All of Us Are Dead (2022)

A fun ride with some inconsistencies

Is how I would describe the experience that is All Of Us Are Dead. After feeling let down by Netflix's last few darker K-dramas, my expectations for this were rather low, but looking back on it, I am actually surprisingly pleased with this series.

All Of Us Are Dead is an eye-catching show in many ways. For starters, it definitely didn’t hold back when it came to gore and edge. Which I greatly appreciate actually. I wasn’t familiar with the source material but when I originally read the summary, I was under the impression that a highschool setting meant, that the target audience of All Of Us Are Dead was supposed to be teenagers and that the violence would be accordingly mild. Let me tell you, it is everything but. I can’t remember the last time I saw this many heads rolling and guts spilling out. Truly a sight to behold.
Aside from that, I think this series has pretty solid cinematography. The shot composition was visually stimulating most of the time. I think the simplistic single-camera really shined here. The action- and fight scenes were choreographed surprisingly well. Honestly, the show looks its best when all hell breaks loose. Suspension was high. I was on the edge of my seat throughout numerous scenes.
I really enjoyed the performance of our female protagonist Ohn-jo. She was my favorite character by far but I feel like I am in the minority here, as I have read countless complaints about her being annoying. I actually can’t relate to that sentiment at all, I found it very easy to root for the female lead. I haven’t watched any of the actress's previous work but considering that she is rather young and seemingly inexperienced, I thought she did a pretty convincing job.
I also appreciated the rare moments of comedy (well, most of them, not sure what to make of the two cops, to be honest). They didn’t feel out of place to me, instead, they were much needed to take off some edge from this dark dark drama.
In the series’ more humane moments, feel like I got to connect with most of the cast and got an idea of their dynamic with each other. In a very weird way, I was reminded of The Breakfast Club, the way our group of widely different angsty teens was forced to work and bond together. Just, you know, with more people dying. A lot more. While you have characters getting killed off left and right, most deaths felt impactful, which is difficult to pull off when your body count is this high. This for me signifies that All Of Us Dead did a solid job with setting up its characters and making me care for them, even if their screen time was comparably short.

But this show sadly also has its dull moments. I am not going to list every single plothole, for the sake of avoiding spoilers and also because this isn’t Cinema Sins. Also, unpopular opinion, I don’t care that much about stuff like that. This is a zombie series; my disbelief is already suspended. The only real crime you can commit as a story about the flesh-eating undead, is bore me, which this show definitely did not. Still, you have to accept some level of idiocrasy going into this. If logic is terribly important to you, I imagine that you will be frustrated a lot here. Everyone behaves rather irrationally but I mean, they’re teenagers. That’s what they do. Still, I can understand where the outcry is coming from, multiple moments don’t make a whole lot of sense if you really think about them for longer than a second.
I appreciated All Of Us Are Dead's attempt at social commentary but I don’t know if it was always warranted here. I don’t think zombie films have to be dumb, if you have something important to say, by all means, go ahead. But I think this show tried to say so much, that it ended up conveying very little. Maybe pick a message and stick to that one to avoid feeling like an After School Special. At its best, All Of Us Are Dead’s societal critique felt a bit preachy and on the nose. At its worst, it felt entirely out of place and took me out of the story.
The pacing started off great. The plot was developing fast and I was fully immersed in the experience. And then somewhere along the way All Of Us Are Dead got kind of lost with segments that took up way too much time. The last few episodes felt a bit draggy as a result. I don’t mind the typically ambiguous Netflix ending but since we started off so strong and plot-dense it seems like we got a lot of set-up with comparably little pay-off.
I struggle a bit when it comes to evaluating acting- I can vaguely tell what makes a story good or bad. Or what makes cinematography less or more interesting. I don’t possess the same talent when it comes to performances, it’s even more difficult for me when it’s in a foreign language. But for once I can point at one specific performance and go “Wow that was not exactly great”. That critique goes to the actress of Nam-ra. I am so used to Korean actors doing too much, honestly, overacting is part of the charm when it comes to Asian dramas. Well for the first time ever I witnessed a K-drama actress doing too little, it was honestly kind of puzzling to me. I understand that being stoic is part of the character but Nam-ra’s actress just gave me nothing, absolutely nothing at all. Maybe it’s because most of the time she did not have anything interesting to do, besides saying pseudo-poignant things at the entirely wrong time. Her chemistry with her love interest (who is also a rather bland character) was also close to non-existent, by the end, I honestly shipped her more with our female protagonist.
Speaking of romance, it also belongs to the show’s weaker qualities. I didn’t mind Cheong-sans and Ohn-jo’s developing relationship that much, but maybe this is due to my weakness for the Friends-to-lovers-trope. The love triangle???square??? though, felt entirely unnecessary and took up way too much time. It’s incredible that everyone had time for this petty drama while they had all these zombies to deal with.

I sometimes curse the day Train To Busan premiered. It seems like the existence of the movie alone has made it impossible for people to critique any piece of Korean media with zombies in it, without somehow comparing it to Sang-Ho Yeon's masterpiece. Even in universe, the title has to be somehow referenced, apparently, it’s just unavoidable.
Listen, is this the next Train To Busan? No, absolutely not. But I don’t think it has or tried to be. I think there is an important dissonance between entertaining and objectively great. At its best, All Of Us Are Dead was both but even at its worst I was still having fun, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what really counts?

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It tried to be something it couldnt

This show tried to be train to busan so badly like it desperately wants to be compared to it. The inspirations are clear as day.

Comedy, why?: i think there are kinds of shows that doesn't need comedy, this is one of them. Comedy could work in zombie shows/movies, but a quirky drama type of humour is just not the tone that this show needs.

Stupid side-plots: Why did we get an entire side plot for every episode of some live streamer trying to survive, it was neither compelling nor interesting.

The show also tries a military sub plot, that makes sense on the surface, but is a waste of time

Deaths: most deaths in this show are sacrifices that help the friend group progress but when EVERY death is a sacrifice the meaning of those deaths becomes pointless and meaningless, it also shows how the writers are incompetent at creating a meaningful death.

Villain(s): Lee Nayeon is unrealistically evil, it was completely unnecessary for her to kill Gyeonsu, and then she was sad about having no friends, her character should've been a way to show how selfishness and greed affect human relationships.

Gwi-nam has no other depth than other being evil as hell

GOOD: the cafeteria scene (well-made action sequence)

It's unfortunate, i really wanted for this show to be a good zombie movie as Koreans has made their mark for creating well-crafted zombie shows and movies with Kingdom and Train to Busan, but this will never, ever should ever be considered even a being a decent show nor should it get second season.

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DO WE HAVE A PROBLEM ⁉️

Summary: Happiness > All of us are dead

I wished they got better main leads, i liked the supporting characters better (Especially the 2nd group of survivors , hari, mijin and the 2 guys) better than the boring main cast. The story was nice but nothing to rave about.
Some characters are just plain stupid like the mom of one of the main guys.
What i hated is that they just bombed the whole city instead of finding a cure.
The story as a whole is just very unclear on how the actual virus started and series just ended like huh? I wouldn’t say it’s a cliffhanger cause it’s not wanting me to see more episodes or another season.

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My Favorite Zombie Show

As a fan of zombie content in cinema, I had to check this one out a few months ago when my finals finally ended. I went in with HIGH expectations, just because we all know South Korea can do horror content in general extremely well and bring something new to the zombie genre that Hollywood doesn't seem to be able to anymore. I enjoyed this take a lot and as much as it took some getting used to the brutality of the transition from human to zombie for me personally, once I did it became the best possible ride. I would say that the romance sub-plot feels shoved in for no reason and completely useless. I wish it wasn't there to begin with. The ending also let me down to be honest and I hope they build up on it in season 2. It's more than needed. I do recommend you check this one out for sure, because if nothing else, the horror is so damn good!! It also made me cry a few times, which isn't that common for me.

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everyone in review act like they are writer

I read a lot of reviews before watching this series. and i just find bad reviews, anyhow those bad reviews lead me watch this series.
those reviewers act like they can write a better storyline than this, hell yah! I wanna see how they gonna manage this..
• storyhole ?? so you guys worrying about storyhole, well I didn't saw any. expect they didn't get bother to find food..
• after all writer put a lot of plot to make it spicy but our watchers wanted it to be shown as man vs wild show..
• there wasn't any unnecessary character, if you watch it clearly. we are human and a lot of YouTuber always go to sensitive place to cover up things (you know those crazy guys) and there was one like that.
expect that mother student who tied herself with gift ribbon ?
• the main four characters were golden point of this series. that's true.
• When one of them turned into a zombie and attacked to their fellow members, ah, that point was saddest yet best. well delivered.

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Watch for the intense scenes not the emotional ones

This show had such amazing potential. The markup was awesome, the acting was amazing, and it really made you feel stressed. This is proabably one of the most stressful shows I’ve ever watched. That’s a good thing, better than being bored. I usually am super generous with scores but man did they drag on the emotional scenes. half the time me and my mom were screaming at the tv for the intense emotial scenes to just end. On top of that they had some weird cuts in there. one second you in this super intense scene that’s got you hooked and then it switched to something else without notice. These cuts just really ruined the vibe. also what was that ending, the main character should’ve turned into a half zombie like the other ones, that would’ve been cooler than him dying like that. love the main villain though it was almost funny how determined he was, super entertaining. so this is a good watch- because of my mom I was forced to watch the dub but it was so intense I don’t think I’d even be able to handle the “raw” emotions. amazing.

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very basic zombie series but great actors

Just by watching the trailer by itself I already assumed that it will be your typical zombie invasion drama where friends go through several obstacles and friendship tests,,, kinda nailed that assumption :) Besides being a pretty basic zombie theme series, the acting itself is quite impressive. Despite the kind-of cliche and fairly predictable plotline, the actors were super well casted.
Suhyeok and Namra definitely carried this series, both were level-headed characters that had good morals and were never rash with their actions--exactly what you need in zombie movies! finally !!!! the others---were pretty frustrating at times lol
Since they shot this in a school setting, I could feel the small slice-of-life/highschool romance moments, which were pretty refreshing. It was a good reminder that the setting/mcs were in highschool and despite being in a middle of chaos, by portraying their youthful feelings, it was somewhat realistic ..
Although the series didn't blow my mind completely nor did it leave a big impression, I am curious to see what the production will. bring to the second season if they ever release one.
The casting was really good, once again, and if you're into action/thriller especially zombie gore, this is the right series for you to binge.

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"All Of Us Died The Most Unnecessarily And Pointless Death In The History Of Cinema" - I-Want-My-15-Hours-Binge-Watching-This-Back Edition

The show just deliberately and continuously creates problems that didn't need solving in the first place then they themselves didn't know how to solve them so they just be like: "Let's kill 3/4 of the cast then bring down the curtain, the end." I will try my best not to spoil anything but god damn it's hard because everything in this show just "happens" and in the most illogical way possible.

The characters. Boy, they show absolutely no development in any aspect whatsoever throughout the entire show. You would see them spending 3/4 the time of an episode rambling about the philosophy of life, friendship and knowledge about zombies then the rest 1/4 pulling a complete 180° when they were facing the actual situations, stopping halfway because of friendship and dumb teen romance. They also behave in a very weird way, they would be bawling out for the people they met just 5 minutes earlier, but be like :frown face: for the people they knew their whole life.

The plots. To sum it up you can leave out the first 2 episodes, compress the rest down to 30 minutes, slap it in any section of any other zombie show and the whole thing still would still make sense. It had a good start I admit. But then it got so tiresome and inconsistence and this is the first Kdrama show in my 20 years of watching Kdrama that got me this tiresome of inconsistencies. They introduced too many characters and social topics like teen pregnancy, bullying, internet points addiction, half-assed political stuff, injustice, adult's heartlessness,... and they all contributed this ?much to the actual plots development, if it had any. If there's someone who's trying to develop something that seemed to be an actual good set up for the advancement of the plot, that person would be dead, and the set up would meet a dead end, everytime, for some reason, like why? Some of the characters were actually forgotten, gone, into oblivion, like they didn't exist, or having as least screen time as possible even when they've fully shown potential to contribute something to the cause. Some of the scenes felt like the scripter crossed them out but the director kept filming anyway (like the rats scene). Characters deaths or sacrifices didn't make any senses, unnecessarily and pointless, making the plot getting nowhere due to our extremely one-dimensional group of friends, despite having fought and ran through hordes of zombies for nearly 4 days in movie time, referencing themselves every possible motif of a zombie movie, making sharp pointy weapons while watching their archer shooting the brains out of the zombies, still didn't know how to effectively kill or outrun them. And it the end everything was just for them to return to the literal hell they just escaped by sacrificing god knows how many people, because friendship.

The acting. I like the big dude and the pink sweater girl, not because their acting was stellar, but because they're the only ones who put efforts into it. Everyone else acts like a robot in this show. I get that the majority of the cast are young age, but you can't use the "it's how their characters are" as an excuse in this era anymore. Some of the voice I've noticed to be added later on, tears had to be made using eye drops, so much that it created straight lines on the bloodstains sticking to their face.

The music. You would see people's body being split in half on a funky summer vibe OST in the show that's trying desperately to be serious while shooting in their own foot and fail miserably. It's just all over the place.

The cinematography. If not for this the show would've gotten a 1/10 from me.

Overall, imagine that scene where Rick Grimes was fighting his best bud Shane over his wife Lori and the leader position in the middle of the farm. But instead of taking advantage while Shane's distracted and lowered his gun and kill him himself, Shane got hit by a car instead. That's what this show feels like.

And don't even get me started on the cliché of tripping and locked doors. It's like they kept forgetting they used that last episode.

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Predictable Zombie Fest

I thought the cast worked hard and well. But I also thought this series could have been limited to about 8 eps at the most. For me there was too much repetition of Zombie tropes and cliches in the storyline as well as from the genre itself, and slow pace-often dragging itself along. Frankly, I got tired of the Zombies and am probably tired of the whole genre. And this one guy making what amount to apocalyptic decisions is not believable. That said, I really did like the cast, who made me care about them, which kept me watching. But still, the plot itself is predictable and underwhelming except for a few threads that touch the heart. It is okay, but no Train to Busan, Sweet Home, or Kingdom.

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no lo mejor que ha hecho netflix

Nunca escribo reviews, pero enserio ni era necesario ese nivel de violencia para algunas partes y otras entonces fueron muy lame, diálogos vacíos, final como inventado, nada que ver, entiendo que sea de tipo zombie drama pero en los últimos capítulos llegó al punto de ser demasiado incluso para alguien que está acostumbrado a ver gore, sobretodo con el personaje que más me gustaba y su muerte. ¿cuál fue el punto de todo si siempre que llegaban a algo había un punto de quiebre y había que perder a alguien? y hubiese estado bien pero había espacio para mejoras del guión porque la verdad muchas muertes fueron innecesarias, incluso personajes que era mejor que no sobrevivieran, la verdad no entendí muchas escenas, en fin, un desastre.

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Got Me Back Into Anything Other Than Books!

I really liked this, especially with my low standards for movies and shows. It's a surprise that not only did I actually enjoy it, but it was a consistent watch instead of me avoiding it for several days.

The problem that lies in All of Us Are Dead is repetition, the amount of times Gwi-Nam gets thrown off of a building is insane along with the build-up being quite lacklustre by the time its finishes (ex. On-Jo's father), but you can't expect much from anything anymore, so I'm used to it.

It's decent and I love Cho Yi-Hyun and her character, Nam-Ra, way too much to hate it in any way. I also loved the character of Na-Yeon and Lee Yoo Mi as an actress as well.

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What is the point...?

The premise of All of Us Are Dead is simple: a group students try their best to stay alive while being trapped in their school through a zombie apocalypse. When I first heard about this drama and saw the talent attached to the project, I thought this was a promising story.

After watching it, I feel mostly lukewarm about it. Sadly, most of the developments that don’t sit well with me are major spoilers, so I won’t be sharing it. Instead, I will be talking about what I liked about it and what didn’t quite reach the potential it had.

What I like the most was that I got to watch the story from several perspectives, from desperate teen survivor, detective and the framed science teacher, to military and political government. The different points of view on what to do in this situation was very interesting.

The first half of the drama was very compelling. Its rhythm fast paced and adrenaline infused but also took its time to develop characters and their inner and outer demons. In the final six episodes the story shifts and the drama suffers from it a little.

The acting is a mixed bag. The adult performers do a solid job but it’s the young talent where it flattered. I personally think what is really attracting people to watch this drama, more than the story, is the charming new actors and actresses. Particularly Park Solomon, whom I admit is a find and probably the next big thing. I can see a little of Go Soo in him and that should tell you everything you need to know. Lee Eun-saem and Ha Seung-ri are another two really strong performances. But the most impactful presence is Lee Yoo Mi who demonstrates the meaning of the word range.

The zombie action is top notch, no surprise coming from a korean production. It is gory and blood thirsty. Their origin story, however, it’s one of the things that just don’t sit well with me.

The school violence, bullying and sexual abuse display in this drama is far more disturbing than the actual zombies. I am sure this was the intention, so we as an audience can understand and empathize with the logic behind the creation of the zombies. The adult solution to the problem is anarchy and destruction. From this situation, a group of kids is left to figure out what’s morally correct, ethical behavior, justice, the importance of kindness, and so on. Lord of the Flies: Zombie Edition.

This is the point where I am left wondering if this is what of All Of Us Are Dead is actually about. Is this a gore fest showing me the worst a human can do? People so detached to what others feel, so already dead inside, that everything they do is worse than what a zombie does? Is this a brutal bullying survivor story? But then why none of the main characters were part of the bullied? Or someone who stood up to the bullies before the zombie apocalypse? Or part of the bullying storyline at all?

As I mentioned before, I found the conclusion of this series lukewarm, up in the air, as I am sure it was the intention since Netflix or the powers at the studio who produced this drama are probably wishing for a second season. Or more.

Overall, if you like zombies stories, you might as well give it chance.

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