High school is supposed to be some of the best years of your life. Prom. School dances. Sports events. Your teenage years are all about unlocking core memories for you to look back on in the years to come. But what happens when a zombie outbreak becomes one of those memories? For the students of Hyosan High School, it became their worst nightmare. Once worrying about their grades and getting into a good college or university, it’s a whole new level of fear they feel when the people around them are suddenly turned into flesh hungry corpses.
Based on the Webtoon of the same name created by Joo Dong-geun, All Of Us Are Dead is a prime example of how fast things can escalate when the ball starts rolling. It’s just another regular day at Hyosan High until a student gets bit by a hamster in the science lab. Little did they know that the hamster was an experiment the science teacher was conducting by himself. Discovering that she was bit, the science teacher holds her hostage until she manages to escape to find help. Upon escaping and being brought to the nurse’s office, they manage to bite one of their classmates which is where things begin to get bloody. All it takes is for one person to get bit and the whole school is seemingly overrun with the virus. When a small group of students find themselves banding together to survive, they must put trust in each other and in themselves if they want to get out alive.
With the success of other Webtoons such as Hellbound and Sweet Home, it’s no surprise that viewers were eager for their next k-drama fix. Despite all the blood and gore (it is a zombie series after all), this series surprisingly takes a deeper look into personal and interpersonal relationships between the characters. It’s a not so typical look into the life of your average teen; school life, first love, crushes, trying to get into college, and getting bullied. So not only are they trying to stay alive socially, amidst all the chaos they are also fighting for their lives as their fellow students are trying to eat their flesh. This 12 episode series showcases how one’s skills, emotions and mental stability are put to the test in the face of danger. While some have the strength to survive, others are not as lucky as they meet their early demise.
Because it is a horror show revolving around zombies, expect a lot of blood, gore and death sequences. The visual effects team deserve all the praise here as their phenomenal work made me cringe and look away from the screen a couple of times. Though the visuals were fantastic in some scenes, it did feel repetitive at times as you were expecting something different to happen. When something different did happen, it leaves you with your jaw on the floor. There were several scenes that made me gasp in surprise because I wasn’t expecting it to happen. The only real issue I have with the series is with the ending. Maybe it’s because I didn’t read the Webtoon from start to finish, but I found it a little odd and it felt incomplete (maybe with a second season it’ll make more sense but for now, it feels out of place and empty). But for the most part, the series does a fantastic job on keeping you hooked and on the edge of your seat.
While the series mainly focusses on the high school students, there is exploration on how the government, military officials and law enforcement are seemingly brutal when it comes to how they deem people as important; if a group isn’t high on their priority list, they’re irrelevant and left to fend for their own. This can be seen in some countries today where the citizens aren’t even viewed as people if they’re not of importance (elected officials, high military rankings, etc). It may be survival of the fittest but when you’re high on the list, everything is smooth sailing from here on out and it seems like you don’t have to worry about a thing when you have all the protection in the world.
Whether you’re looking for the next best k-drama or if you’re just interested in what this series has to offer, All Of Us Are Dead has everything you need for it to become your next best binge.
Take the bite and stream All Of Us Are Dead now on Netflix.
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