Zombies on a train, zombies on a train station, zombies in Joseon, zombies for sale, zombies on the Korean peninsula, zombies in an apartment building. After all these variations on the zombie genre, you'd think Korean cinema and tv would be done with it. Yet, here is Netflix to prove us wrong, with its latest Korean tv sensation coming in the form of “All of Us are Dead”, which puts zombies in a high school and focuses on the reaction of the teenage students towards the incoming apocalypse.
For a change, the zombie apocalypse here is not a natural one, but one made by man. the perpetrator being Lee Byeong-chan, science professor at Hyosan High School, whose own son goes to the school but is the victim of bullies. In order to give him courage and to help him fight back, Lee creates a virus that is supposed to change the fear within an individual into courage and physical strength. However, the plan backfires and the virus medically kills the infected and completely takes over their body system, turning them into zombies. Things start to go really south really quickly when one schoolgirl is bitten by a guinea pig Lee was experimenting on, leading to a full blown zombie virus outbreak, engulfing not just the school but Hyosan entirely.
As the military tries to get a hold onto things, a ragtag group of classmates, including childhood friends Nam On-jo and Lee Cheong-san, class president Choi Nam-ra, class tough guy Lee Soo-hyeok aka Bare-soo, funny guy Yang Dae-soo and stuck-up Lee Na-yeon, try to survive the zombie attack on their own and get out of the school, while also avoiding class bully Yoon Gwi-nam. On the outside, Nam On-jo's fire department team leader father tries to get to the school to rescue his daughter, while detective Song Jae-ik also starts towards the school to recover a laptop from Lee Byeong-chan's science laboratory, which supposedly has the key to stop this zombie outbreak.
After so many successful iterations in the zombie sub-genre, particularly from Korea, one would think that fatigue would set in both for the viewers and makers and it would thus be a hard task to bring anything new or substantial to newer productions. “All of Us are Dead” succeeds in that respect with its setting of the high school. Since we always get to see the adults tackle the hordes of the undead, seeing the teenagers react to them is a fresh, very welcome perspective. The location of the school also facilitates for a large number of inventive weapons to use against the attacking undead as the group moves from one classroom to the other. Make no mistake though: despite this being set in a high school with teenage protagonists, this is no PG13 series! On the contrary, this is one of the most brutal, bloody, gory and expletives-laden zombie production to come from Korea.
Several genre tropes are included and accounted for, giving us everything from heroic deaths, annoying characters, characters you wish died first but keep on surviving thanks to their sheer evilness, emotional goodbyes and more. This does mean that character development takes a hit, with a lot of them being superficially written at best. This is a shame, specially since the show is in no shortage of time, with its 12 episodes arc being among the longest Netflix has ordered for Korean drama productions recently. An explanation into why the virus affects a very selected few a different way would also have been appreciated. Instead, it uses this time to add in some teenage romantic angles and triangles which only prove a hindrance to the more enjoyable parts of the storyline.
Of those enjoyable moments, there are several to be had throughout the runtime. Some creative set-pieces make use of the different areas within the school, like the cafeteria and library zombie attacks for example. While the attacks do get repetitive, the changing of these settings and with those, the change in the available defensive equipment for our protagonists prove to be exciting. Yet another amusing element the creators manage to include is the group trying to collectively figure out how to go to the toilet in a zombie apocalypse. Long have audiences wondered why we never get to see the protagonists use the toilet in an action production and it is nice to see one directly address this. Equally welcome is the addition of a South Korean politician character who, for once, actually means well and wants to do the right thing. It's not all fun and games either; as expected from a Korean high school story, it also takes some time to comment on bullying within the system, even if the reaction of the teachers to it does seem sensationalised, to say the least. There's also some real-world irony to be had in how the world falls prey to a man-made virus after the coronavirus pandemic, which the shows namechecks as a thing of the past in the narrative.
Almost as if to stay in tune with the school setting, the zombie attacks take place mostly in the daytime, when class should be in session. As a result, a lot relies on the accuracy of the makeup and special effect, which have no cover of the dark to hide their mistakes. Thankfully, “All of Us are Dead” does not let up in either of those departments. The cinematography captures the zombies, the school and its surroundings, and also the wider regions when the story does venture out, with quite an eerie beauty.
The camerawork, particularly, deserves much praise for what it manages to do in some of the zombie attack scenes, with it choosing to be largely handheld but never jittery. It opts to bring the franticness of the attacks not by the use of editing but by extended cuts and, together with the action choreography, vastly succeeds in doing so. Music follows the norms of the genre yet is effectively used, never proving a hindrance and accompanying the events well. Since the zombies here rely on sound, the sound mix also manages to be impressive, with several sounds coming from various sources in many scenes mixed just right for an immersive experience.
With the plethora of characters, there's also a large number of young actors populating the screen, not all of who get an opportunity to shine. Blame it on the writing which doesn't give all the actors much scope to emote, but some do manage to leave more of an impression than the others. Park Ji-hu, who almost immediately became a critic and audience darling with “House of Hummingbird”, gets the most scope as Nam On-jo, going from the lovelorn teenage girl to a girl losing her friends one by one in front of her. One just wishes the character could've gotten a chance to be more badass herself than having to resort to depending on others to always save her neck.
Lomon as Soo-hyeok is yet another one who comes through unscathed with his performance, as does Cho Yi-hyun as class president Choi Nam-ra. Yoon Chan-young is strictly ok in one of the lead roles of On-jo's childhood friend Cheong-san, as is Lee Yoo-mi, who stole hearts in “Squid Game”, as class bitch Na-yeon, a complete opposite to her role in “Squid Game” which was so easy to like. The show's own “Don Lee in Train to Busan” character Yang Dae-soo though is played with much likability by Lim Jae-hyeok, while Park Eun-saem has a lot of fun playing hard-as-nails senior Mi-jin. Of the adults, of which there are very few, dependable supporting actors Kim Byung-chul as professor Lee Byeong-chan and Jeon Bae-soo as On-jo's father So-joo get the most to do.
Is “All of Us are Dead” a fresh take on the zombie sub-genre? The honest answer to that would be “No”. Does that make it bad, in any way? The honest answer to that also would be a resounding “No”. Despite its writing shortcomings, most noticeable in its character development, Netflix's new Korean show ends up being a bloody carnage in the best way possible and a bone-crunchingly good time.
