All of Us Are Dead, All About Netflix’s Latest Korean Drama of a High School Nightmare

Spoiler Alert: This review includes some spoilers for Netflix’s All of Us Are Dead, which premiered Friday, January 28.

Our latest nightmares have been fulfilled through Netflix’s latest Korean Drama release of All of Us Are Dead, which depicts teen survivors trying their best to stay alive through a zombie apocalypse following a viral outbreak.

From the masterful creators, Lee Jae Gyu, Chun Sung-il, and Kim Nam-Su, All of Us Are Dead is a zombie horror series that revolves around a district in South Korea that is plagued by a deadly virus that turns all the infected into mindless monsters and the high school that serves as ground zero of this pandemic.

Lee Byeong Chan (Byeong-Cheol Kim) is a genius scientist and substitute teacher at the Hyosan high school where his son is a victim of constant bullying. When his son tries to harm himself, he begins to experiment on him to find some way for his son to fight back, which leads him to create the Jonas virus.

One day at school, a student gets bitten by a hamster part of Byeong Chan’s experiments. He initially restrains her, but she escapes and goes back to her class before she’s taken to the infirmary. They contact an ambulance, but before she is transported, she happens to bite the school doctor and spreads the virus.

Writer Chun Sun-il and Director Lee Jae Gyu effectively brought this webtoons adaptation through its aimless and inevitable popularity through the use of innovative set design, color scheme, and casting. The 12 episode series introduces audience members to a ‘fresh-face’ cast of young talent, On-jo (Park Ji-hu), Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young), Nam-era (Cho Yi-Hyun), Na-Yeon (Lee You-mi), and On-jo’s crush Su-hyeok (Lomon), Ha-ri (Ha Seung-ri), Mi-jin (Lee Eun-saem), and Gwi-nam (Yoo In-soo.)

Following its January 28 release, viewers and fans pointed out how the series consistently remained loyal to its’ original webtoon that inspired the series. Lee Jae Gyu said, according to Soompi, “It’s similar to the basic story in terms of the original work. The flow of the storyline also doesn’t depart much from the original.”

He continued, “However, you might get the feeling that the show is different from the original as far as the specific situations that happen to some of the kids as well as what each of the characters are like.”

“The series received the maturity rating of 18+ for about seven different reasons, which would be one to two more than Squid Game or Hellbound,” the director said. Lee Jae Gyu also mentioned that the main focus ended up focusing primarily on the theme of Zombies. “There are cruel and violent scenes, but we thought these would be necessary to stay true to the zombie genre.”

gonna check out all of us are dead since its the first thing I see after opening Netflix

— liz 🌙 (@teniljohnyong) January 31, 2022

He then highlighted that his goal was to keep the original appeal and satisfaction of the webtoon for its readers and fan following while also bringing excitement, reliability, and elements of surprise to viewers who were encountering the series for the first time. It provided the audience multiple angles to enjoy a classic “zombie apocalypse” based series from various means of perspective.

All of Us Are Dead effectively embraced the struggles and hardships within youth relationships, such as parental figures, crushes, and the sacrifice and loss of friendships. It analyzes the human perspective and motive concerning living and surviving. The set design and production effectively captured this through the animated and soft-color schemes in the first episodes of the series. Soft-color scheming reflected the students’ “happiest moments,” from their green uniforms’ to its grim and contrasting scenes to the various blood splatters on their clothes.

The series mirrored real-life political and social debates within our real-time lives, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola outbreak, creating a sense of familiarity and intensity of spine-gripping. It effectively had zombie lovers and watchers intensely wanting to know more as we survive alongside the students’ journey to escape their infested school. Additionally, much thought was placed into the detailings as behind-the-scenes footage revealed the production build, design, and intense combat training and choreography were prepared for the show.

As relationships and stories unravel, the audience and viewers develop a sense of concern and passion for the characters. But, through diction use of depth within character development, it is a roller-coaster ride of mixed emotions about who to trust, dislike, and root for, from raging debates between social class and political perspective to the antagonizing pain of facing your worst fears. All of Us Are Dead has it all.

Although it seems that most are dead in the show due to the outbreak, it’s pretty moving to see the embrace of the total human experience despite everything mentally, physically, or emotionally that attempts to stop the youthful and hopeful students from doing precisely that.

With raving reviews, this binge-worthy series is worth the watch. According to Rotten Tomatoes, critics rated the latest Netflix series 100%, with an 83% audience score as of January 31.

This binge-worthy show deserves to have your teeth sunk into.