All of Us Are Dead

One of the most exciting zombie series I’ve ever watched!

The production and makeup are outstanding, creating a vivid and realistic zombie apocalypse. The plot, set in a high school with students fighting for survival, feels fresh and unique. It’s fascinating to see how teenagers might respond in such a dire situation. It’s also realistic that their reactions differ from how adults might handle things, which I think explains why some viewers were frustrated with certain characters' choices.

The acting is solid, and the cast shows great potential. While I’m not familiar with most of the actors, it’s clear some have acting experience. The actor who played Cheong-san seems like a former child star. Meanwhile, the actors portraying On-jo, Nam-ra, and Su-hyeok were new faces for me, but they delivered impressive performances. I’m excited to see where their careers go from here.

The intro was also well-crafted and immediately pulled me in. I’m eagerly awaiting Season 2! However, there are some things I wish the writers had explored more, like a face-off between Gwi-nam and the bullied girl who turned into a zombie—it felt like a highly anticipated moment that never happened. Additionally, I’d love to see more interactions between the students and the adults in the next season.

Overall, this series is a must-watch, and I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds in the future!

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Why did I put off watching this for so long

This is, by far, one of the best things I’ve watched in a long time. It held my attention from beginning to end. Well paced, great characters and storyline. The right amount of action, thriller and the well timed comedic relief. Not many dramas are able to have this amount of characters without the story being all over the place, but for this drama, it actually made sense and they were all correlated.

The only thing that could have made this better is if two of the characters had a showdown – the main bully and his female victim. I honestly feel like it should have come down to them at one point given their relationship to each other.

What a fun watch this was, and I can’t wait for season 2! Netflix + Asian dramas is one of the best things to happen to the drama world lol. Thank you to the writers and the All Of Us Are Dead team for making such a great series.

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A Missed Opportunity

To be fair, there will likely never be another “Train to Busan,” which is still the best “zombie” movie ever made. Survival movies are always fascinating, as long as they’re done right. “All Of Us Are Dead” provides an interesting premise: what if a high school were the “ground zero” for a zombie outbreak? Koreans seem almost obsessed with zombie stories. God knows, there have been more than enough of them.

Nothing new in the origin is different than any other zombie project I’ve seen. Some idiot scientist messes around and somehow creates a zombie virus. Just how many times can a writer come up with the exact, same plot device? You have to wonder. It’s like Hallmark constantly coming up with the exact same love stories over and over again.

A high school science professor tries to come with an idea to help his son, who is a victim of bullying. Of course, teachers and even police officers look the other way when it comes to bullying. Even one teacher asks what the boy did to cause it. In this day and age, it’s almost unbelievable that such people exist, but then again, bullying has only gotten worse, so it’s more than feasible. The son, of course, has the zombie virus, which another fellow student contracts, and before you know it, students all over the school are in a bitter battle to survive.

Like so many disaster movies, we struggle to figure out who is going to live and who is going to die. At the focal point, we have Nam Oh Jo, who only has eyes for Lee Su Hyeok, who only has eyes for quiet class president, Choi Nam Ra. We also have Lee Cheong San, who is Nam Oh Jo’s childhood friend. She doesn’t realize that he likes her. Well, as with any teenage-centered characters, you’re going to get the whole “Dawson’s Creek” experience. You just have to go with it, no matter how cringeworthy the writers tend to make it. It tends to be worse with Asian shows because the 16-17-year-old kids act like 13-year-olds. The show almost would have been better without it, but then again, that’s life in high school.

The “survival” component is the driving force of the story, as the writers fall short in the relationship dynamics. There were plenty of opportunities for the writers to make this series even more provocative than even “Train to Busan,” but alas, the writers lacked the courage to go there. Where there were scenes and opportunities for touching moments, we end up with pretty much nothing.

For example, I understand that these kids are literally rushing and facing a battle at nearly every turn, but you can’t just “turn off” the human component. Even the best disaster films, such as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno” as well as “Titanic” gave us moments; human moments where characters would be overwhelmed with grief and emotion after the loss of a loved one. After all, most people aren’t robots.

The most disappointing is Nam Oh Jo’s last interaction with Cheong San, as he’s been bitten, and decides to save the group in a daring and brave act of love and sacrifice. He professes his feelings to her, and she scarcely has anything to say or do back. She doesn’t even really grieve for him either. Part of this is the writer’s fault, but part of it also has to do with Park Ji Hu’s lackluster and almost robotic performance. She’s easily the weakest of all of the female actresses. I would have switched her out with someone else who could have handled the emotional depth and complexity, which this actress clearly lacks. She also had no chemistry at all with Yoon Chan Young (Cheong San). The more interesting relationship dynamic was between Lee Su Hyeok and Choi Nam Ra, which I was the most interested in, especially given that she was bitten but not turned into a full zombie. She struggles and fights against the desire to bite the others while doing all she can to help save them. I had truly wished that Choi Nam Ra had been the focal point of the story rather than Nam Oh Jo.

Another component that quickly grew tiresome was bully Yun Gwi Nam’s obsession with getting revenge on Cheong San. Never mind that this guy, even before he’s finally bitten, seems to constantly evade waves of zombies, but his pursuit just became silly. It was easily the most uninteresting part of the story, and Yoon In Soo’s performance is relegated to playing a thug, which is rarely ever compelling.

Of course, as with any disaster film, we get the morons in the upper echelons of the government and the military as they try to figure out how to resolve the situation. For a reason that’s never fully explained, the high school is left relatively ignored, and when they finally decide to go after a laptop computer in the science teacher’s classroom that might have clues to a cure, they abandon the kids on the rooftop because they no longer can be sure that they aren’t infected. So, there’s not even an attempt? They couldn’t have covered their mouths and bound them for safety reasons? They couldn’t have made supply drops to ensure that they had food and water? Instead, we get the idiot general who makes decisions on his own to bomb the city without any contact from the Blue House? How is this even possible? I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a single scene involving the Blue House regarding the situation. Instead, we get a gutless coward for a general who kills himself out of guilt, proving just how much of a coward he truly was! This was another component of the story that just didn’t quite work.

The series should have been extended to the usual 16 episodes to allow for more political aspects to take place, as well as for the opportunity to explore more of the human elements that were ignored.

Of course, we get some incredible scenes of students sacrificing themselves for others, and again, it’s the survival aspect of the story that keeps it going as well as keeps the viewer invested in finding out how they’re going to escape.

I’ve heard that they’re doing a second season, but with Park Ji Hu spearheading it, I’ll definitely pass. This isn’t a bad series at all, but by the time it’s ended, you feel like it was another missed opportunity.

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Definitely survival of the fittest..

Another take on the zombie apocalypse genre. It's good enough to keep me hooked on the show. I've watched plenty from this genre, so I had high expectations.

I think the show has a cohesive way of story telling. The writers aren't lazy. They provided a plausible explanation for every twist and turn and yet left enough space to maneuver for
hopefully another season.

From the backstory of the main characters to each character development. From highschool bullying to teenage pregnancy. From unrequited love to unconditional love of a parent to a child. From animosity to friendship to selfless love and loyalty. The show ain't perfect but it's good.

Actors were really good too, so many familiar faces.. that gave some heart wrenching moments. OST's good too.. I wouldn't mind watching another season of this show.

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A Zombie Fan Must Watch

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

If you love the zombie genre, you should watch this series. Not only does it have a solid story concept, it also has a great script. They managed to cover a lot of ground in only 12 episodes. See the potential spoiler alert at the bottom if you want more info. There are also a lot of twists and turns that keep you guessing, but still manage not to confuse you. They did an outstanding job with the cinematograph. The acting was also very good.



******Potential Spoiler Alert******
They managed to explain why and how the virus was created, and how it was spread. The ending is bittersweet and does have a few loose ends. However, there are hints that there may be a second season. One can only hope.

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Did not live up to the amazing preview, potential and zombie expectations

Amazing preview, potential and the beginning of the series; but once you start watching it further, the potential unravels and stressful angst on what these characters do starts

Life is too short for stressful drama. Why spend all that time watching and be stressed? Don’t our lives already provide enough of that?

Summary of the series:
- an attempt to a great zombie series; series slows after the beginning
- a bit of stress watching it, had to fast forward some due to the many mis-opportunities, zero trust when surviving together (if there is no trust, why stay together)
- added super zombies and of course lets fight them without weapons as much as we can
- bad decision making though out that some time it doesnt even make sense, but need to add it for the cinematography and extend the story (lets all stay on top of a roof where there is no food)
- good zombie cinematography
- some struggles, add bad guys, calamity or miscommunications to cause more drama, stress to extend the series
- cant finish and had to drop it; its not the zombie land which I was hoping for and its very awkward and trust issues

If you are looking for bad decision making and zero trust among the character about zombies, super zombies with gratuitous stress/drama, frequent cringey out of no where throw-in jabs, insipid side stories, then this is for you.

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All of Us Are Glad That It's Over

I felt pretty strongly that I wouldn't enjoy "All of us are dead" from the trailer, but I decided to stomach it after really enjoying Park Solomon's acting with Kim Hyang-gi in "Sweet Revenge". I found his character and acting in "All of us are dead", as Lee Su-hyeok, refreshing, and probably most enjoyed the 'bromance' he had with Yoon Chan-young's character (Lee Cheong-san). Though I have to admit it wasn't a standout "WOW" performance, his character was probably the only reason i watched to the end and his acting was consistent.

As for the drama overall, my major criticisms are these:
-The writing was unfortunately really flat. There wasn't much of a plot to begin with. The only parts i found really enjoyable was the characters drop kicking zombies, and the minor internal distresses the group had.
-There were too many female damsels in distress who were intentionally written to be dumb, the main FL being a prime example.
-There's nothing to really focus on or hope for with this drama. Even one of the main conflicts with Gwi nam doesnt actually make much sense.
-The acting messed me up, more on that below.

THE ACTING:
-The acting of the main female lead, Park Ji-hu (On-jo), was completely unbearable. Everything about her acting was completely flat: her voice sounded the same whether she was happy, distressed, scared, "brave", supportive etc. Her facial expressions were worse-- in her sad scenes I could only tell she was sad by the single tear drop strategically placed on her cheek. Otherwise she almost always appeared as though she was either bored or irritated. To give the actress a tiny break, the character of On-jo herself really sucked. She was supposed to be resourceful, being a firefighter's daughter but instead she was completely useless and only saved by plot armor whenever she actually came in contact with zombies. I skipped a bunch of this character's "most impactful scenes" because the acting annoyed me so much. Literally skipped her reaction to her father's death, Cheong-san's death and parting with Nam Ra because i felt her acting literally made the scene worse. I don't know what went wrong and i dont know if i disliked the character of On-jo or the actress's portrayal of her but the outcome is the same-- i would have totally excluded this character if i could, and if she wasn't present i might actually rate this drama's acting much higher at maybe 7/10 or 6.5/10 rather than 3/10.
-What was worse for me was that the side characters did too much of a better job than this main FL, which in my opinion should never be the case. Even the actress for the archer girl Ha-Ri and actress for Mi-jin did a better job and we didn't see much of them at all.
-As a second female lead Cho Yi-hyun as Nam-Ra also did a better job as well.
-The cast's relationship with each other was really fun. If i could separate scores for acting and cast i'd give cast a 6/10 and acting a 3/10.
-I actually enjoyed Im Jae-hyuk's (Dae-su) character and felt he made some otherwise dull scenes slightly more enjoyable.
-I also felt Yoon Chan-young's (Lee Cheong-san) acting and character were decent as well but I might be biased because he was a primary zombie drop-kicker so I don't know that i cared that much about the emotional weight of his character. I still felt his portrayal of the emotional range of his character was decent.



The Good:
-The best part of this drama for me was drop-kicking zombies
-The connection of the cast with each other
-The bromance of the two male leads
-The suspense of them getting out of some situations earlier on in the series
-Letting one person in their inner group become a halfie zombie was interesting as a concept but not executed in the best way
-The camera work was largely pretty good at capturing the action in ways that feel you're right there with the characters

The Bad (just about everything else):
-The acting of the main FL was really stiff for me (i just cant get over this)
-The writing seemed to only care about tying all 1000 extra characters in with the main group of students. It wasn't tight writing.
-Why do they have 1000 extra characters? They should have focused on the main side characters.
-They really didn't need to insert romance into resting moments of the characters, it felt forced
-They wrote the female lead to not use her brain and be useless while pretending she's brave. She was a decent emotional support nearing the end but that wasn't enough to redeem this character for me.
-Killing off characters is only impactful when you know they had to die and their deaths were meaningful. Most of the character deaths were completely uncalled for (ex On-Ju's father, the archer dude, Cheong-san's mother ,the female teacher Na-yeon and many more)
-Childish sense of morality "you did bad--now you die" was repeated literally for every character-- even ones not turned into zombies, like that Chief of Defense who (SPOILER) bombed the city then took his own life. Why did they do that to his character?
-The whole Gwi nam hunting for Cheong-san thing actually made no sense, yet it was supposed to be a central part of the plot and climax, why?
-The music was trash. I literally muted some moments to escape the soundtrack at times.


Summary:
"All of Us Are Dead" was for the most part good for mindless entertainment--you could be a zombie watching it and still get the jist of it. It doesn't strive to be smart (and it isn't), it doesn't strive to be philosophical or deep (and it isn't). It's just a slightly better than mediocre bit of fun and though it wasn't high quality at all, I still moderately enjoyed it for the reason i watched it--mindless fun. Despite my moderate enjoyment I don't actually recommend it. There aren't enough redeeming points to give it above a 2 for me; still if i ever feel like I particularly don't want to use my brain while watching something I might give this a partial rewatch.

total critical rating: 2/10
mindless entertainment rating: 6/10

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Fun ride...

I was initially a skeptic when I saw that this would be a series instead of a movie. Because, how long can you drag a zombie apocalypse??

Was i ever wrong! From the very first episode, I was drawn in to the world of Hyosan high school students. The series had a perfect balance of light and scary moments. Comedic lines were properly timed just when you need a break from the heavy, adrenaline pumping, zombie chases.

But what I really liked about this, was the valid reason why the Professor invented the virus in the first place. The viewers were not left to wonder as to why these zombies came about. Unlike The Walking Dead, wherein no explanation was given as to their presence.

I still have a few episodes left, but I am wishing for another season already....

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Poorly written, filler characters, unnecessary scenes.

Let me start by saying I'm a fan of the genre, and I really like Kingdom.
I was looking forward to this serie, and was very excited when I saw the trailer.

All of Us Are Dead can be quite entertaining if you just care about the gore and the adrenaline of the characters being chased by pretty fast zombies. But it has a major problem: there are too many characters and groups. None of them are interesting or developed enough for you to get attached and care about them, and there is too much stupidity happening even for a teen-centric story. It also lacks actual action in the killing zombies department.

The "hero" is likable enough and active. Some might even find his teenage awkwardness relatable. But I found a lot of his scenes with the second lead, which were meant to be humorous, extremely cringy and ridiculous. Think about this, who the hell would want to talk about "girls/boys" while standing outside of a window on the 3rd floor, with zombies everywhere? Survival instinct and urgency seems to slip their minds a lot actually.

Then is this serie supposed to be a comedy like Zombieland?
That's the thing, I don't think it's meant to be a comedy but it ends up becoming one.

Also, if you're a female viewer expecting to see a strong female heroine, I'm sorry to tell you this is one of those that only show women as dumb, useless and annoying. The one female character that has potential is hardly shown which is very disappointing.

I don't want to drop this serie yet, so I marked it as such. But I have doubts that I will be able to complete it.

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Commendable yet Forgettable

I decided to drop it after three episodes. The zombie genre has been milked a thousand times before, yet this is the first time I saw an addition to the genre that utterly disregards those before it. It was frustrating just for the sake of it, so things would keep on happening. Plot devices are used numerous times in the same episode with the same results. It is not ground breaking. The cast was phenomenal. But with a questionable script, unless you have anything else to do, you might be better off watching something else. May I recommend Season 1 of Kingdom - a top-tier zombie series.

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High School Hell Begins

All of Us Are Dead is a gripping and emotionally charged series that breathes new life into the zombie genre. Set within the walls of a high school overrun by a sudden outbreak, the show wastes no time in building tension, throwing viewers into a world that’s both terrifying and heartbreakingly human.

The young cast delivers standout performances that carry real emotional weight. Park Ji-hu and Yoon Chan-young bring honesty and vulnerability to their roles, making the characters’ fears, decisions, and growth feel real and immediate. Their chemistry and depth add layers to the chaos unfolding around them.

Visually, the show is outstanding. The camera work and direction heighten the suspense, while the zombie choreography is both frantic and precise. The makeup and effects are top-notch, enhancing the realism without distracting from the story.

Beyond the action, the series explores themes that resonate deeply—friendship under pressure, class divisions, institutional failure, and what it means to protect others when everything falls apart. It’s this emotional and thematic weight that sets the show apart from typical thrillers.

The pacing never drags. Each episode builds momentum, introducing new dilemmas and character arcs that raise the stakes without feeling forced. Just when you think the show has peaked, it finds another way to surprise you or hit you emotionally.

All of Us Are Dead is more than just a survival story. It’s a bold, emotionally charged drama that blends horror with heart in a way few shows manage. It demands your attention—and more than earns it. This is an unforgettable drama.

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