All of us are Dead S1 Review: A Mortifying High School Zombie Drama
Zombies are a really fun concept like disaster films, it is able to depict the extent of human nature during the apocalypse. However I never saw zombies as scary and haunting figures as horror movies monsters do, up until I watched this series. The zombies here made me shiver,terrified and traumatised. That was how insane it got.
Starting off let’s talk about the zombies. The film uses the prologue to develop on the origins of it. From the concept, we were also able to see the theme of the series being power vs fear. This kid who always got bullied never fights back but due to this zombie virus in him he goes and attacks the bullies and gets pushed off the building. All his father ever wanted was for him to stand up for himself but he never could. This ultimately caused his father to see the injustice of this world in terms of how the strong ones with power always take over the weak who fears, so he ought to change that with the virus but he never wanted it to be leaked out and affect the whole city. The origin feels realistic as we understand why someone would do this,the vulnerability of a father who only wanted to help his son but something worse had occurred because of it. The physicality of the zombies themselves gave me goosebumps. For one when the students turn,the sign ranges from nosebleed to convulsions of the bones. It is terrifying as we see how a human is turned into a monster. The power level of a zombie and a human is seemingly unmatched so it seems impossible to kill a zombie, making it all the more terrifying. Zombies move faster and are stronger. Due to their mindless nature,there is also a sense of uncertainty on whether they have heard you or not. When it hears,you are dead. Most movies nowadays tend to have the zombies just attacking. Both the power level and uncertainty were not present which makes the zombies in this series unique and terrifying.
Now a good zombie concept must match up with the story itself and luckily the story delivers. Now the story offers up a lot of characters so taking on some of the key elements which makes this a masterpiece as mentioned: vulnerability. Every character is flawed in some ways but they all have a vulnerable side to them for us to care for.
Take Cheong-San,he is this guy who is afraid to confess his crush to On-jo so he constantly makes fun of her to hide that fear. Here we see his flaw of making fun of others but the vulnerability comes from his fear. On-jo is the opposite as she is the kind hearted person who helps others out but her kindness sometimes leads to something worse like how her confessing her crush to Su-hyeok made Cheong-San jealous. Na-Yeon is selfish as she never cares whether someone is dying except herself but she is just afraid and that guilt from the decision she had made is the vulnerability. Girl with cigarettes looks down on others but secretly cares. Archer seems like she never cared but she just wants to hide her own failure. The villain who never dies is a bully and kills people like nothing but he is just afraid so he kills to hide it. Every character has a flaw but there is also a vulnerability which allows us to care whether it is a kind heart or a way to hide from something.
The next element is decisions through life and death situations. Only during life and death situations a character would reveal his/her true self based on the emotional decisions they made. Take Na-Yeon. She is selfish as she blames others when a zombie gets in and never thinks about any of their lives other than herself. However she is just afraid like all the others but her selfishness constantly takes over. This causes her to be cornered by everyone when she accuses one of the survivors of being a zombie. Ultimately he turns out to be uninfected but she knew she can’t be proven wrong so she purposely made him become a zombie by wiping him with infected blood. From this decision it shows how her selfishness had corrupted her as her fear of being wronged and looked down by others is ever more present. After that she feels guilty as anyone else and even causes her teacher to be killed when trying to save her. Ironically she does try to help them out but she could not pass them the food before she was killed off by the villain. In the end none of them will ever know that she truly wanted to help. With Cheong-San he has to conquer his own fear so he constantly makes the decision to take the lead as he does not want others to sacrifice themselves anymore. With Nam-ra her lack of friends caused her to isolate herself from others but when things went wrong like Na-Yeon using the zombie’s blood,she is willing to take her stand with what is right. As the series progresses she is willing to make the right choice as she discovers friendship. All in all allow the characters to make tough choices they won’t usually make in life and death situations as they conquer their flaws.
The next element is the emotional scope of the story. Most zombie stories try to be big in scope by having the protagonist to move all around the world and find a cure or something. This however makes the story feel smaller and a lack of an emotional connection. Here the series has two primary plot points. One being in school while the other is the one outside of school. Both main plotlines also have smaller plot points inside them. All these plot points never felt confusing nor boring due to it consisting of emotional stakes. The main school plotline involving the group of student survivors has an uncertainty of who is going to survive. Every time they move someone dies which ultimately makes every character to not have any plot armour and increases the emotional stake. The other plot being the one with the archer focused on so many close calls and even allowing us to gradually care about the cigarette girl from being the one who never cares to someone who does. The film then uses these emotional stakes to collide with other plotlines to create a sense of irony along with good and bad consequences. The villain Gwi-Nam was presented as this selfish guy who throws others out just for survival due to him being scared. We see how he gradually becomes braver and even kills the principal with Cheong-San witnessing it. Eventually he supposedly kills the villain until he reviews himself and finds Cheong-San to kill him. Every time when he is near them,it creates irony as we all know that he is willing to kill to get what he wants;revenge. Every encounter creates irony as not everyone knows he is pure evil and gets killed. For the one in town when the captain discovers a person not showing symptoms but still bites others this causes him to not rescue the students. This creates irony as the students had been hoping to be saved. Sometimes when the plots collide it may not have a negative effect like when the girl tried to burn down the school which unlocks the door to the roof. Essentially by creating multiple plotlines with emotional stakes make these plotlines collide to create a sense of irony and positive or negative impact from it.
Finally there is the dynamic between each character. Notice how most of the dynamics root from contrasting characters or ones with a central conflict between them. Cigarette girl always says out all her thoughts while archer girl is quiet and reserved. On-jo is optimistic while Nam-ra is pessimistic. Meanwhile On-jo and Cheong-San have a central conflict as he always makes fun of her but when he reveals that he likes her the conflict only deepens as he was the only best friend she had. The detective and the cop have the best dynamic. Detective is brave while the cop is a coward. There is a central conflict between them as the cop always wants to hide from the horde of zombies. This also creates a nice comedy. Originally it felt like it was in contrast with the darker tone of zombies destroying the city but as it progressed I actually quite enjoyed it. The limited comedic tone gives off the balance needed for the story as a whole. Allowing a dynamic which involves contrasting characters or both having a central conflict between the characters then show how each of them connect. Here most of the connect through survival except for On-jo and Cheong-San who has to prove to On-jo he has changed as a person and no longer makes fun of her due to fear.
Now I do want to touch on the ending a bit. Here the ending pretty much teases season 2. I love this series but does it need a season 2? The characters though were realistic enough so I could care for them even if the story does not involve zombies.
In conclusion, All of Us Are Dead is one of the best series on Netflix with masterful writing in terms of characters and all the different plotlines connected along with the best use of the zombie concept which genuinely makes me afraid of zombies.
Final Rating
— — — — — — — — — — — — — 4.5/5 — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
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