All of Us Are Dead (2022) Review: A School Under Siege

Is All of Us Are Dead worth watching?

Yes. All of Us Are Dead is a ferocious, frequently thrilling zombie series that uses a school siege to say something real about bullying, class and the adults who fail teenagers. Its set pieces are some of the most intense in streaming horror, and its young cast makes the danger feel personal. The main reservation is length: twelve long episodes is more than the story needs, and the middle of the season circles when it should charge.

What is All of Us Are Dead about?

Hyosan High School is an ordinary Korean secondary school, with ordinary cruelty in its corridors, until a virus breaks out on its premises. Within hours, the infected are tearing through classrooms, and a group of students must barricade themselves in, find food and water, and figure out how to escape a school that has become a trap. Among them are On-jo (Park Ji-hu), a thoughtful girl whose father works for the emergency services; her loyal neighbour and friend Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young); the reserved class president Nam-ra (Cho Yi-hyun); and the laid-back, tough Su-hyeok (Lomon). Outside, adults scramble to understand and contain what is happening.

All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean series in Korean, directed by Lee JQ and Kim Nam-su and written by Chun Sung-il, adapted from a webtoon. This review covers the first season’s 12 episodes. The series is listed as ongoing, so the story is not complete.

Set pieces that earn their brutality

At its best, the series is superb at geography. The school becomes a map of dangers: a science lab, a library, a music room, a rooftop, each with its own escape routes and dead ends. The early episodes, in which the outbreak spreads faster than anyone can understand it, are staged with frantic clarity, and the zombies themselves are unsettling, all jerking limbs and snapping bones rather than shambling bodies.

The show is also willing to be cruel. No one feels safe, and the series understands that the threat of losing a friend is scarier than any creature. That ruthlessness gives even quieter scenes a constant sense of danger.

A teen drama beneath the gore

What lifts All of Us Are Dead above many zombie stories is its interest in the social life of the school before the virus arrives. Bullying is part of the premise from the opening scenes, and the series treats it seriously, showing how the pecking order of a classroom survives and even intensifies in a crisis. Yoo In-soo’s menacing bully and Lee You-mi’s spoilt, self-serving classmate turn a survival story into a study of who people become under pressure.

The young cast is strong. Park Ji-hu gives On-jo a steady moral centre, and Yoon Chan-young makes Cheong-san’s devotion touching rather than sappy. Cho Yi-hyun’s composed class president is a quietly compelling presence, and Lomon brings an easy charm to the group’s reluctant protector.

Where the siege drags

The weaknesses are structural. Many episodes run over an hour, and there are long stretches of the students debating the same choices in the same rooms. Cutaways to the adults, including officials, soldiers and police, often feel like interruptions rather than expansions. Some characters make decisions that exist only to create a new crisis, which is a familiar genre sin but grows wearing over twelve hours. A leaner cut of eight or nine episodes would have made a great show out of a very good one.

Who should watch All of Us Are Dead?

It is for horror fans, zombie completists and viewers who enjoy survival thrillers with an ensemble of characters to root for. Twelve hour-plus episodes on Netflix is a substantial binge. It is very violent and often gory, and it depicts bullying, including sexual harassment and humiliation, so it is not suitable for younger teenagers despite its school setting.

If you want to stay with Korean drama but change the mood:

• Reply 1988, for teenage friendship and neighbourhood loyalty without the carnage.
• Move to Heaven, a gentler Korean series about young people, grief and what the dead leave behind.
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo, the other big Korean Netflix hit of 2022, as warm as this one is savage.

The verdict

All of Us Are Dead is a gripping, unusually heartfelt zombie series whose best episodes rank with the strongest horror streaming has produced. It is too long by several hours, and its adult subplots drag, but the school siege at its core is relentless and its teenage characters are worth fighting for.

Rating: 4/5