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Obviously, All of Us Are Dead is the real follow-up Train to Busan deserved. When Train to Busan was released in 2016, it reshaped the zombie genre—not only in Korean film, but internationally. It wasn't even the infected movie. It was a blisteringly paced, emotionally shattering tale of sacrifice, survival, and the most primal aspects of humankind. It enthralled audiences by prioritizing character over carnage, utilizing the confined environment of a train to ratchet up tension and emotions.
Of course, hopes were high when a sequel, Peninsula, was promised. But when it arrived in 2020, fans felt that the heart of the original had been lost in an ocean of CGI and action film cliches. That's where All of Us Are Dead comes into play—again, not as a named sequel, but rather as a thematic and spiritual one. The Netflix show, which came out early in 2022, captured the same vitality, emotional depth, and social critique that had resonated so strongly with Train to Busan.
While Peninsula switched into a more stylized, dystopian action story, the zombie apocalypse went back to the beginnings of realism-based, character-focused horror—revisiting the very same elements that made Train to Busan a success.
Here's the official trailer for your reference:
Narrative parallels that feel familiar but fresh in All of Us Are Dead
On the surface, All of Us Are Dead's environment would appear to be worlds away from Train to Busan's high-speed train. Yet both tales corral characters into tight, inescapable areas at the height of an epidemic. In Train to Busan, the train restricted the action and forced contact between characters with opposing morals.
In All of Us Are Dead, it's a high school—another place of forced proximity and stress. Students are trapped in classrooms, science rooms, and gymnasiums while their erstwhile buddies become merciless monsters just beyond the door. This arrangement permits the series to tackle a similar escalation structure, wherein the characters are forced to deal with not only the danger of the dead but also the ethical dilemmas in order to survive.
From guilt and betrayal to redemption and sacrifice, the emotional cost in All of Us Are Dead is high—like in Train to Busan. The characters are not action heroes—they are human, vulnerable, imperfect, and afraid.
Character development over action set pieces
One of the main complaints about Peninsula was that it prioritized action and effects over emotional resonance. While it attempted to create a post-apocalyptic world saturated with Mad Max-esque imagery, it failed to get to know its characters in a way that Train to Busan did. All of Us Are Dead, on the other hand, spends time in unraveling its group of characters.
Every student has a different outlook, history, and emotional journey to bring to the table. Rather than moving from sequence to sequence, the show lingers to examine relationships: friends struggling with betrayal, first loves developing in a whirlwind of chaos, and peers finding inner reserves in the midst of terror. These are not only humanizing to the characters but more firmly establish the zombie story in something more substantial than the will to survive. The terror isn't merely in dying—it's dying alone, being forgotten, or losing who one is.
Rooted horror that better reflects human responses
Horror in All of Us Are Dead is not based on jump scares or gore. Although they exist, they work in a way that supports the story rather than overwhelm it. Similar to Train to Busan, the fear is rooted in psychology. Seeing students wrestle with the concept of killing infected friends, arguing over who gets left behind, or giving up in the face of adult ineptitude is a much more compelling viewing experience than stylized violence could ever hope to be.
The show also captures the immediacy of chaos—miscommunication, paranoia, and bad choices lead to irreversible fate. These aspects sustain the tension and keep the story realistic. And as opposed to Peninsula, which stretched the timeline years after the first outbreak, All of Us Are Dead maintains the calamity at its inception, letting audiences experience the panic and confusion that characterized Train to Busan.
Social commentary in the forefront
Similar to Train to Busan, All of Us Are Dead is not a zombie story per se—it's a commentary on social structures and power structures. While Train to Busan had class conflict, selfishness, and greed from corporations, All of Us Are Dead sees these ideas transfer to youth-related topics—bullying, abandonment, pressures, and the inability of adult systems to protect or comprehend younger people.
The All of Us Are Dead outbreak is not a natural mishap. It's the consequence of a high school teacher's experimentation gone wrong—triggered by his son's ordeal of extreme bullying. This backstory in itself is a condemnation of the system's inability to deal with underlying trauma and abuse.
Moreover, how authorities respond to the outbreak—cold reasoning, protracted decisions, and a general detachment from the cost in terms of human life—is reflective of themes of bureaucratic failure in Train to Busan.
A legacy restored, if not continued
It should be noted that All of Us Are Dead does not follow the same continuity timeline as Train to Busan. There are no carryover characters, and the outbreak seems unrelated. But in tone, tempo, thematic work, and emotional resonance, the Netflix series does what Peninsula was unable to do—reignite the effect of Train to Busan without being continuous. This, in a great many ways, makes it an even better sequel.
The show holds on to cultural specificity and character richness that made Korean zombie narratives distinctive in the first place. The show is respectful of the audience's intelligence, raises ethical questions, and offers horror based on human emotion—qualities Peninsula sacrificed for spectacle.
Whereas Peninsula is technically the official sequel to Train to Busan, its tonal and genre shift opened a gap that fans felt hadn't been closed—until All of Us Are Dead. It may not be in the same universe, but it has something even better: the spirit of the first one. With complex characters, social commentary, realistic fear, and emotional tension, the Netflix show reintroduces what was most important.
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Ultimately, All of Us Are Dead doesn't have to be a sequel in name. It deserves to be one by virtue of knowing what made Train to Busan succeed—and doing it differently, and yet in the same way.
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