Could fictional stories like ‘’All of Us Are Dead’’ explain the dangers of the real world?

The impact of popular series and movies on audience & ‘’All of Us Are Dead’’ representations

The teenagers taking the pictures scene (episode 1)

The teenagers taking the pictures scene (episode 1)

TV shows and movies have proven to show an impact on teens and adults over the years. Representations of issues that happen in real life include the danger of the internet, cyber bullying or bullying in general, assault, and even common daily life conflicts.

 Most TV fans have had a few experiences with movies or series that manifested dark truths about reality, ‘Some movies made me aware of things I wasn’t aware of before, like for instance, the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ showed me the horror and violence of war,’’ William Salazar stated. 

Series and movies often contain conflicts or things that could be relatable to the audience or make them be aware of something in a new way. There is a lot about that in the Netflix series ‘’ All of Us Are Dead.’’

Lee Jae-Kyoo, the director of the show, said that ‘’On the surface, the story talks about school bullying, but I don’t think society at large is much different (from school).’’

Despite the main concept of the series, which is about Zombies, some of the episodes contain scenes with bullying and just the danger and backlashes of the internet in general, including blackmail, and even suicide.

‘Saving Private Ryan’ at war

Lia Bender, a viewer of the show mentioned that ‘’the cyberbullying in the show is an example of something that can happen in real life so it can show the audience the danger and effects of cyber bullying.’’-

In one of the scenes at the beginning of the show, we see a high school girl forced into undressing herself by a group of other teenagers. The leader takes pictures of her and threatens to post them publicly.

‘’Before, kids were bullied only inside school,’’ Salazar explained after watching the show. ’’It showed me cyberbullying is worse in a way because it can reach more people.’’ The people who took pictures of her posted them on social media, and it can even be seen by her family and friends outside the school. It even leads her into wanting to kill herself.’’

Later on, something similar happens to one of the bullies, Gwi-nam. When Cheong-san (another student) caught him stabbing the principal, and filmed evidence, he threatened Gwi-nam to send the proof to the police. 

The show has also included similarities from the effects of COVID 19 in society, including quarantine, social distancing, lockdowns, and high, increasing rates of deaths.

The zombie virus depicted in ‘’All of Us Are Dead’’ is extremely contagious and spreads very quickly. No cure was created for it yet, so the people who are affected by it immediately become outcasts and are prevented from making any sort of contact with others that are not.

Towards the ending, we find out a sort of camp was created to keep the people who aren’t affected by the virus confined within that space so they don’t risk making contact with the ones who are affected by it, even if they show no symptoms of it  because they might show later on, which would cause infected to purposely infect others. 

Overall, movies and series that contain real-life issues like ‘’All of Us Are Dead’’ don’t necessarily have negative effects on teens or audiences in general, they only help spread information about dangerous situations to people that might need to be aware of them.