An intriguing world of suspense and surprises unfolds in “Zombieverse,” a new Korean reality TV sensation on Netflix. It’s as wild as it is thrilling and entertaining. The show that released this week, revolves around a group of contestants who have been intentionally put together in the Zombieverse. Created by Park Jin-kyun and Moon Sang-don, the reality show is packed with thrilling twists and chilling highs, and has opened to mixed reviews on social media. It’s being called “unscripted” but is also listed as a “reality” and “game show”, which has ignited discussions all over the internet.
This unscripted show throws its contestants in the middle of a zombie apocalypse simulation taking place in Seoul. It’s all about survival and they must react to the situation at hand, giving the viewers, the opportunity to observe the behaviour of the players when placed in a tense, ‘life-threatening’ situation. Zombieverse can’t escape its ludicrous premise, but that’s part of the charm. The South Korean reality series takes romance and puts it through a journey of fake blood, gore, and widespread mayhem.
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About The Show
The creators of the entire setup come from the art team of the well-acclaimed Netflix zombie series All of Us Are Dead and the choreographer behind the amazing action scenes of the mega hit Kingdom plays a part too. Zombieverse is a reality survival show that comes to life with its 10-member cast, more like a group of unwitting contestants. They need to survive through, and complete several adventurous tasks over the course of three days. The goal is to escape Seoul and get on a boat out of the zombie-ridden city.
There are eight episodes in all, with a runtime ranging from 40 to 60 minutes for each. You’ll need to be very focused to know what is going on in Zombieverse. The information given in episode 1, just before everything begins, goes by very quickly. Crucial information is a “blink and you’ll miss it”-moment, so be ready to hit pause if you want to catch everything.
The Premise
In this Korean reality show, a group of celebrities (our group of survivors), from actors to comedians, have been gathered to participate in a fake dating show ‘Love Hunters‘ where they play the commentators to those looking to find the one. The show begins with the group of unsuspecting celebrities gathering behind-the-scenes of the dating show to watch the live footage of the contestants flirting.
Panic erupts amongst this group when a kiss from one of the ‘Love Hunters’ contestants turns into her devouring her mate. Blood jets out from the large wound on the side of the bitten man’s neck and a feral-looking ‘Love Hunter’ raises her head looking for her next meal. It’s a zombie outbreak, and everyone must evacuate immediately in an attempt to survive a real zombie apocalypse. The onlookers are forced to run into the street and what unfolds after that is a weird yet unique mash-up of reality TV-meets-drama-meets-social experiment.
The Cast
The cast members are mostly celebrities, they include:
• Sweet Home actress Lee Si-young
• Comedian Park Na-rae
• YouTuber Jonathan Yiombi
• Former pitcher for the Doosan Bears Yoo Hee-kwan
• TV celebrity Ro Hong-chul
• Rapper and TV personality DinDin (aka Lim Cheol)
• Japanese singer and former member of 7+ME LINK Fukutomi Tsuki
• YouTuber Patricia Yiombi
• YouTuber and vlogger Kim Jin-young/ Dex
• Kkwachu Hyung
Is It Completely Real?
Despite being filled to the brim with celebrities, Zombieverse is (for the most part) not fictionalised. The events taking place are set up and staged but the contestants’ reactions and those blood-curdling screams of fear are not. Of course, the celebrities involved are in on the joke, but as we’re told at the start of Episode 2, they’re participating in an “immersive” manner, so the stakes to them are real to an extent. Having an unscripted series in such a setting results in plenty of horror and suspense. But people trying to get out of doing things or pointing out obvious issues is hilarious to watch. Plus, it helps you care about the Zombieverse contestants.
Internet Reacts
What makes this show tricky is that it is described as “A group of unwitting contestants gather to take part in a reality dating show” which is also how it starts, but these ‘unwitting contestants’ are also ‘cast members’ thrown into crazy things. Zombieverse has thrown the internet into a frenzy.
A fan @btslovesl, tweets, “Omg I am having a blast watching zombieverse and I am barely on episode 1…”
Another user, @maui_imau had a tweet for one of the leads: “Park Narae is really the busiest female entertainer in Korea. She’s talented, funny, humble and hardworking. She deserves all the success. I’m rooting for her.”
Dex has been garnering major love from the Internet amongst the cast.
Just finished zombieverse and I loved it. Dex has my whole heart. He was nice, funny and he helped everyone even if he puts himself in danger. #zombieverse pic.twitter.com/FNbzVSRQp9
— 퀸시⁷ ⟬⟭🐳🫧🌻 (@queencyjery19) August 9, 2023
The reviews on day 1 were rather lukewarm, some suggesting that you can give it a miss. The score on IMDb.com stands at a below-average 4.8/10. The reality-horror show hasn’t really taken off the way they probably expected it to as per Rotten Tomatoes as well.
@itechnosmith tweets, “A reality competition series ‘ZOMBIEVERSE’ now streaming on OTT… I have watched all episodes of the walking dead, fear the walking dead and all the zombie movies/ series… Trust me I know how to survive. I am PRO, trust me.”
A viewer expressed his disappointment upon the show’s use of famous actors.
I'm on episode 4 & I'm loving the show, but seriously, using famous actors as NPCs? It kinda breaks the immersion 'cause we know them & pretty sure the cast know them too. They should let those NPCs just be themselves instead of acting as random villagers or smthng#zombieverse pic.twitter.com/xL4bqjEi4a
— ayame (@ayame_v_v) August 9, 2023
According to a review in Filmzzine, “While it’s exciting and funny to watch the first few episodes, soon it starts to feel repetitive and dragging with no leading factor. The cast keeps on arguing with each other about who to send out to get something or save someone and then it ends up in the same manner with everything going to chaos. The show is specially advertised as unscripted but it feels much more scripted than the weekly variety shows. Each cast has adopted a persona and behaves accordingly while breaking the character in some absurd situations.”
So should you watch Zombieverse? Well, if you like reality shows and zombies, then you could definitely give it a shot. The whole setting which is on a huge scale, is impressive to watch. And when you have the creative team from iconic shows like All of Us Are Dead and Kingdom to work behind the scenes of Zombieverse, you know they have pulled out all the stops to ensure an epic atmosphere of fright and gore. It is definitely a unique concept, though not fully unscripted but if you’re a fan of the cast, you would not want to miss it.
