Gangnam Zombie was directed by Lee Soo-seong, and the screenplay was written by Choe Seung. It follows Hyeon-seok and Min-jeong as content creators in the Gangnam district of Seoul. Hyeon-seok’s desperate attempts to win Min-jeong’s affection are interrupted by an unfortunate zombie outbreak.

The performances are good. The two lead characters are developed pretty decently. The supporting cast suffers from different levels of shallowness. Some of them are barely defined. I think the character relationships are similar in their simplicity. The dialogue is fine.

Gangnam Zombie is an hour and thirteen minutes barring the credits. It is very short, and the pacing is quick. We’re dealing with zombies from the start. This may ultimately be the big problem. It definitely could have benefited from more time to flesh out the supporting cast and make the audience care about them. This is a romantic comedy first and foremost, so the mindset may have been that it doesn’t matter if we care about the supporting characters as long as they’re funny. I don’t believe there is a circumstance in any genre where it doesn’t benefit the story for the audience to care when someone dies. The skirmishes are very quick. Rarely is there the thrill of watching someone trying to overcome their fate. The tone is light and pleasant. This is reflected in its setting, which is clean, open, and bright. That may not be what some people want to see in a zombie movie, but I didn’t mind it. It certainly makes Gangnam Zombie stand out from the crowd.

The humor is decent. I only laughed out loud once, but I did find the humor to be very charming. The bulk of the humor is satire. Like most zombie films, Gangnam Zombie explores societal issues. Half of that is explored through humor, and the other half is taken more seriously. The effects are good. They’re all practical. It isn’t as effects-heavy as some other zombie films. This is because if you want to get technical about it, and some people do, this is an “infected” film as opposed to a “zombie” film. People aren’t decaying. In addition, there are no guts, dismembered limbs, or extreme gore. There is one thing I am uncertain of. They chose for the infected to have fangs. Logically, more zombies and infected should probably have fangs. Zombies eat through stuff a rotting mouth should not be able to eat through. I also don’t mind a movie or a story putting its unique stamp on a classic horror creature. It does look goofy sometimes, and even though this is a comedy, I am not sure it was intended to.

Gangnam Zombie isn’t bad. I see it as a good foundation if they ever want to build off of it. It’s lacking something to give it an extra edge or push that would earn it a spot amongst the better zombie films. It does have some things going for it. It is below feature length. If you want to give it a chance, you won’t be sacrificing too much time to do so. The fact that it’s less violent means you can watch it with people you may not normally watch zombie movies with. Finally, although it lacks the visual flourishes we would expect of one in the West, this is technically a Christmas movie. I know horror fans really don’t need too much of an excuse to watch a horror movie during the holidays.