User reviews

Plenty of action, scare jumps and blood. If you're looking for an action-packed series, this is it.

Don't expect too much, it isn't The Walking Dead, although it never sets out to be that.

The zombies reminded me of the ones in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead. In fact, this could fit into that universe pretty well.

You can binge the whole series in a few hours because the episodes are short (25/30 minutes each).

The Zombie piggies are hilarious!

First, this series is a mixture of El Chapo and 28 Days later. It's a non pretentious low budget one.

Second, don't expect anything remarkable.

I recommend this show only for genre fans that want a zombies series with Mexican flavour.

Last, I think it's quite enjoyable keeping the expectactions in the right place. Quite enjoyable.

As "S. O. Z: Soldiers Or Zombies" (2021 release from Mexico; 8 episodes of about 30 min. Each) opens with Episode 1 "The Outbreak", we are in "Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA", and a Mexican migrant turns on the rest of the group to steal whatever cash they have. Alas, he is noticed by what he thinks is a border guard, but in reality turns out to be a zombie, and he is killed. We then go to "Two Days Earlier", where someone in a US military lab is experimenting on piglets to turn them into "fighting machines". Finally, we go to a maximum security prison in Mexico, where Alonso Marroquin, the "Da Vinci of crime", is about to be extradited to the US... At this point we are less than 10 min. Into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: I literally knew nothing about this series, and simply took a flier on it when I was surfing on Amazon Prime for something to watch. Turns out that this is a fast-paced horror-action series with a surprisingly entertaining take on the zombie genre. It takes the full initial 2 episodes to get into the zombie action scene, but when it finally gets, it's really on! There are several other parallel story lines (Marroquin's relationship with his 9 yr. Old son; a Mexican TV reporter who goes undercover to get an exclusive interview with Marroquin; the eventual involvement of the US military in all of this), but again, it's all happening so fast that there is not a moment to waste. Not sure why the episodes are presented as 30 min. Episodes (as opposed to, say, 60 min. Episodes), but either way, once you start watching, chances are that you will skip from one episode into another (as I have done through the initial 3 episodes so far).

"S. O. Z.: Soldiers or Zombies" premiered on Amazon Prime a few weeks ago, and I watched the first 3 episodes just yesterday, and I will catch the rest of the episodes later today and the next few days. If you like a good zombie horror-action series, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

With minor tweaks this show could of been a lot better. Firstly they should of fixed the sounds - when they are speaking english you can't hear clearly but the spanish you can hear easily. It wouldn't be a problem if there'd been actual CC but there was just translations for the spanish parts. And while I'm at it, the english speaking actors sounded hilarious. Why were they doing overexaggerated USA accents like the ones in some British shows? That was just stupid.

And I'll stay at sounds a bit more. The zombies made this very annoying pig sound that was continuous pain towards the end of the series - who tought it was a good sound?

Then there were the characters. All annoying and I just wanted to punch them all and see them getting eaten by zombie pigs.

Nobody reinvented the wheel here but they did add a nice spin crossing the genres.

The cast is pretty much unknown (at least to me), which actually helped with realism.

Surprisingly solid action, I'm on episode 4 and getting more invested by the minute.

I was rather thrilled when I stumbled upon this Amazon TV series. And with it being a Mexican zombie series, I must admit that my interest in it was definitely and instantly caught.

And "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies" was off to a great start. And yeah, that whole thing with the zombie pig was definitely interesting and added something interesting to this particular series and its take on the zombie genre.

But then things started to crumble really fast.

The zombies were just a swing and a miss. Sure, the make-up, special effects and prosthetics were good. But the sounds that the zombies made was just ridiculous and sounded like pigs. Sure, I get that patient zero was a pig, but come on. And then there was the whole running, agile and super athletic part to the zombies, that is simply a no-go in my book. And the fact that they could communicate and had more than rudimentary intelligence, just didn't sit well with me either.

I really liked the concept idea here, with an outbreak taking place near the US/Mexico border and having a criminal cartel as the focal point of the story. Now that was definitely something that had potential.

They had some nice talents on the cast list, so the ensemble of actors and actresses that were in this series definitely put on good performances and carried the show quite nice.

While I managed to sit through the entire first season of "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies", then it was overall a less than mediocre experience. And it was all because of the concept of those zombies in the series. That was just not my cup of tea. And I doubt that I will rush out to get to watch subsequent seasons of this show.

My rating of "S. O. Z: Soldados o Zombies" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. I just couldn't move past that ludicrous zombie concept that the creators went with here.

Cartel vs. Zombies seems like a good concept to make a tv show, but this ain't it. Gets boring. Maybe a feature film would've been more sufficient.

This was the working man's version of what had been done with Zack Snyder's, Army of the Dead 2021, whose debut predated S. O. Z. But whose production had actually wrapped up long after theirs did. One can only speculate as to why the Mexicans hadn't launched sooner. Within, there were some very familiar features echoed in Snyder's more polished rendition - enough to suggest that this movie with it's meager budget by comparison might have actually served as a template.

The only noteworthy difference is that 35% to 40% of this film is shot in Spanish (with subtitles of course). This was indeed a pleasing deviation from the norm. And because it was done so gracefully, non-Spanish speakers will hardly notice. Other than that, one might be inclined to think that it was a carbon-copy of the more familiar Army of the Dead until one recalls that it was put together well before. Zack and his crew spoofed a good deal of the look and feel off it too: 1-Zombies in military fatigues; 2-the arid desserts of Las Vegas (as opposed to the parched lands along the Mexican border); 3 The love affair between the alpha male and female of the undead legions.

It will seem a little stale and some of the acting is cheesy -if not a bit overblown-but hey! It's a zombie flick!

Every scene in this show is generic, filled with technical errors, and stereotypes. US soldiers wearing USMC uniforms, a DEA agent dressed (and acting like) a cowboy, the list goes on and on. How does a DEA agent simply have a hardened, convicted criminal released from prison in a matter of minutes without question or legal procedures? If you can suspend all belief you might find a campy series worth watching while doing chores, talking on the phone, or wasting time. I guess if you like to see how Mexican filmmakers generically view Americans this is the show for you.

This series is just fun, brainless (no pun intended) fun. This movie revolves around a scientist that wants to create the perfect soldier, but that does not go according to plan. The acting is not bad, but the effects are really great and let's not forget the amount of humor.

Want a daily 30 minutes of mindless entertainment? Then this series is the right one for you.

Watch in spanish with subs.

The Cartel main lead well cast .

Same with kid.

Too bad at 6 episodes, feel like story needed more, but ok. It make a 2nd season easier to write and keep entertain.

Watchable.

Cheers.

They should not have changed the name, this is not soldiers and zombies, this is narcos and zombies, with the bad script and the standard performances of a series of narcos, this simply does not work and does not convince.

Very poor acting , specially from the loud kid. The idea was ok until zombies started being more than regular zombies. Doing parkour in the rocks just to act cool, the kid acting it's just horrible I don't know why he had such spotlight if he can't act.

It's better than trashy hindi liberandu propaganda series on Amazon prime (except panchayat). Recommend watching non Indian contents for normal Indian people.

This series has some unique concepts.

I have watch multiple shows, movies of the zombie genre that were fan made and way low budget and on just youtube. This is boring, three episodes in and barely any zombie chomping on people. All so the CGI effects of the animals are pretty bad even with the zombie jumping down a cliff, wow it was bad. The revolver gun not moving in any part of it while being shot, come on really? All so, sorry, I am from N. M. and I get it, the spanish language is mainly in the region, but it's gets even more boring having to read the subtitles and trying to watch video.

I do like zombie stuff. Always good to see a new take. It was enjoyable and the season was long enough at 8 episodes. No spoilers as just watch it for yourself.

I cant finish the cap 1. 😅. The fx dosen't look good. It has many cliches. Boring most of the time. And the chapo part, come on. I expected more from this production. I'm a lover of gender Zombie.. But this desepcion me.

This show is not really good, but it could be tolerable without the noisy kid. At first, I thought it was ok to have the kid which is like a kind of conscience for his dad, but god, it's awful to hear him complaining all the time in a noisy way and talking to his dad, which is the head of the narcos, like a spoiled brad.

Zombies are pretty boring but I enjoyed this version.

I like what i see, but there are no subs or dubs so it's a movie with screaming and blabing in Mexican for me. I want to like this more, i give it 7 for parts in English because they are great. I want season 2. But please give us subs or dubs.

Exaggerated dialogues and characters. Very modest CGI. Low-budget movie performances. Why do writers believe that to be Mexican you have to say so many bad words?. One episode was enough for me.

Im bilingual and this series has so many problems boring, cliche (not in a good way), horrible script. The only decent thing is the color correction of the scenes. I watch the whole 8 episodes and every time that i wanted give it a chance it let me down, if this was an independent production i will give it a break but Amazon give money and green lit it and i been seeing ads everywhere why?

If the series would remove the zombies screaming RAAAHHH, by 90% I would maybe add 1 more star.