S.O.Z: Soldiers or Zombies

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.

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.

Zombies are pretty boring but I enjoyed this version.

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!