Which Revival Character Are You?

Learn More About Revival

Revival started life as a comic book, written by Tim Seeley and illustrated by Mike Norton, published by Image Comics from 2012 to 2017. The comic set the template the show still follows closely: on a single, inexplicable day, the recently dead in rural Wisconsin come back xe2x80x94 not as monsters, but as themselves, with their memories, personalities, and relationships fully intact. The people of the town start calling it Revival Day, and nobody, living or "revived," ever quite explains why it happened.

SyFy's television adaptation premiered in 2025 and centers the story on Dana Cypress (Melanie Scrofano), a local police officer and single mother who's about ready to leave her hometown of Wausau behind for good when Revival Day throws her right back into the middle of it xe2x80x94 including a brutal murder investigation that only gets more complicated the longer the revived stick around.

Dana's father, Sheriff Wayne Cypress (David James Elliott), represents the old guard's response to the crisis: keep the town calm, keep the family together, and keep outsiders from making things worse. That instinct puts him at odds with Ibrahim Ramin (Andy McQueen), a CDC scientist sent in to figure out the actual biology xe2x80x94 or lack thereof xe2x80x94 behind why the dead in Wausau specifically aren't staying dead. Ibrahim's clinical, evidence-first approach to an event that defies every rule of science makes him both an outsider in town and one of the only people actually trying to explain what's happening.

Then there's Em Cypress (Romy Weltman), Dana's younger sister, who spent most of her life sheltered by chronic illness before dying and coming back as one of the revived herself. Em's arc is one of the show's most unsettling: she gets a second chance at a life she was never fully allowed to live the first time, but she's also carrying secrets about what happened to her, and about what she's capable of now, that she's not eager to share with her family.

The show doesn't shy away from how a small town would actually react to something like this, and that includes Blaine Abel (Steven Ogg), the son of a fire-and-brimstone local preacher who sees Revival Day as confirmation of his own worldview xe2x80x94 and an opportunity. Blaine spends the series building a cult-like following out of people's fear and confusion, turning Revival Day's religious implications into a very real, very dangerous power grab.

After debuting on SyFy, Revival is set to reach an even bigger audience when it becomes available on Netflix, introducing the show's blend of small-town procedural and body horror to viewers who missed its original cable run. It's a natural fit for anyone who likes their horror grounded in character drama rather than jump scares xe2x80x94 closer in spirit to a mystery series that happens to have a supernatural premise than a traditional zombie story.

If you're into small-town secrets and slow-burn dread, check out our Which Sharp Objects Character Are You? and Which Yellowjackets Character Are You? quizzes for more of that same unsettling, everybody's-hiding-something energy xe2x80x94 or take our Which The Walking Dead Character Are You? quiz if it's the "dead who won't stay dead" part that hooked you.