Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hellbound’ On Netflix, A Korean Thriller About A Cult, And Otherworldly Beings Condemning People To Hell

Netflix continues to pump out Korean shows that are a lot different from the romantic comedies that they license from other producers. Squid Game, of course, proved to be a worldwide megahit, and it’s about as grim a show as we’ve seen. So how about a show where dark figures come out of nowhere to send people to hell? Read on for more.

HELLBOUND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Seoul on a typical day. “The day was just an ordinary day.” We then see a cafe.

The Gist: While a bunch of students see a YouTube video by Jeong Jin-soo (Yoo Ah-in), the supposed leader of the New Truth Society, and footage of mysterious dark figures beating a person to death, a man sits at a table staring at the clock on his phone. As the clock hits 1:20 PM on November 10, a rumble goes through the city.

The massive dark figures in the video appear out of nowhere, and make their way towards the man, bashing people and things in their way. As he runs through the streets, the dark giants push and smash cars in order to get him. When they catch up to him, they beat him senseless before burning him into an unrecognizable husk.

A clearly distracted Jin Kyeong-hoon (Yang Ik-june), a police detective whose wife was murdered a few months prior, is late to the briefing about the case. His annoyed chief assigns him and fellow detective Hong Eun-pyo (Park Jung-pyo) to investigate the New Truth Society, as they have been spreading the word about these incidents.

They go to the scene and see a New Truth gathering, with “Chairman Jeong” explaining what happens: People who are convicted criminals see a ghostly presence that tells them what day and time they’re going to be sent to hell, and then the dark giants come at that prescribed time. They talk to Jeong about how he came to this prophecy; he first saw these creatures on a pilgrimage to Tibet, and it gave him a purpose in life, to find God and live righteously. Kyeong-hoon is already angry, having seen his daughter Hee-jeong (Lee Re) at the rally.

As he researches the case, he sees that an attorney named Min Hye-jin (Kim Hyun-joo) has investigated victims of the New Truth, and that there’s a connection between New Truth and a more extreme cult called The Arrowhead.

We cut to a scene where a mom named Park Jeong-ja (Kim Shin-rok) is being given a birthday cake by her kids; then all of a sudden a golden hologram of a mask shows up and says that she will go to hell in five days, at 3:00 PM.

Meanwhile, a man in neon makeup and a goat skull mask, representing The Arrowhead, goes online and talks about God’s judgement. He also broadcasts the name of the victim and wonders what he did to be damned as he was. He also shows video of teens beating up a sociology professor, Gong Hyeong-joon (Im Hyeong-guk), for giving an interview expressing doubt about this being due to God. Kyeong-hoon questions the professor, represented by Hye-jin, and Eun-pyo questions the teens, who are adamant that the world is about to change. For her part, Hye-jin thinks this is just the beginning of the violence by followers of The Arrowhead.

Then Park Jeong-ja shows up at Hye-jin’s office, after approaching Chairman Jeong about the incident. She tells Hye-jin about Jeong’s unusual request for the day she goes to hell.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Though there’s some more supernatural elements, Hellbound has a lot of elements about other shows where cops chase down cult leaders, like The Following.

Our Take: Hellbound, written by Choi Kyu-sok based on a webtoon of the same name, moves a bit slowly at first. Its trying to tie the threads of its story together, from these unusual, seemingly supernatural murders to Jeong and the New Truth, to the Arrowhead, and to how Kyeong-hoon tries to solve this weird crime while still in mourning.

It comes off as a bit disjointed, mainly because it’s trying to shoehorn all of its characters into the story. It does a better job than other shows with so many characters (we’re looking at you, The Wheel Of Time!), but it still leaves some holes in the story, like just who the Arrowhead is, why this guy in the goat skull mask is doing videos and what distinguishes them (if there is anything) from The New Truth.

But the killings themselves, and the case Kyeong-hoon is trying to solve, are intriguing enough to keep us watching. What he’s trying to do is figure out if there is an earthly answer to this otherworldly occurrence. Is Jeong full of crap or is there something to his prophecies? As Kyeong-hoon gets deeper into this case, it feels like things will be tied together, though it might take some time to get there.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Park Jeong-ja tells Hye-jin that The New Truth wants to do a live broadcast of the moment she goes to hell.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Kim Do-yoon, the crazy guy in the goat skull mask doing the videos for The Arrowhead. It takes good acting to be that authentically nuts.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite how slow and disjointed the first episode of Hellbound is, it sets up an interesting story that could go just about anywhere.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Hellbound On Netflix