Korean supernatural thriller is hell on earth
By Kylie Northover
November 18, 2021

Read the full article: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/korean-supernatural-thriller-is-hell-on-earth-20211116-p599ak.html

The “executors of Hell” in Netflix series Hellbound.

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan, Peninsula), and co-written with screenwriter Choi Kyu-Seok, Hellbound is an adaptation of their “webtoon” The Hell, and is as gory as you’d expect from the man who reanimated the zombie genre.

As news and footage of the incident spreads, so too does the public’s panic – good news for the charismatic Chairman Jung Jin-Soo, whose New Truth cult rapidly gains new followers.

Unconvinced that the man’s death was otherworldly, jaded police detective Jin Kyung-Hoon (Yang Ik-June) is assigned to the case, his attention immediately on Chairman Jung Jin-Soon, who is preaching that doing nothing in fear of committing a sin is not a solution, and urging people to “try to live righteously”.

Hellbound’s pacing might seem slow at first, but the narrative steadily evolves into a compelling mix of police procedural, violent horror and shrewd commentary around ideas of human flaws, mortality, sin, justice and the influence of media. Hellbound shares some sensibilities, too, with The Leftovers in its focus on humanity’s search for purpose in the face of the divine, but its exploration of the conflicting ways in which humanity might react to such a mass event feels like something to which we can all, in a small way, relate post-pandemic.