“Hellbound”: What if you are the one bound for hell?
We’re all going to die one day, but most of us don’t know when, how, or what will happen to us after that inevitable event. This is a reality we all live with, and that much of modern life under capitalism actively encourages us to ignore. But what would you do if you knew the exact moment you were destined to die? For a nameless man in the opening scene of Netflix's latest six-episode K-drama, “Hellbound”, that question is much too real.
Adapted from his own webtoon by the name “Hell”, director Yeon Sang-Ho and writer Choi Gyu-Seok present us a story about the universal issues about life and death and human nature which spoke not only to Koreans but also to audiences around the world. Officially released on 19 October 2021, the drama starts with the nameless man sitting at a table in a busy café, staring at the clock on his phone with sweat dripping from his panicked face. While a bunch of students sees a YouTube video by the leader of the New Truth Society Jeong Jin-Soo (Yoo Ah-In) about footage of mysterious dark figures beating a person to death, the time hits 1:20 pm on the man’s phone. A moment of relief flashes on the man's face as nothing happens at first.
But only some seconds later a rumble rips 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. The three giant ape-like creatures attack and violently murder the man in broad daylight. Once he's beaten to death, the monsters burn the corpse until all that remains is an ashy skeleton. With their work complete, the three otherworldly beings jump back to whatever hellish realm they came from. It’s an appropriately horrifying introduction to a series that doesn’t let up the tension for six whole episodes, diving into a world where angels appear to inform people of their sins, forewarn them of their time of death before monsters show up at the appointed time to drag them to hell.
The series doesn’t waste any time thrusting you into the show's unique premise, in which we soon discover that there are also ‘angels’ alongside these three demons who give the prophecy to the chosen ones. These ‘angels’ are the creatures that deliver people’s death sentences. They manifest as a giant, floating face hovering ominously in the air, giving their targets an exact time for their deaths as well as the news that they are bound for hell. It could be mere seconds or it could also be many long and agonizing years, but once the countdown comes to an end, that's when those beastly creatures come and send you straight to hell. As you might expect, religious fanatics soon latch onto the idea that angels have stepped in to send sinners to hell. We don’t know where the monsters come from or where they go, though the New Truth wants everyone to believe that the monsters have been sent by God and that their victims go to hell, as the “angels” decree.
We get to know all about these demons and so-called ‘angels’ from the New Truth Society. The religious organization was following the demon-killings for more than a decade with the help of the founder and leader Jeong Jin-Soo. Jin-Soo proclaims that these occurrences are acts of a God who has grown tired of waiting for humanity’s righteousness and is only attacking the sinners. After the man was killed in broad daylight people starts to actually believe that the attacks are related to someone's great sin. He claims that those who have been chosen for the “demonstrations” are sinners, and encourages his followers to uncover the sinful acts that have led to their condemnation. But he’s also the only person offering anything like answers, and he has gained devoted followers who worship him like a messiah for his teachings.
As the religious people get swayed by these purported ‘acts of God’, which escalate in frequency and violence, a subsect of New Truth's followers known as 'The Arrowhead' riles up live broadcast-by-broadcast by a screeching man named Dong Wook (Kim Do-Yoon). From a gaming chair, he makes grandiose assumptions about why so-and-so received a decree and shows how the mania of fear can lead to witch hunts. Members of the Arrowhead, usual teenagers gang up as a collection of masked, hooded, disguised, and face painted youth that holds bats, sticks, and metal rods, attacks people, and brutally kills them.
The show is split into two time periods a few years apart with different casts though there are several crossover characters. The first three episodes of “Hellbound” are less concerned with explaining how these supernatural things are happening and more interested in depicting how different elements of society respond to this while the second half takes place in a world already changed. In the first half, we see the Seoul police department trying to solve the nameless man’s death like a typical murder case rather than one perpetrated by demon monsters with the help of detective Jin Kyeong-hoon (Yang Ik-June). They look for an explanation as to how this tragedy happened, but are soon waylaid into dealing with the fear-driven harassment and violence as it becomes a religious matter for people.
It seemingly takes no time at all for Seoul society to fall into a trap of hysteria, scorn, and religious propaganda. There's no room for nuance in this new world. You're either a sinner or you're not, and regardless of the seriousness of your supposed crimes, you deserve to suffer and with your family. Just like several people, Min Hye-Jin (Kim Hyun-Joo) a lawyer also stands up against the New Truth and the Arrowhead. She initially tries to help a doomed single mother named Park Jang-Ja who received a prophecy and decided to let the New Truth broadcast her death live. In this hundreds of onlookers, streamers, and mainstream media assemble to watch a woman die.
“Hellbound” really does a great job of depicting the ugliness of a vulnerable society in this new world.
In the second half of the show, it blows up. We see many new characters in a new timeline. In this part, we are introduced to Bae Young-Jae (Park Jeong-min), a cynical TV producer frustrated by the oversight of the New Truth Society, which now wields enormous national influence. His wife, Song So-Hyun (Won Jin-A), has just given birth and he soon finds out that his newly born baby is bound for hell in just three days.
Now the real question arises. If these demon-like creatures are only punishing those who are sinners then what type of sin did the baby do? Was being born her fault? Or is it god’s mistake according to the New Truth?
"Hellbound" deals with serious topics, such as life and death, sin and punishment, and the clash of humans and God in judgment about what makes people sinful. It ensures that while the pummeling monsters stubbornly remain a mystery, the brutality that human beings commit to each other always hurts. It is the kind of horror series that visibly grows with each episode, while it becomes apparent how much the storytellers have considered the scenario at hand in a much-grounded sense.
This series is not mainly about the terror of the monsters, but the terror here is people, the opportunists, cult leaders, and blind believers who follow fear to the point of shaming others, hating others, destroying each other for the goal of earning God's mercy. Director Yeon Sang-ho’s series mixes this grounded horror with thoughtful discussions about how we define sin, and what we as human beings are deserving of from such a God. Even though the main idea is absurd, the madness within "Hellbound" is extremely believable.
The director said about this drama, “From the beginning, I created ‘Hellbound’ thinking that it would be a show for people who enjoy this kind of genre or watch deep things, rather than thinking it would please the general public. It’s more surprising that more people are watching and talking about it than I had expected.” He also said that there is a chance of it having a Season 2.
“Hellbound” has been a hit on the streaming service worldwide, where it's currently the top non-English language series around the globe with over 43 million hours watched in its first three days of release. Just a day after its release on November 19, the drama rose to the top. It shows how good this show is.
Once you start this drama, you are bound to finish it. And, this is our prophecy.
* Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 10th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka