Netflix's Hellbound is a horror series about belief

RogerEbert.com

Netflix may have another South Korean hit on its hands with Hellbound. "The wrath of God has been rendered, cinematically speaking, in many shapes and sizes," says Nick Allen. "Sometimes it’s a perfect storm; sometimes it’s Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules striking great vengeance down upon thee with furious anger in Pulp Fiction. “Hellbound, an ambitious new Netflix series from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho based on a webtoon (The Hellbound), imagines the wrath of God as three smoky gray, towering Hulk-like beasts that appear out of nowhere and proceed to throw slam people into cars, walls, anything really, as if they were chew toys. They splatter a human being's blood everywhere, trashing the environment around them, and then torch said target to a crisp. We later learn that this first (known) victim was given a decree by a floating face in the sky, who told this poor guy exactly when he was going to die and be sent to hell. But in one of the show’s many exciting intellectual ideas, this highly bingeable series is not about the terror of the monsters, but what would happen next—how so many people would lose their minds and sense of self, especially if such a literal force of wrath were rationalized as vengeance for our sins. 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. Yeon’s series mixes this grounded horror with thoughtful discussions about how we define a sin, and what we as human beings are deserving of from such a God."

ALSO:

• Hellbound examines its unholy premise from a variety of angles, investigating the shame, fear, vigilante rage and tyrannical oppression that might arise from a paradigm-shifting turn of events
• Hellbound's most noteworthy accomplishment may be capturing a very specific feeling of collective helplessness