As far as TV properties go, Hellbound has a pretty awesome hook. The gist of the six-episode live-action Netflix series is as follows: What would happen if angels began appearing, informing individuals that they would die for their sins in a few days, and when the time arrived, those people were beaten to death by hulking, smoking beasts?
That’s the actual scenario that opens the series. As people drink in a coffee shop on a random November day, a man stares anxiously at his phone. When the clock strikes the designated time, he panics, but when nothing happens, he begins to relax. Then, accompanied by a thunderous sound, three giant creatures burst through the wall, pursue the man down a busy street and beat him to death in front of hundreds of onlookers. The whole thing is, naturally, captured on video, uploaded to social media and becomes a viral sensation.
As inciting incidents go, this opening sequence is great: it’s exciting, bewildering and surprisingly bloody. The memory of the opener persists long after the series settles into a more traditional crime drama for the rest of the first episode. Even as police begin to investigate the strange event, discovering ties to an insidious religious group called New Truth and a second victim is warned of impending doom, the spectre of that initial attack looms large.
The Korean drama was developed by writer/director Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan, Peninsula) and illustrator Choi Kyu-seok, who adapt from their own webtoon, The Hell. The measured pacing of the early part of Train to Busan is on display here, as Sang-ho privileges the introduction of his main characters and delving into their backstories rather than hit audiences with a series of bombastic otherworldly action sequences.
Fans of police procedurals will feel very comfortable with Hellbound, whose lead is a brow-beaten detective, Jin Kyeong-hoon (Yang Ik-june). Jin is still recovering from the brutal murder of his wife and has a rocky relationship with his teenage daughter, Hee-jeong (Lee Re) who has been secretly volunteering at New Truth. As Detective Jin begins to dig into the case, he crosses paths with Yoo Ah-in‘s Chairman Jeong Jin-soo (Burning, #Alive), the leader of the cult, which is dedicated to spreading the gospel of the angels and encouraging citizens to repent for their sins.
Chairman Jung is a perplexing character. Not only is he very young, but he’s also hardly the nefarious villain that we’re accustomed to seeing in this role. He lives a frugal life, he’s relatively calm and quiet, but he has a powerful intensity and is unafraid of using his deep pockets to achieve what he wants. His motivations become more clear in episodes two and three as he engages first Hee-jeong, and then Detective Jin, in unsavory activities, but he’s still a bit of a mystery through the three episodes made available for review.
The final key member of the series is Min Hye-jin (Kim Hyun-joo), an attorney who is hired to represent the so-called sinners who are targeted by the avenging angels. This is the dominant storyline in episode two when the next victim is publicly named online and Ms. Jungja Park, a single mother of two, is offered a $3 million yen pay-out by the New Truth to broadcast her “demonstration” (ie: death) live to the masses.
While episode two features the least amount of action, it introduces a number of complex, murky moral quandaries. Ms. Park’s “sin” (as revealed by Chairman Jung) is that she had two children with two different men, a fact that is presented as a symptom of moral decay by an online shock jock host. This character is basically a riff on the hysterical, ill-informed media personality who wields huge power with zero responsibility or journalistic integrity. This man even encourages his viewers to doxx Ms. Park and prevent Min Hye-jin from sending the two children out of the country, which she attempts to do when it becomes clear that moral and religious hysteria is brewing. Despite the inspired costuming choice of putting this shock jock in neon attire under black lights, the character is grating, in part because he does little more than scream and rant, but also because this hyperbolic, unhinged character feels a little too real for the current political moment.
As Hellbound progresses, it’s clear Sang-ho and Kyu-seok are more interested in interrogating the underlining issues that would arise from the situation rather than simply depict people being brutally murdered by monsters. There’s no shortage of political hot button topics being explored, including for-profit religion, the public appetite for violence and the rise of hysterical puritanism. Alas not only is this a lot to cover, by filtering these issues through the lens of the detective and the attorney, the message becomes muddled. This is most evident in the third episode when Detective Jin and Min Hye-jin are personally targeted by the Arrowhead, a splinter cell of New Truth-ers who use violence to achieve their goals.
All in all, Hellbound is an intriguing, albeit unfocused series with a solid hook. While audiences looking for a long-form religious horror show may be underwhelmed, fans of supernatural-infused police procedurals will find plenty to appreciate.
