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What’s shown here may be reminiscent of what real police officers have seen on the job. I’m not sure the show’s message is strong enough to justify depicting it.
November 10, 2022, was a day just like any other ordinary day. Folks commuted through the busy streets of Seoul, South Korea. Men and women drank coffee in a shop. Teenagers watched a YouTube video about a supposed cult calling themselves “The New Truth.”
Then, three black, sinewy creatures appeared out of nowhere and smote a man.
Nobody understood what was happening. Many managed to record it on their devices. But now, even upon reviewing the footage, Det. Jin Kyeong-hoon isn’t quite sure what he’s seeing.
The creatures, almost gorilla-like in their appearance, beat their victim mercilessly, chasing him through the streets. They tore him to shreds. And then, a white light emanated from their hands, reducing the man to ash in a matter of seconds.
The New Truth’s leader, Jeong Jin-soo, claims his organization knew the victim was going to die. Allegedly, this has happened before.
According to Jin-soo, the creatures have executed justice upon many people throughout the years—murderers, rapists, arsonists and more. Prior to their deaths, each criminal had received a visit from an angel-like creature, giving them the exact time of their death and condemning them to hell. Jin-soo calls these attacks “demonstrations.” He says they’re warnings from God for humanity to start living more righteously, and he adds that they’ll keep happening until we change.
Kyeong-hoon isn’t convinced. After all, if you only uphold righteousness and justice through fear of damnation, is that motivation really righteous or just?
Not to mention that if these creatures were so just and righteous, then they would have killed the man who murdered his wife. They would have slain every criminal that Kyeong-hoon had ever arrested who got away with it because of the corrupt court system.
No, Kyeong-hoon is pretty sure something else is going on. And while he doesn’t necessarily blame the New Truth for these horrific deaths, he’s at least sure they’re using the situation to their advantage—to scare people into embracing their false religion.
And when innocent people—or at least, people who haven’t broken the law—start receiving these death decrees soon after, Kyeong-hoon’s theory is confirmed.
Netflix’s Hellbound is based on a webtoon by Yeon Sang-ho (who also directs this series). And to me, it feels a bit like a slap in the face to Christianity.
As Christians, we know that we are all sinners. We know that the consequence of sin is death (see Romans 6:23). But we also know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins through His death on the cross. It’s a gift that He offers freely to all humanity because God so loved the world—so loved all of us. And He invites us to respond to that gift by following and trusting Him.
But Hellbound doesn’t really seem to get that.
The show seems to say that we are all sinners, in a way. But there’s no Jesus to save us. Rather, our works are what can save us, if we’re lucky and it’s not too late. Too late meaning that an “angel” (depicted here as a giant, smoky face with glowing eyes) has already decreed our deaths.
Things get tense when a three-day-old baby named Toughie is given a decree. In a public demonstration, Toughie is saved because the newborn’s parents sacrifice themselves when the creatures arrive. From that moment on, the Arrowhead (a radical spinoff of New Truth that commits acts of terrorism) tries to recreate Toughie’s demonstration, attempting to sacrifice their members to save others.
It pretty much fails every time. But I guess the showrunners wanted to depict some extreme religious fanatics?
Of course, it doesn’t end there. Jin-soo received his own decree as a child. He claims he had never sinned—never stolen, never lied, never so much as hurt someone’s feelings. And the fear of damnation (plus a hope that his mother, who had abandoned him, might return) pushed him to found New Truth and save others from their fates.
Well, again, it pretty much fails every time. So Jin-soo is smote.
But then, sometime after that, he’s resurrected. How? Why? Season 2 seems to promise some answers. But anyone daring enough to watch will have to sift through quite a bit of blasphemous teachings, foul language and graphic violence (Hellbound is TV-MA, after all) to figure it out.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
After a man is slaughtered by supernatural creatures in the middle of a crowded street, Det. Jin Kyeong-hoon investigates to find out if the death is related to the cult-like New Truth society.
Three black, sinewy creatures, not unlike gorillas in shape and size, attack a man, beating him to a pulp before incinerating him with a white light from their hands. Afterward, they disappear through a sort of interdimensional portal. We see the burnt corpses of other victims who died similarly. A video shows the creatures attacking another man elsewhere. And we’re told every person attacked was guilty of horrific crimes. There’s a lot of collateral damage at each attack site, but bystanders (while shoved aside) are mostly unharmed.
Members of the Arrowhead, a radicalized spinoff of New Truth that doxes victims of the creatures, attack an author who speaks out against the New Truth doctrine. They tie him up and beat him with bats, livestreaming the brutality. The man lives, but we see him heavily bandaged later. Police arrest some of his attackers, but they’re all teenagers who show no remorse for their actions.
New Truth claims that these violent deaths are “demonstrations” from God, warning humanity to live more righteously. One police officer hopes this is true—that criminals are being punished—since he’s tired of seeing bad guys get off scot-free. But Kyeong-hoon says it’s their job to catch the bad guys, not be their judges.
We learn that Kyeong-hoon’s wife was murdered and that her killer received a lenient sentence because he tested positive for drugs. His colleagues had to physically hold him back to prevent him from attacking the murderer after the fact.
We see eagles picking apart an animal carcass. We hear Jin-soo saved the life of someone who fell onto subway tracks. A teenager is grabbed by police when he tries to run away after getting arrested.
A man is reprimanded for interrupting a police briefing. Many people harass the police over the investigation of the creatures. There’s a distinct bias against religious groups among the police.
Kyeong-hoon vapes frequently. Somebody smokes a cigarette.
Jin-soo says he grew up in a Catholic orphanage but doesn’t embrace that belief system anymore. He does believe in God, though, and founded New Truth because he believes people need to live righteously or be condemned to hell. He thinks it’s OK to use fear as a motivator for righteous living. But he doesn’t condone the terrorist actions of the Arrowhead.
A giant, smoky face with glowing eyes (which Jin-soo describes as an “angel”) appears to a woman, informing her that she will die in five days and go to hell.
There are about five uses each of the f-word and s-word. We also hear uses of “h—,” “a–hole,” “b–tard” and “b–ch.
Several years after Jin-soo’s death, he’s resurrected and brought back from hell. But the world is reeling from the conflict between New Truth and the Arrowhead, which are now opposing religious factions with strong government ties.
Jin-soo’s death is replayed. He tells Kyeong-hoon that he received his own death decree when he was just a child. Although he’s never sinned (according to him), he’s lived in fear of damnation ever since. And he has done his best to spread that fear to the rest of humanity since he believes it’s the only way people will stop sinning and start living righteously.
After that, the creatures come and smite him. And he’s pulled into a sort of hell-loop where he relives the worst moments of his life over and over, such as when he was abandoned in a theme park as a child and when he saw his father abusing his mother. He also relives the moment when he and Hee-jeong (Kyeong-hoon’s daughter) killed the man who murdered her mother. However, he sees this from the perspective of the killer, and he’s burned alive.
When it’s all over, Jin-soo’s ashes reform and he’s resurrected, several years after his death. A member of New Truth finds him and bows to the ground.
Members of the Arrowhead broadcast a man’s decreed death (a so-called “demonstration”) as the creatures come for him. The man, terrified of dying, fights back against the Arrowhead, and they beat him with bats. When the creatures go to incinerate him, more than a dozen people throw themselves on top of the victim, hoping that their sacrifice will somehow redeem him. It fails, and the man is killed along with all the Arrowhead members who tried to stop it.
Before his death, the man admits he was a bully in school, and the Arrowhead informs him that one of his victims was traumatized into adulthood. We learn that Arrowhead is trying to recreate a previous demonstration wherein a baby was saved when his parents covered his body with their own. And a video shows part of that demonstration. One Arrowhead member is missing half her arm from a previous attempt to recreate this demonstration. The Arrowhead members who remain when it’s all over justify their actions, saying that God will protect their souls for at least trying to sacrifice themselves.
The new leader of New Truth is accused of fraud. He’s offended by the accusation, but he also doesn’t deny it. We learn New Truth has been keeping another resurrected person (Jin-soo wasn’t the only one to return from hell) in custody. And the government intervenes, wanting to use the woman as their figurehead so they can control the narrative surrounding the creatures that keep smiting people.
Arrowhead members attack the leader of New Truth, putting a rope around his neck and dragging him behind a car. He’s saved when his personal driver hits the vehicle dragging him. And the leader jumps into the car and drives away, leaving his driver behind.
A government official says there’s no such thing as truth. She claims New Truth and Arrowhead are corrupt, but her words and actions show the government is corrupt too.
Hee-jeong is sick, confined to her bed and taking lots of medications to manage her pain. Someone drinks alcohol.
We see a man’s bare rear.
There are three uses of the s-word. God’s name is abused, often paired with “d–n.” And we also hear uses of “a–,” “b–tard,” “h—” and “d–mit.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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