Super-natural versus Supernatural in Korean Horror: Sweet Home, Hellbound, and Kingdom

 Note: This paper was originally delivered at the Squid Game and Beyond Conference, CCSU, April 14, 2023, and does not take into account Season 2 of Sweet Home. 

Among the most popular recent horror series streamed on Netflix are the Korean offerings Sweet Home, Hellbound, and Kingdom. Not only are these series particularly gruesome, but they tread an interesting line between (pseudo)scientific and spiritual explanations for their apocalyptic events. In portraying an apparently permeable membrane between what is normally considered to be an “either/or” in Western works (for example, the scientific explanation of zombies in World War Z versus the supernatural explanation for the Cenobites in the Hellraiser series) such works facilitate a discussion on the nature of cultural science.

Period drama Kingdom is based on a webtoon series The Kingdom of the Gods, with both written by Kim Eun-hee. In the prequel film Ashin of the North the eponymous character is a young girl who accidentally discovers the so-called resurrection plants in a forbidden forest. A rock painting warns “THIS PLANT BRINGS THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE… BUT YOU MUST PAY THE PRICE.” While she intends to use the plant to help her dying mother, when her entire village is wiped out, scapegoats in a political tug of war between the ruling Joe-son government and local clans, she uses the plant to create zombies to exact her revenge, first against local soldiers and ultimately the Joe-son government by spreading the plant across the peninsula. In particular, shortly before the historical Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 she sells the plant to physician Lee Seung-hui.

During the war Chief State Councillor Lord Cho Hak-ju directs Lee to use the plant to create an army of zombies from sick and starving villagers, leading to a legend that the fictional "Battle of Unpo Wetland" was won by a mere 500 Korean soldiers turning back 30,000 Japanese invaders. In actuality, after the battle ended, the zombies were secretly destroyed. Several years later Lord Cho’s daughter is the pregnant Queen consort to the king, and when the king dies of smallpox, he is secretly resurrected as a zombie while they wait for the Queen to give birth. The crown prince, the son of a concubine and destined to be replaced by the Queen’s son, smells a rat and secretly leaves the capital in search of Lee Seung-hui.

A zombie epidemic is unintentionally created in the countryside, when Lee’s assistant Dani – who had been bitten by the zombified king – dies and his body is used to make a stew for starving villagers. Physician Seo-bi slowly pieces together the symptoms of the disease as well as its cause, finding the plant in the forbidden forest. In all her research she uses a careful analytical methodology identifiable to the audience as similar to the Western scientific method. For example, she notes that Dani had not turned into a zombie, but anyone who ate his flesh did, as well as all those who are subsequently bitten by these new zombies. While it appears that the zombies are inert during daylight hours, she discovers that it is not the sunlight itself that governs their behavior but the air temperature – and since they are heading into winter the zombies will become increasingly active during the day. When Cho Hak-ju himself is bitten by a zombie, Seo-bi recalls observing that zombies are afraid of water (having refused to cross a small stream) and immerses him in a bath. When worms are seen emerging from his wound Seo-bi realizes that the plant is the inert carrier of the disease; rather it is parasitic worms that lay their eggs on the flowers.

There is an interesting amount of real-world science in the series. The Resurrection plant of the series is based on a real plant, Ramonda myconi, one of the resurrection plants so-named because the plants themselves can be revived from an apparently dead and decayed state with the application of water. Smallpox was one of the most feared epidemic diseases in Korea until the early twentieth century. In the Joe-son period, smallpox was a particular problem. However, much of the science in the series is related to traditional Korean medicine or hanbang. Hanbang is a holistic system of treatment that relies on four treatment methods: acupuncture, traditional herbal medicine, burning dried mugwort placed on particular parts of body, and cupping. Illness is thought to be related to an imbalance in the vital forces um (or yin) and yang. Therefore symptoms are often interpreted psychosocially. Reading the patient’s pulse is particularly important, and hanui (traditional Korean physicians) often diagnose based on the pulse alone. An important example can be seen in Kingdom. Lord Cho asks Seo-bi to examine his daughter, the Queen consort, and using the pulse alone Seo-bi determines that the pregnancy was faked. In addition, the original zombification method uses acupuncture needles to deliver the parasite’s eggs into the brain of the king to revive him. Parasites are a familiar trope in the horror and science fiction screenwriter’s toolkit – they speak to what horrifies and simultaneously fascinates us. Parasites are natural, and can also be metaphorical, as seen in the Korean film Parasite. But spiritual possession is a supernatural type of parasite as well.

Sweet Home is based on a webtoon by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan. Directed by Lee Eung-bok, Sweet Home follows Cha Hyun-su’s move to a rundown apartment complex named Green Home after the accidental death of his family. The building’s tenants are misfit loners, broken people who might be considered monstrous to the masses even before the supernatural events unfold. Hyun-su’s plan to waste time on the internet and eat delivery food until committing suicide is interrupted when his neighbors start to turn into monsters. A ragtag group including Hyun-su and firefighter Seo Yi-kyung come together to fight for survival as monsters increasingly run amuck outside the building and within. One of the websites that Hyun-su frequents is the Crucru blog, which warns people about the monstrous transformations, calling it a curse rather than a disease. The military eventually declares martial law and shares with the citizens that “an unspecified number of people have been turning into unknown creatures. The exact cause is still unknown, but it is believed to be related to human desire. It is not a respiratory or blood-borne infection. Quarantine those who show symptoms of hypothermia, nosebleeds, fainting, and auditory or visual hallucinations.” The residents of Green Home are confused, initially refusing to believe there is a connection with human desire. Instead they cling to the idea that it is a virus or radiation (a more scientific explanation) although the possibility that it is “God’s punishment” is also offered. 

While the residents try to keep each other safe, Hyun-su experiences symptoms, but does not transition into a monster (except that he has the strength and healing powers of one). Perhaps because he is already dead inside emotionally the parasitic curse has nothing to feed off of. However, he becomes relentless in his desire to help his neighbors survive, especially children. Meanwhile Yi-Kyung breaks into her fiancé Nam Sang-won’s hospital office and discovers that the Crucru blog is his. Unknown to her he had begun to show symptoms of the curse and had volunteered to be experimented on by the military. These experiments had two goals: try to remove the monster from the human host (aligning it to parasitism) or find a way to utilize those like Hyun-su who remain mostly human after becoming symptomatic. These so-called “special infectees” are hoped to be usable as weapons against the monsters. Again, it is interesting that a “curse” that emphasizes psychological and perhaps ethical dimensions rather than the physical is treated scientifically and studied using scientific techniques.

The parasitic nature of the curse is highlighted in several ways; the symptomatic “auditory or visual hallucinations” can be seen as the inner monster entering into dialogue with the infected, such as Hyun-su. At least one of the infected has the ability to possess the bodies of others, depicted as a “slime monster” leaving one body and entering another. This individual, who calls himself Jung Ui-Myeong, also volunteered to be experimented on and noted “They made every effort to separate it from me. They tried freezing, thawing, sawing, piercing, and scorching. What do you think happened in the end? It never comes out! Why not? Because the monster isn't in me. It is me! I realized then… that this is an evolution! That I was chosen! Humans have failed. Not only did they fail in experiments, but they also failed to be selected by nature.” The truth of this claim is left vague at the end of Season 1, but begs the question as to whether humanity can live without its inner monsters in general (like a symbiotic relationship whose elimination would kill the host).

Hellbound is based on a webtoon by Yeon Sang-ho, who also directed the Netflix series. He is famous in horror circles for his 2016 zombie film Train to Busan. Hellbound begins in a coffee shop with young friends arguing about the truth of a social media video of a man recounting his encounter with an ominous angelic being that prophesized his time of death and fate to be doomed to hell. Other videos show three humanoid monsters brutally killing those who received such a “decree.” Is it CGI or a horrific reality, they argue. They end up as witnesses to the aforementioned executioners bursting into the shop and chasing a man down the street, ultimately torturing and killing him like hungry cats abusing a mouse, incinerating him into a burnt smoking skeletal husk before disappearing in thin air.

Self-appointed chairman of the New Truth Church Jeong Jin-su has been posting videos of these “demonstrations” on the internet in the hopes of convincing people that this is God’s will – that we behave more righteously or risk damnation. Jin-su distances himself from his more radical followers, called the Arrowhead and led by a social media influencer who wears a Skull Mask, who take it upon themselves to torture and even kill those who would question the holiness of their mission. For example, a novelist who compares the New Truth Church with medieval theocracy is brutally beaten on a live stream video and forced to recant his views.

On the other end of the spectrum we have the police, who conduct a very scientific forensic investigation of the victim’s demonstration. They ascertain that the body was quickly burned at a high temperature but the creatures didn’t leave any physical evidence. An autopsy of the burnt carcass reveals that it is not a human body but “something supernatural,” which utterly confounds the police. Detectives are told to investigate the New Truth but not to “incite them” because “it’s best not to mess with religious groups.” Similarly Min Hye-jin, a partner at the Sodo law firm attempts to help those who receive decrees from the machinations of the New Truth Church, whose pockets run very deep indeed. Single mother Park Jung-ja is paid 3 million won by New Truth to live stream her demonstration as a TV reality show spectacle, with the rich and well-connected given front row seats (their identities protected with masks). Park’s children become the victims of a witch hunt by believers who want to know what sins their mother had committed and barely escape to Canada. Park’s demonstration is particularly gruesome and its telecast leads to a nationwide paralysis as people are stunned and fearful that any of them could be next, increasing Jin-su’s power exponentially.

Min’s desire to uncover the truth behind the New Truth leads her to the rundown trailer HQ of little-known church leader Kim Jeong-chil. She is shown an early interview with Jin-su in which he describes his own decree, received 20 years before the present, and his original opinions of the event as from “something fearsome” rather than an angel and his doubts that the message was from God. Simultaneously Jin-su confesses the same to Detective Jin Kyeong-hoon, and explains that he was just an innocent orphan when he received his decree. His twisted theology was an attempt to make some sense of the situation, and to share the agony of his own fear with the world in an attempt to make them more righteous, even if it meant inventing sins to explain some decrees, hiding the decrees of the innocent, and even faking some demonstrations to increase belief in it being God’s will. Jin-su blackmails Kyeong-hoon into covering up his imminent demonstration, while Kim Jeong-chil, who has been declared the new Chairman of New Truth by Jin-su, sends Arrowhead to kill the lawyer.

The second half of the season begins after a time jump of about 5 years, during which time New Truth has become a worldwide powerhouse under the careful rein of Kim Jeong-chil. Children publicly denounce their sinning parents, and the Arrowhead now openly enforces righteousness through intimidation. Deacons of the church – notable in their matching seafoam green uniforms – use the police as pawns to track down those who seek to hide their demonstrations from public view, an understandable response given the public humiliation their families receive during the televised demonstrations. The coffee house and Park’s apartment – sites of the first two public demonstrations in Korea – are now museums dedicated to celebrating righteousness. While the now-dead Jin-su is said to be traveling the world, Kim Jeong-chil focuses on the ratings of his televised demonstrations.

Scientific study of the events has been driven underground by the power of the church. Min, who survived her attack, works with college professor Gong Hyeong-jun and others to protect the families of the decreed. The professor notes that the church “tells us only sinners are subjected but we know that’s a lie. It’s more like a supernatural thing that can’t be explained. Jung Jin-su gave meaning to this, by calling it God’s will” while it is “just like an earthquake or any other natural disaster. It can happen to any one of us. It’s not about punishing or about being punished.” He is murdered by Arrowhead in a faked demonstration at the Deacons’ behest. The corruption of the church is itself demonstrated to the world when a newborn baby receives a decree, doomed to die and go to hell in the first week of its life. Min announces the decree to the world and assures that it is livestreamed (don’t worry there is a plot twist at the end and Toughie survives) while the corrupt and power-hungry Chairman and deacons debate how they will change their theology in response to the innocent baby’s decree to prevent the now docile masses from questioning their power.

Steve Greene of IndieWire summarizes the series as reflecting “the dangers of weaponized beliefs.” But a careful consideration of the series in a Korean social context reflects a far deeper meaning behind it. Korean media critics were quick to point out that the series pokes fun at religious fanatics and cults, and political cults as well. For example, it was noted that Pastor Kim Jeong-chil’s name is eerily similar to that of Kim Jong-il, the former supreme leader of North Korea, who, like Pastor Kim, inherited power from his predecessor as part of a religious dynasty rather than a political one. It should be noted that there exists considerable tension between the secular and the spiritual in South Korea. Recent polls suggest 60% of Koreans identify as having no religion, up from 50% nearly a decade ago. Fringe religious groups have been implicated in fraud and criminal behavior, including rape, mass suicide, and murder. For example, in 1987, 33 bound and gagged members of the Odaeyang cult were found dead in a factory, including their leader Park Soon-ja, who believed that this decadent sinful world was coming to an end. Korean viewers would be aware of this history; Western viewers, not so much.

Herein lies a major problem with viewing these three series through a Western lens. Kingdom interrogates the modern prejudice in Western culture that frequently denigrates pre-modern and folk knowledge (especially as it applies to medicine) as superstition, as does Sweet Home, with its acceptance that what seems to be a disease can have a psychosocial basis.  Jianne Soriano of the Cinema Escapist website complains that in her opinion Sweet Home “doesn’t clearly explain why certain characters turn into monsters, leaving the audience scratching their heads. The series alludes to human material desires as the reason; this concept, while intellectually and artistically interesting, is never fully explored, getting muddled in a poorly-executed plot.” To someone who understands the holistic nature of traditional Korean medicine, the plot makes a great deal more sense. Finally, Hellbound speculates on how society might respond when neither science nor mainstream religion can provide an explanation to supernatural events, in particular in a culture such as Korea that has a rich history of syncretism and the melding of different belief systems. American viewers of all three series are certainly missing much of their message. In particular, the subtleties of the intersections between the scientific and spiritual – the super-natural and supernatural – will be lost in translation.