Netflix's Inventive New Horror Series Rakes in Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score

The newest, inventive horror series Hellbound from South Korea has achieved a big feat, scoring a rare perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show has a 100% rating on the review aggregation site, indicating that the critics have overwhelmingly responded positively to it, as reported by ComicBook.com. It joins shows like Bates Motel, Breaking Bad, and Penny Dreadful, all of which have seasons that are Certified Fresh with perfect 100% scores. "Summoned by the devilish imagination of writer-director Yeon Sang-ho, Hellbound leverages its terrifying concept to thoughtfully explore human fallibility, reads the RT Critics Consensus.

Hellbound, like the massively successful Netflix series Squid Game, is a South Korean-produced series. According to a synopsis of Hellbound, the series takes place in an alternate universe, "wherein supernatural creatures from hell suddenly materialize to drag humans to Hell. Bound to a metaphysical approach, it exposes the duality of not allowing your light to come forth and only slowing your dark to expose itself." The first few episodes follow "Jin Kyeong-hoon (Yang Ik-june), a detective investigating the happenings, and Jeong Jin-soo (Yoo Ah-in), the chairman of the New Truth." The final episodes "take place 5 years later" and focus on Bae Young-jae (Park Jeong-min), "a PD who has to struggle with the fact that his newborn baby is bound for hell."

In a review of the series, The Age writer Kylie Northover offered, "Hellbound's pacing might seem slow at first, but the narrative steadily evolves into a compelling mix of police procedural, violent horror and shrewd commentary around ideas of human flaws, mortality, sin, justice and the influence of media." Flick Fan Nation's Austin Burke added, "This series proves to go much deeper than anticipated, as the philosophical questions become just as interesting as the horrific violence. While the balance may not be perfect, there is plenty that will have viewers locked in from start to finish."

David Opie, of Digital Spy, explained, "Train To Busan's Yeon Sang-ho has crafted an eerie, twisty police procedural that uses supernatural ideas to explore far grander concepts around death and sin." Polygon's Zosha Millman praises the show by writing, "There can (and probably will) be more mystery to this story in future seasons, and I'll be devouring them with all the intensity of a supernatural smoke ape." Finally, Katey Stoetzel, from The Young Folks, said, "Hitting at various social themes in such a short amount of time is a difficult task, but Yeon Sang-ho gets the most out of his actors and the story to give us a captivating deconstruction of society.