Strangers from Hell (2019)

Gruesome

From start to finish, the show was incredibly well pieced together. The main setting at them goshiwon really captured the creepy feeling of someone watching you at every moment. From Lee Dongwook creepily staring through a small hole in the wall to the camera panning over / through walls, you felt like another person peeping into hell. At certain points you pitied the characters, regardless of their "morals" (which it seemed every character was twisted). Some parts of the show are confusing leaving me with unanswered questions, but doesn't that just add to the suspense? The last episode is a long and bumpy ride leaving me wide-eyed and honestly begging for a season 2!

Overall, it's a binge-worthy show that will leave you feeling all sorts of different emotions. Dramas like this are a big harder to come by specifically because of how swift-paced the show is. No long and boring introduction to the plot, no gaps between conflict, and nothing unnecessary to the plot. Even the soundtrack was very good!

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Not that amazing.

I am torn, the story begins as the synopsis indicates and that a young man - Yoon Jong‑woo - will live in a residence where his neighbors are more than suspicious.

The problem is that there are only 10 episodes, and they could have made more use of them.
We practically have to wait for episode 3 to have a first interaction between our two protagonists, and it is neither memorable nor long. The build-up is slow, not much happens except the fact that we know from episode 1 what kind of people are his neighbors, it's a shame that it's not a surprise or a revelation for later, it would have been nice for the audience to wonder who is who.
So basically, until episode 7, the plot is slow - which is not a problem in other series - but here the interactions between our two characters are rare, there are no surprises and major revelations. Seems more like it's the build-up to why Yoon Jong‑woo freaks out and gets violent.
I agree with a review that says the show is all about insanity. The story isn't that amazing and it's really focused on our main protagonist going from normal young man to giving a free ride to his violence, the series has build-up only that.
I would have liked more, more between our characters who have a certain chemistry, that we understand more the motives of these characters since they are not mysterious.
All we have are two twins who giggle and are murderous, an equally murderous perv, the manager who seems just as crazy, and Seo Moon‑jo the creepy dentist. It feels more like these characters are here for the grand finale and when people will inevitably have to die.

I would say otherwise that the atmosphere and the tones of the series are well created, it's more or less scary, dark and horrifying. The overall production is good - but there are plot holes - and the actors, all without exception, fit into their roles perfectly, but none of the characters marked me personally.
Like I said already, the two protagonists interact very little, and suddenly Seo Moon‑jo decides that Yoon Jong‑woo is very special to him, without there being a tangible relationship between the two, except Seo Moon‑jo being creepy since the beginning and stalking Yoon Jong‑woo.
It's really the relationship that pops up, out of the blue, which is why I wish I had more episodes or else had them interact earlier so it doesn't seem so sudden.

The very end - the last ten minutes - is really the exciting part of the show, that ending is open ended, our character is inevitably changed, and there's a last minute twist, which leaves us with a possibility for a season 2 - even if I doubt it - and the return of a character.

But it's a nice crime series overall, it's not the scariest of the lot, nor the best scripted, but it's nice for those who like the genre, not a lot of mysteries though, it's more into the impact of scenes that are made to be scary and made us feel for Yoon Jong‑woo, but hey without suspense, it's hard to keep an interest.
The characters play their roles well even if I would have hoped for more, even coming from our two protagonists whose performance is good but nothing more.

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Amazing plot, great actors, awesome soundtracks and a rewatch value of 100%

So this is actually the first time i am writing a review but after watching this drama i just haad to write a review and praise this it. That being said, lets jump straight into the review. The plot of the drama was very well stocked, it started out pretty normally and slow so that you can get into the story step by step and then it adds to the intensity episode by episode. Every and i am saying every character was amazingly acted out by the wonderful actors/actresses and i want to praise one the most, which was the mentally disabled twins. That actor played his character so well i couldn't believe how he can keep up his role that well all the time. The scenery was greatly shot and i loved every moment of it. As soon as he entered the "Eden" Studio, that atmosphere of real creepiness instantly kicked in. The soundtracks backed up everything that was going on in the drama, they were just really filling that plot with creepiness. ONE THING and only this one thing that i missed in this drama was the background stories of every character living there, like i would have liked to know a bit more about them. I mean they tell how it got to that point and stuff but yeah more developed background stories would have been great. But maybe its more developed in the webtoon so yeah. All in all it's rewatchable and i will rewatch it for all the details i missed at the beginning of the drama when i didn't really know where it was going yet. So great work, hope to see more dramas like this!

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Entire Personality: "I Read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka"

TLDR: A pretentious drama crutching so much on metaphors relating it to another story that it ends up being not only exceptionally dull but also extremely grating. 

Whump meter: ▲▲▲▲◭ (there's a lot, ok).

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ 

I won't make this long because I honestly don't want to waste any more time with this drama. The worst offender regarding this drama is just how pretentious it feels. It really took the "It's all a metaphor related to The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka" and made that its entire personality. Because trust me when I say, the drama has little identity other than that. The characters are shallow, most being shy of a caricature we unfortunately and for some reason spend HOURS following. Especially SML (portrayed by Lee Dong Wook) was an inconsistent nightmare (LDW acted the crap out of this role, though, I'm in awe). I'm not gonna lie, for most of the drama I thought he was gonna end up being a slenderman-like entity with how all-over-the-place he was (which might've single-handedly made this drama a 9 for me) but that obviously wasn't the case. Even the phenomenal performances from literally every single actor in this drama couldn't save such midcore writing. 

The best thing the drama does (casting aside) is the unsettling vibe. I will admit, that was well captured and executed. From the claustrophobic feel to the overall 'wtf is wrong with this place' vibe. Kudos. Cinematography, production quality, OST, etc were all serviceable to good so no real complaints there either.

Without going into spoiler territory, the ending was bad. Nonsensical and not well executed. All tying back to this overly presumptuous superiority complex either the screenwriter or the original IP's writer had of making it 'poetic' and 'subverting expectations' and being 'deep'. I heard a lot of people call this a descent into madness, and I guess you could call it that? But even that feels a too generous. The drama has an unreliable narrator, but rather than being engaging and exciting to follow the main character's story from his unstable POV, it felt more dumb, boring, and irritating. Especially with the ending 'plot twist', it really brings to question the rest of the drama and how it unfolded, and not in the 'wow, I missed so much' kind of way but rather in the 'wtf, this makes no sense' kind of way. It's also strange for a drama already almost half the length of the usual Kdramas to still somehow be so exceptionally slow. So much time is spent meandering around half-baked side characters or just, standing... If this were an hour and a half long indie film, then whatever, but come on.

In the end, the drama is merely alright. It does some things good, some things bad, like most dramas out there. However, this drama somehow manages to have mostly 9s and 10s across the ratings, which is shocking to me but I'm glad people like it. Would I have enjoyed watching this more if people didn't unanimously claim that it was the best thing since slice bread? Probably. But that wasn't the case, so I'm not only disappointed I watched a mid show; I'm also disappointed I watched a pretentious show everyone claimed to be phenomenal. 

This isn't the first time something referencing The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was midcore and irritating so I think it's best for me to just stay away from that all together, lmao.

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ 

◇ Was it what I was expecting? No. 
◆ Did it live up to its potential? No. 
◇ Would I watch it again? Definitely no. 
◆ Would I recommend it to others? Probably not.

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Mind-blowing and Fantastic

Strangers from Hell was unlike anything I had seen before. Im Siwan's rent must have been due because he bodied JongU. The acting, especially Siwan's was impeccable. Lee Dongwook is my favorite acter and watching this after seeing him as Lee Yeon in Tale of the Nine-Tailed was crazy. The twists and turns in Strangers from Hell we're just twisty and turny enough to make it mind-blowing but not completely unbelievable. Strangers from Hell had one of the craziest endings in anything I'd ever seen. When I finished it for the first time, I was completely shocked by it. Watching JongU's sanity deteriorate was fascinating yet heartbreaking. Strangers from Hell is truly one of, not only Kdramas, but piece of media I've ever seen.

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Why the ML Can’t See Red Flags

I am only partway through this drama but it’s dawned on me that part of the overall horror and a big part of what keeps the plot going is that Jong-woo, the ML, doesn’t have a healthy instinct for self-preservation. if he did he would have left Eden Boarding House in 5 minutes even though his rolling suitcase was broken.

It’s not that he’s stupid or oblivious or anything like that. We do see early on that he has a knack for making not-great choices. The big problem is that he’s just so accustomed to dealing with dysfunction, humiliation, and outright abuse in his day-to-day life and just brushing away all the ill feeling it gives him that he can no longer recognize when he’s in a dangerous situation and react appropriately.

Look at how he gets treated by the people in his workplace and elsewhere: he’s told he’s too sensitive, has his emotions invalidated, and even gets told to smile more! A lot of women are probably all too familiar with this kind of treatment. Jong-woo has internalized a lot of it too. He keeps telling himself to ignore really bizarre and awful things at the boarding house, insisting to himself that he’s being ridiculous, so by the time he realizes how bad the situation really is, it’s almost too late.

It’s this dynamic that makes the progression of the story so natural and adds to the subtle sense of horror/dread.

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Very underwhelming and boring

First of all let me say Si Wan was the only reason this show was kind of entertaining. If he wasn't here this would've been a DRAG. I truly don't understand why y'all gave this show its flowers when it was in fact not deserved in the slightest. This was only 10 episodes long (I thought it was at least 16 episodes) but somehow went by so slow. 9/10 of the show was very repetitive for literally no reason and just wasn't needed? Like what's the point of being secretive about what's going on when we know damn well?? Like just get to the point please. The last episode is when things finally get going but by then it's way too late. The last couple of scenes were good though. The show wants to be creepy so bad but it only works in the first episode because of its subtleness. After that it just gets tiring. There was just no story here. The actors did the best they could with what they were given which wasn't much. Definitely wouldn't rewatch.

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Great premise but painfully ableist

I started watching the first episode and I was very happy with it. I loved the main character instantly and it had very good dry humor. As far as I understood the premise of the story was basic but that doesn't mean anything, I'm sure they made something great out of it.
What wasn't great was that carricature of a disabled person. I was in physical discomfort seeing the actor act like that. The character is a harmful stereotype of disabled people being stupid, strange and - what I found worst - dangerous. Of course disabled people can be bad people, but the drama implied he's bad because of his disability. It would have been very easy to come up with a different character, just saying.

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Gente, que dorama! Amei. Eu já imaginava que ia ser bom, mas não tanto assim.
É um ótimo suspense criminal/policial, que é o meu gênero favorito. Fiquei muito feliz de encontrar um dorama nesse estilo, já que é tão raro. Inclusive a Coreia deve investir muito mais nesse gênero de dorama.
A história começa com o personagem principal, Jong Woo, um jovem recém-formado, se mudando pra Seul, onde ele conseguiu um estágio. Por não ter condições financeiras ele tem que se mudar pra um goshiwon, e com o tempo o prota vai perceber que tem alguma coisa muito estranha no lugar e com seus moradores. E é aí que a história vai se desenrolar.
É um dorama que prende a nossa atenção desde o início e que você não quer parar de assistir, pra saber o que vai acontecer. Eu normalmente não maratono doramas, mas esse eu tive que maratonar.
Além do mais, o dorama tem uma aura de suspense e tensão o tempo todo, mesmo o suspense/terror sendo o meu gênero favorito de filmes e séries, eu fiquei bem assustada assistindo esse dorama. A sensação que você tem é que pode acontecer alguma coisa a qualquer tempo.
Já o roteiro dele é muito bom, ele foi muito bem produzido, não tem furos na história e tudo é verossímil, poderia acontecer facilmente na realidade. Também as atuações são excelentes, inclusive eu tinha asco e raiva de vários personagens, de tão bem interpretados, eu especialmente fiquei muito surpresa com a atuação do Lee Dong Wook, o personagem dele é totalmente diferente dos outros trabalhos que eu já vi dele, ele deu um show de atuação.
Fora os crimes, o dorama trata de outros temas. Ele mostra bem o ambiente de trabalho extremamente estressante da Coreia, onde os chefes e colegas humilham e exploram os que estão em posição inferior, e também a pressão que os jovens adultos sofrem pra serem bem-sucedidos, e em pouco tempo conquistar bens materiais.
E por último, a principal mensagem que o dorama passou pra mim é que os seres humanos são influenciáveis, que nós podemos mudar totalmente por causa das pessoas a nossa volta e de situações que acontecem conosco. Além disso, que ninguém é totalmente uma boa pessoa.
Então recomendo muito esse dorama, tenho certeza de que você vai gostar! Ainda mais se você estiver procurando um dorama fora do comum.

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