The New South Korean Horror Drama series, Night Has Come, streamed its first episode on December 4, 2023 and ended on December 21, 2023. The show is set in a high school setting, starting with the protagonist, Lee Yoon Seo ,portrayed by Lee Jae In, waking up from a nightmare. In the present, she and her second-grade class at Yooil High School are on a field trip to the youth center. While all seems well, the students begin to realize their teacher is gone and phone signals are failing. Despite this, they continued to wander around. However, all of their phones got a message welcoming them to a mafia game and giving them information on their occupation in the game.
Night Has Come has a pretty cliche plot, being trapped in a killing game and a desperate race to stay alive. Despite this, it managed to keep me wanting more at the end of each episode. The first few episodes were done at a great pace, from the introduction to how the students got into the game, who’s good and who’s bad and the first deaths of some students. A simple routine. As the show goes deeper into the story, it is believed that there is a spirit making them participate in this game. Allowing many fans to come up with theories and analyze the cause of why they were put in this life-and-death situation. However, none of the theories were correct.
The most shocking thing in this show is the plot twist in episode 12. The whole game is not real. The students are trapped in a machine. Revealing the parents of their old classmate who passed away, they created the game after their daughter Park Se-eun’s, portrayed by Lami, committed suicide. The reason? Bullying. Their goal was to create a cycle for Se-eun’s classmates to experience pain and suffering in each game, with no hope of escaping. The ending shows Lee Yoon Seo at the beginning of another game, a never-ending cycle.
Though the actors executed their roles perfectly, their characters could be changed. For example, Kim So Mi, portrayed by Jung So Ri, should be depicted as the antagonist of the show because she only has flaws. Her character is there to hate on Lee Yoon Seo and cause harm to others, only for her to beg others for pity, expecting them to do so. Another example would be Jin Da-Bum, portrayed by Ahn Ji-Ho, who shows the trait of a serial killer, though it is a matter of life or death, it’s just unrealistic.
The motive for this game is somewhat debatable. While bullying is wrong, inflicting pain on others,half were innocent, for the rest of their lives is another level. Park Se-eun’s parents claimed that bullying caused the death of their daughter but they are doing the exact same thing to the students. What makes them different from actual bullies?
