Strangers From Hell Episode 10 REACTION
Added 2023-08-22 18:37:08 +0000 UTCSo sorry for keeping you guys waiting! I got so caught up in getting this reaction somewhat on time that I forgot to record an intro hehe!
Long discussion about the ending of the show if you're interested, and feel free to drop your thoughts and theories!
Comments
I would love to see you react to Flower of evil 🙏🙏
Kayla
2023-08-23 02:39:58 +0000 UTCi agree with the second Theorie .
fabrice maire
2023-08-23 02:12:16 +0000 UTCgood analysis as often DG. yes there are 2 possibilities but each time the Dentist wins - 1 the dentist manipulated, terrorized and played on Jong woo's nerves so much that Jong woo became his puppet. and mixed between reality and delirium Jong woo kills everyone except the dentist who is still alive (theory that could be true because Jung hwa the female cop sees him in the elevator at the hospital) -2 same scenario but Jong woo also kills the dentist which would mean that Him and Jung wha are in a post traumatic state and have visions of a dead person. as in Seven the dentist would be the winner despite his death because he will have created a monster. it's a very decent thriller among the many that are produced in korea my thriller in drama format remains Mouse which is by far one of the best written I've seen with Gap Dong.
fabrice maire
2023-08-23 02:02:01 +0000 UTCAnd FINALLY, my own thoughts on this episode/show. - Okay, the way I was losing my mind when Jong Woo's army buddy drank the drink - when I first watched it and now. Also, that shit with the knives had me dying 🤣🤣 - I was really hoping you'd watch the end credits (I forgot to mention it), they showed what each character looked like in the webtoon and it was damn crazy how accurate the casting was (also, was hoping to see your reaction to the very end of those credits). I'd recommend to watch it in your own time at least, they're really well done! 😊 - The psychological aspect of the drama would hit anyone harder though there will be many questions which would be left unanswered as there are considerable number of loopholes in the story. - This show expresses that human behavior is largely dependent on their surroundings. Everyone has both sides - good and evil. Depending on the situation and the outside elements of the surrounding environment where a person constantly comes in contact, provokes them to act in a certain way which might lead to cognitive dissonance if being exposed to too much negativity for a longer time. - Different neurotic aspects such as anxiety, paranoia, schizophrenia which all sprouted from poverty, low income, low social status, unemployment and dissatisfactory life would also result in a person becoming gradually hysteric or cynical. Jong Woo is shown to have all, or at least is showing symptoms of many of these. Psychosis is when you lose contact with reality and might have hallucinations and delusions. Schizophrenia is actually a type of psychosis and the actual cause is unknown, but environmental factors could be a part of it (so Jong Woo didn't have to be born with it). Unfortunately, I believe that Jung Woo has some form of psychosis at the end. - We all go through many phases in life where we imagine some gruesome thing to happen to the person we hate the most. Nevertheless we refrain from conducting such behavior due to our conscience. But what if we lose our self control or conscientiousness? Are we going to change into a devil then? “Strangers from Hell” is the literal portrayal of our intense inner negative thoughts and I love it, but it's also what creeps me out at the same time! 😬 - The story might be unrealistic yet the caliginous psychological aspect is the reality within us which mostly goes unspoken. Human beings are the scariest – that was the main theme. We keep being worried about some non-existen monsters under our bed, but often forget how scary human beings can be. No wonder the insanely eerie expressions and feeling every character of the studio exuded was utterly frightening 😅 - Honestly though, I could just tell the show wouldn't have a happy ending as soon as I started watching. The atmosphere was too gloomy and there's barely any comedic relief at all 🥲 - I grow to appreciate the show more and more. My favourites were Im Siwan and Lee Dong Wook in the acting department, but honestly, the acting of Jong Woo was perfect! All of Im Siwan's crazy expressions were so fun to watch! And you mentioned the sound design (and it is great), but the actual OSTs are so haunting and beautiful! And the cinematography is one of the things I start appreciating after re-watching the show. The story keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat and keeps you guessing all the way through, I grew to love how this show explores the human mind. The ominous atmosphere makes you feel like something terribly bad is going to happen any second.
Klara
2023-08-23 01:52:06 +0000 UTCI also have some other theories I heard and observations of my own regarding the show, and some fun facts. These might be kinda random 😅 - The actor who plays the dentist (Lee Dong Wook) sent a coffee truck to the set of Jong Woo (Im Siwan's) upcoming drama. The banner on the coffee truck read, “As expected, you’re the best work of art I’ve ever made. To Lee Dong Wook, Im Siwan is heaven.” In response, Im Siwan captioned his post, “To Im Siwan, Lee Dong Wook is heaven.” - The core message of the show is looking into whether an environment can shape a person or not. Jong-woo even poses this question to himself. It plays a lot with the 'evil nature principle' which is even mentioned in the show: “the nature of man is evil; his goodness is only acquired training.” - Does the weather get worse as Jong Woo's mental health deteriorates? At the beginning of the show, it's unbearably hot, but as the show goes on, the characters don't talk about it as much. In ep.8, when Jong Woo lost it at the bar, Moon Jo commented: "The air's so humid. The rainy season's coming I guess?" And in the previous ep, there was a report of a typhoon 'Gimi' approaching Korea. In this one, where Jong Woo becomes a complete mad-man, it's pouring, the typhoon is presumably here. - In the original script, it's also said that the reason Moon Jo always wears long sleeves is because his mother abused him, so his arms are scarred, and that he killed his mother, which is why he ended up in the orphanage. Could Jong Woo have killed more people, since he's clearly an unreliable narrator? In this episode we're shown others killing, but it was actually Jong Woo. There's a few other instances where this could be the case: - When the dentist killed the CEO, he hit him over the head with a penguin statue sitting in the office. In a few episodes before that, Jong Woo is shown in the background holding that same statue and looking it over. He was also really unstable in that episode and had a fight with the CEO. Moon Jo apparently kiled him out of an 'impulse', but that sounds more like something Jong Woo would do. - When Moon Jo killed one of the twin brothers by slicing his neck, Jong Woo was shown going in that same direction with a knife, but then he was shown to turn around and leave, picking up a phone call from his mother. But what if it was actually Jong Woo who killed him and he made himself believe it wasn't? The other twin also told Jong Woo, later, that it's all his fault. - Jong Woo was again shown going in the direction of the detective who was being strangled in the second episode, but once again turned around and left just as Moon Jo came in to kill that resident. - Whenever we look at the pervert from Jong Woo's perspective, he's always holding a knife. But whenever we're shown the pervert outside of his perspective, he's always just holding a screwdriver. - There's still a possibility of everything (or even mostly everything) just being a novel that Jong Woo is writing. There's some evidence to support that too! Considering the core message of the show, I doubt that theory is true, but the show starts with Jong Woo narrating his novel, and ends with him, in the hospital bed, writing. Moon Jo also says in this episode: "Let’s write the ending to that novel". - At the end of the second episode, when Jong Woo meets the dentist, Moon Jo tells him he has a feeling Jong Woo is just like him, and Jong Woo makes a creeped out face. But when the next episode starts, none of that even happened. Moon Jo just offered him a beer and talked to Jong Woo about his novel instead. There's a few inconsistencies like that throughout the show. In the first episode, Jong Woo throws a dart as he tries for a prize. The dart goes in the first place box, so he should have won a laptop. Instead, Jong Woo is then shown sitting in the bus with the fifth place prize. Could it be Jong Woo deleting and re-writing the novel? - The rapper boy borrowing Jong Woo's charger despite having his own that's working was probably just a way to fake us out and make us think he's evil. He probably borrowed it because he wanted to use it as an excuse to befriend Jong Woo, since he's a pretty cheerful, extroverted guy. - There's actually some theories that the rapper boy isn't even real. People point out that other than the Eden Studio residents and Jong Woo, no one interacts with him. The cops don't even mention him as one of the bodies found at the end of this episode... and actually, same goes for Jong Woo's army buddy (what was the purpose of these characters?) 'The Metamorphosis' book is shown soo many times, and it's actually got many parallels to the show and its characters. It's about a man who one day wakes up to find himself transformed into a bug, and many people begin to be terrified by the new appearance and start to reject him. Although his family care for him initially, they too start to become scared and then keep shunning him. This show also focuses on Jong Woo's transformation out of normalcy.
Klara
2023-08-23 01:00:39 +0000 UTCOkay, I have so much to say that I might just split my thoughts into multiple comments. First, I want to get into the ending of the show. There were two scenarios of Jong Woo and Moon Jo that we were shown at the end, and one of these was a made up version. In one version, we're shown Moon Jo talking to Jong Woo in the hallway, and Moon Jo tells him he can kill anyone he wants and asks him if he's excited. Then, they fight and Jong Woo ends up winning, and slices his neck. He tells Jong Woo he's his greatest masterpiece while bleeding out. In the other version, the fight in the hallway never happens. Instead, Jong Woo and Moon Jo have this same conversation, but they're standing up in the basement, talking calmly, as Moon Jo tells Jong Woo he is the greatest masterpiece. Jong Woo then drops the scalpel. The question is: what actually happened? Well, there's two main theories and at this point, either one could be the right one, since there's enough evidence to support either. And even outside these two main theories, there's still a bunch of side theories and that's the beauty of the show - you can interpret the ending however you like. But for anyone left confused at the ending, here's the two main theories explained: Theory 1: The surface level theory - Seo Moon Jo is dead This is what I believed when I first finished the show. In this theory, Jong Woo kills everyone in the studio, and then he kills the dentist (Moon Jo). Moon Jo, bleeding out on the floor, tells Jong Woo he's the greatest masterpiece he's ever created. - The cops said that Seo Moon Jo (SMJ) will be classified as being 'killed in self-defence' by Jong Woo (JW). They never state that they found the body, but would the police really classify SMJ as dead, just because JW said he killed him, even though they don't have his dead body? - JW and SMJ fought in the hallway. JW managed to overpower SMJ, because he was willing to sacrifice himself, just to make JW into a perfect piece of art. He knew that even after dying, he would live on through Jong Woo. - While Ji Eun watched JW talk to himself, SMJ was dead on the floor, so we didn't see him from her view. After killing him, JW lost it, and hallucinated, and passed out afterwards. - JW was wearing the teeth bracelet the whole time, and it wasn't confiscated by the police at any point, because they're incapable of doing their job right. - When we see SMJ after his death, it's because JW is hallucinating him. The cop also hallucinated him due to PTSD, because she was traumatised after that night. And when I first thought this was what happened, the reason I believed that JW would keep on killing, is because in the studio, while tied to a chair, SMJ told him that he would let him live, if he killed 'everyone'. Not everyone in the studio, just everyone. So, if we go with this theory, it could be that JW is hallucinating SMJ, because he believes that he's still alive, due to his deteriorated mental state. So in his mind, he's still being threated by this man, thinking that if he doesn't keep on killing, SMJ would come for him and his girlfriend again. Theory 2: The in-depth theory - Seo Moon Jo is alive This is the theory I started to believe after re-watching the show a few times. SMJ manipulates JW into killing the others at the residence and letting him (Moon-jo) walk away. Not only Jong Woo becomes a killer, he becomes Moon Jo's partner-in-crime. It's a more in-depth theory, because it ties up a few otherwise loose ends, or plotholes. - The officials say Jong-woo SAID he killed Moon-jo but it's never mentioned they found a body. Moreover, after the fight scenes when we see Jong-woo lying on the floor exhausted, the camera pans out and we still don't see Moon-jo's (apparently) dead body. Also, in the original script of the show, that people translated from Korean, it says that SMJ's body was never found. It might not be too crazy to assume that the reason they can't be bothered to look for his body before making this statement is that they're lazy. These cops are shown to be incompetent throughout the whole show, not really bothered to look into things that are obviously fishy, they just want to wrap things up asap. - During the fight, we're not shown JW slicing SMJ's throat. We only see JW take the scalpel close to SMJ but he never really slices his throat or does anything to indicate how the slit happened. For the other three murders, JW is shown clearly and rather aggressively hurting the residents, but why would they not show such an important character's death? - In this theory, their fight in the hallway never happened. JW has a prominent wound near his cheek-chin area since the beginning of the episode. The wound is seen in all the scenes except when he’s fighting SMJ. During their final showdown, JW's wound miraculously disappears. The wound is seen again when he’s in the ambulance and at the hospital, showing his fight with SMJ was a hallucination. We also see SMJ severely hurting JW but those wounds aren’t being treated when he’s in the hospital later. Like you pointed out, SMJ hit JW in the ribs multiple times during the (hallucinated) fight but only his head and face wounds are patched up in the hospital and he’s moving around and typing too easily for someone with broken ribs. - SMJ instead had a conversation with JW in the basement, where he told him JW liked killing the residents. This revelation caused JW to drop the scalpel (as shown at the end of the episode). They never fought, and JW never sliced SMJ's neck. Instead, he let him walk away. - Ji Eun sees JW hallucinating, alone in the room, because he's trying to come to terms with what he's done. - You said JW's fingerprints should have been everywhere. However, the cops stated that it was SMJ's fingerprints that were found on the murder weapons. If JW killed him, I doubt he would be in his right mind to fake the evidence himself. SMJ knew he would fake his own death, so he planted weapons with his own fingerprints in the studio to incriminate himself, so that JW would be let off. - The creepy teeth bracelet isn't on JW at all times. It's missing when he’s in the ambulance. We don’t see it in subsequent scenes either when he’s talking to the cop lady in the garden. Later, the cop lady sees SMJ in the elevator before visiting JW, and this time the bracelet reappears on his hand. This may show SMJ visited him to give the bracelet back as a symbol of their togetherness (“we’ll be together forever") and as a reminder that he’s a different person now. It’s likely a nod to their newfound partnership. JW is now embracing the killer/violence-lover within him. - It doesn't make much sense for the cop lady to hallucinate SMJ, even if she was traumatised. She was never actually attacked by SMJ, and hasn't even seen him that night in the studio. If she was hallucinating because of trauma, she would have seen the pervert or the landlady who actually harmed her. She also doesn't have a history of mental instability like JW. Therefore, it's assumed that SMJ was actually at the hospital. He probably went there to give back that tooth bracelet to JW. The reason he was comfortable showing himself like that, was because he was assumed to be dead anyway. - At the end of the episode, we see the cop lady getting into her car and driving off, but she feels watched. The camera shots are the same as the ones in previous scenes when SMJ was stalking people. We call these the 'stalker shots'. This could be a hint that SMJ is still around, going after people, especially the coplady as he was already planning to kill her in the dentist's office. He's probably tying up the loose ends, especially now that she knows the truth about what happened. If he is alive, he would probably kill her, to stop her from exposing this truth about JW. The reason we see SMJ's face merge with JW at the end is because JW has quite literally become him, like a Moon Jo 2.0. He adapted his beliefs and ideals. In this theory, JW will keep on killing, for the simple reason - he likes it. And SMJ would most likely be his accomplice.
Klara
2023-08-23 00:20:30 +0000 UTC- the female cop was really driving at snail's pace 😅 For someone who took that phonecall so serious to say that she might not survive, you would expect her to put some gas on that pedal. Maybe some sirens would be nice as well. - Yeah, the actions of the cops in this series are really ... questionable, to put it mildly. Can you imagine what if a real korean cop watched this? - If the cop had the sense to keep acting being knocked out, just to wait for the right opportunity, only to mess it up that badly was also a bit weird to me. - The landlady killed tanktop just for 'touching' her property? The cop was knocked out before, and when the landlord lady saw the scene, the cop was still knocked out (again). What's the difference? And that's suddenly a reason to kill tanktop? Very hard to accept imo. - Now having seen the conclusion I get what they were going for: making someone go mad. It's just that all these sane and insane moments were too conveniently timed for me to make me believe it. For example, John Woo was sane when going into Eden and even finally called the cop, and a bit of time later he's totally insane? - Like you said, the army friend joining him into this den of murderers who had kidnapped his girlfriend, who was smart enough to get a weapon before going in, yet can't resist an open bottle? Really? That's so random and unbelievable, and could easily be written differently. - So if it was John Woo who killed tanktop, where does that leave the "you touched my property" that the Landlady said? I think there are quite a lot of these 'plotholes', but they can all be conveniently swept under the "that was just a hallucination of John Woo" rug. - Main suspects should still be team dentist because of their past. I liked the series for: - making an impression. I can't deny that I will probably remember this series for quite some time. - creating suspense, or atmosphere. - the acting was generally quite good too I disliked the series for: - unbelievability. Tbf, this isn't uncommon in kdrama's. Vincenzo was full of holes as well for example. The difference however is that Vincenzo doesn't take itself too seriously, so you buy it. This series however does take itself seriously, which caused all these illogical things to make it unbelievable (the way almost all people reacted, the dentist being everywhere, john woo being sane and insane at juuust the wrong times, etc, etc, etc) - such a large part of this series was people being absolute jerks. It doesn't matter to me if that fits the story or not, it's just reaaaaally not enjoyable to watch. 2 movie suggestions? Cool. I just have a feeling you have watched quite a lot of non-korean movies, so I guess I'll stick with korean movie suggestions 😅
crispy chicken
2023-08-22 22:58:01 +0000 UTC- Well, it's official. I recently had a nightmare about staying in a creepy hostel with weird guests, half of which want to kill me. I blame this show. - You could just call this entire show Gaslighting tbh. - I'd be very surprised if this doesn't end with Jong-woo either dead or in jail. - Yes, Jong-woo has been in the army but that applies to the other tenants too. They all look old enough to have completed their mandatory service. - Dentist is just like „What's up :)“ - „You're a writer. You're supposed to plan ahead“ Ah, so the exact opposite of what the writers for the final three seasons of Game of Thrones did. - That's really cool. I always like it when a show calls back to the first episode in the finale. - Jung-hwa is so smart but so stupid at the same time. How many times did I have to ask why she's doing this alone? - The ONE time I approve of the landlady's actions: killing the pervert. - Yes, blurring one out of five knives. Logic 👍🏻 - And now I'm just as happy for her to die :) (I'm not a psycho) - I'm so god damn frustrated with the police in this episode. At least they're FINALLY going to Eden Studio. - Ironic how the dentist is taken out by his own syringes. - Arrived a bit late there, you police idiots. - Damn, I didn't expect the verdict to actually line up with the truth. - Ehh, I'd say Jong-woo committed manslaughter in self-defense. - How the hell is the thug still alive? - Oh good, Ji-eun is okay. That's actually a massive relief. - ?????????????????????????????????????????????? - Jong-woo why the hell are you still wearing the teeth - I mean, I don't wanna say that he was unjustified in killing everyone but man am I conflicted now. - I wouldn't say he turned quickly at all. This motherfucker has been through 10 episodes of hell. - uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - yea i dont know man - If it was only Jong-woo who could see Mun-jo (dentist) at the end then I'd assume that he'd be dead. But Jung-hwa sees him too and I don't believe that she's messed up to the point of having hallucinations like that. - To me this show is about the journey of Jong-woo losing his sanity and his connection to the actual real world. And it's not just because of the Eden Studio tenants. It's literally everyone around him. His boss, his colleagues, his army comrades, most of the police officers, hell, even his girlfriend. Everyone is terrible towards Jong-woo in one way or another. He loses all hope in humanity. It's why he can go on this killing spree at the end. I think he probably hates absolutely everyone now. I don't even know if Ji-eun would be safe around him at this point. My verdict: Good show but what the fuck.
Marcel Wannieck
2023-08-22 21:21:54 +0000 UTC
