Spirit of the times: Korean supernatural enters zeitgeist with docuseries, K-pop and period pieces
Horror is seeping into other genres, at times going for a quick scare and at others a look at tradition in a way that's different from the Western take.
A scene from episode one of the Tving documentary series “Shaman: Tales of Superstition" shows Lee Young-hwan, who commissioned a shamanic ritual, undergoing a ritual intended to drive away a spirit he says has tormented him.TVING
Korean horror used to know its place: a dark theater, a TV drama, maybe a jump scare or two — but not anymore. The genre is spilling into documentaries and variety shows, while drama producers are stitching supernatural elements into fantasy and period storytelling.
Wherever it turns up, it's leaning harder on something distinctly Korean: shamanism and the ghost stories people grew up hearing.
A Tving documentary series with a title that translates roughly to “Shaman: Tales of Superstition,” released July 6, is one example. The show follows real people who believe they are being tormented by spirits as they turn to shamans for consultations and rituals, known as gut, the traditional ceremonies through which shamans communicate with and appease spirits.
Tving describes the show as a documentary that presents “horror without staging.”
In the first episode, a man named Lee Young-hwan undergoes a salpuri gut, a ritual meant to drive away misfortune, for more than 10 hours. He vomits and cries repeatedly as it wears on.
“I almost had it. Just a little longer and it would have been mine!” he shouts, before collapsing.
Earlier, when a shaman asked what spirit was troubling him, Lee claimed to be a Baengma Janggun, a warrior deity in Korean shamanism. After he collapsed, other shamans watching the ritual via video concluded that "The eopgwi has finally revealed itself," using a term for a malevolent spirit born of accumulated karmic burden.
“Since undergoing a shamanic initiation ritual seven years ago, I have felt unexplained urges to kill, making it impossible for me to go about my daily life,” Lee says, explaining why he sought out the ritual.
The shamans believe a spirit lies behind his suffering. As the ceremony builds, Ju Nan-kyung, the shaman leading it, begins beating her drum faster and faster.
A promotional poster for the second season of the Mnet Plus horror show “Sumbakkokjil 2"MNET PLUS
Horror is also turning up in more playful formats. CJ ENM’s K-pop content platform Mnet Plus will release the second season of its horror survival variety show "Sumbakkokjil 2" on July 31.
Each episode puts different K-pop artists into settings such as abandoned factories and schools. They must survive a game of hide-and-seek for 4,444 seconds, or roughly 74 minutes. The repeated 4 is no accident. In Korean, the number is considered unlucky because its pronunciation, sa, sounds the same as the Korean word for "death."
The first season, which ran in March and April of last year, was Mnet Plus’s biggest driver of new subscriptions. Eight K-pop acts, including Allday Project, ZeroBaseOne and NCT Wish, completed missions inside darkened schools and factories.
“The primal fear and tension created by darkness, isolation and pursuit drew attention, along with the artists’ genuine reactions and relationship dynamics under extreme conditions,” a platform representative said. “Season two retains the hide-and-seek survival-game structure but strengthens the narrative by using familiar ghost stories set in places such as fishing grounds and mountain lodges.”
Dramas are also experimenting with combinations of occult themes and other genres.
Netflix’s “The East Palace,” an occult fantasy set in the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), follows the story of Gu-cheon, an exorcist played by Nam Joo-hyuk.
Like many occult protagonists, he can see ghosts. But the series adds a fantasy twist: He can only perform exorcisms inside a separate world where spirits reside.
“It is a highly visual effects-heavy spectacle, paying close attention to the design of the various supernatural figures that manifest throughout the show and the netherworld locations through which Gu-cheon travels,” the South China Morning Post wrote.
Nam Joo-hyuk as Gu-cheon in the fantasy period drama "The East Palace"NETFLIX
In Korea, “The East Palace” topped Netflix’s daily chart by viewership for a week after its release on July 17. It placed ahead of titles including the So Ji-sub-led series “Agent Kim Reactivated.” Netflix calculates views by dividing a title’s total viewing time by its running time.
Critic Ha Jae-geun sees the shift as part of a larger pattern.
“The global popularity of Korean content, the interests of millennials and Gen Z and the success of works drawing on shamanism, including ‘Exhuma’ [2024] and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ [2025], have pushed horror and occult content back toward more distinctly Korean themes,” Ha said. “Content that once focused on psychology, mysteries and urban legends has expanded to explore shamanism and shamans. Creators are also blending horror with other genres to appeal to wider audiences.”
Korean horror also tends to lean into healing in a way Western horror often doesn’t, critics say.
“Western ghosts are often portrayed as directionless, indiscriminate evil, while Korean ghosts are frequently socially vulnerable figures who hold a grudge against a particular person or were caught up in a major tragedy,” critic Jung Deok-hyun said. “Because the story [in Korean series] progresses through the process of resolving their wounds, the villains are portrayed as beings with their own desires and personal histories, which strengthens the narrative.”
BY CHOI MIN-JI [kim.hayoon1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
