Netflix’s new horror show has secured its position at the top of the trending non-English horror series. While the series primarily follows an original storyline, it is hard not to view it as the perfect follow-up to Netflix’s Alice in Borderland.

Alice in Borderland premiered on Netflix in 2020 and, like Squid Game, gained immense popularity due to its compelling portrayal of survival games. Although Alice in Borderland never reached the same viral status as Squid Game, it remained on Netflix long enough to cover its original manga’s story and even extend beyond the source material.

Similar to Squid Game, Alice in Borderland concluded its run in 2025, leaving a significant gap in the thriller genre. With Squid Game‘s future also appearing uncertain after its recent conclusion, there is a demand for shows that gamify survival. Fortunately, Netflix’s new K-drama, If Wishes Could Kill, fills that void.

Alice In Borderland Ended After 3 Seasons, But If Wishes Could Kill Fills The Void

Like Alice in Borderland, If Wishes Could Kill also adopts the death game trope, where five friends receive death warnings from a mysterious wish-granting app and must escape their fates. Similar to Arisu and his friends in Alice in Borderland, the characters in If Wishes Could Kill have ticking clocks over their heads, racing against time to save themselves.

What made Alice in Borderland significantly different from Squid Game was its fantastical setting. While some of its games were as grounded as those in Squid Game, many others featured extreme supernatural elements. The scale of the warnings and mysteries in If Wishes Could Kill is not as grand yet, but the show introduces supernatural aspects and draws from Korean shamanism.

Unlike Alice in Borderland, If Wishes Could Kill does not explicitly feature death games as the primary drivers of its story. Instead, it focuses on the curse of a single supernatural app. From a thematic standpoint, it follows a group of young characters who must confront their personal demons to survive the overarching threat.

Similar to the characters in Alice in Borderland, those in If Wishes Could Kill are forced to sacrifice parts of their morality to survive. Some of the most shocking deaths in If Wishes Could Kill even remind viewers of the horrifying Hearts games from Alice in Borderland.

If Wishes Could Kill’s Shamanism Story Also Makes It Reminiscent Of The Wailing

Almost a decade after its release, The Wailing remains one of the most terrifying Korean horror movies ever made. After watching If Wishes Could Kill, it is hard not to notice how it shares several parallels with this iconic film. For instance, like the movie, the Netflix series explores how fulfilling an innocent wish through supernatural means can act as a Trojan Horse for a nightmare.

In both narratives, characters often realize too late how their previous choices sealed their fates long before they could reverse them. If Wishes Could Kill also employs body horror effectively to manifest spiritual or psychological illness.

The overarching rules in If Wishes Could Kill are ultimately revealed to be cruel jokes that further corrupt and destroy the main characters. With its shared elements with an epic show like Alice in Borderland and a highly acclaimed movie like The Wailing, it is unsurprising that If Wishes Could Kill is performing so well on Netflix.