Night Has Come is another teen horror series from South Korea that delivers a battle royale vibe. With tons of disposable characters, it serves up the bloodbath that it promises from the trailer and also makes for an interesting whodunit with a twist.

Synopsis: Yeon Seo and her class go on a retreat in a remote facility only to find themselves trapped in a mafia game with real-life stakes. Pretty soon, students are dying one by one as they try to weed out the mafia and survive the game.

I liked the premise of Night Has Come although it wasn’t entirely original. The show was kinda cute at the beginning with Yoon Seo (Lee Jae In) low-key crushing on Jun Hee (Kim Woo Seok) and Jun Hee obviously liking her back. However, things start to get hairy when they discover that their votes can actually cause the execution of a classmate.

For 12 episodes, I liked how the series unraveled. There were breadcrumbs dropped from time to time to clue the audience in on the possible twists. Halfway through, I actually guessed correctly on the overarching plotline. Despite this though, they still succeeded in keeping the identities of the mafia close to their chest, which called for some serious detective work on the part of the audience.

I read some reviewers who expressed dissatisfaction over Yoon Seo’s acting but for me, it was passable. Yoon Seo moved slowly but at least she took action, unlike All of Us Are Dead‘s Nam On Jo. Throughout the series, Yoon Seo was proactively searching for clues. She was actively trying to keep everyone alive. She was consistent. And she was also smart, which made up for her slowness of movement and weakness of body.

I also like Jun Hee although he was too mild-mannered to take the lead. People only ever followed him because his vice president So Mi (Jung So Ri) was basically a bully. Jun Hee only acted decisively when Yoon Seo was involved and I wished they had explored this dynamic more to provide a break from all the mayhem. It would have been cute to add in a bit of a love story amid all of the brutality and violence to have something nice to look forward to at the end of the series. But that’s just me.

I liked the dynamic within the class, especially the different personalities and how it affected the voting. It effectively showed how people were manipulated by the carrot and the stick and how easily emotions can impact the crucial moments of the series .The violent scenes though, were so brutal I had to close my eyes or look away several times.

Without giving too much away, I typically don’t like twists like this because it kind of takes away the stakes that were set out from the beginning. But for entertainment value, Night Has Come was pretty solid. While the young cast’s acting could still use some improvement, it did show that they had the potential. Apart from the two leads, All of Us Are Dead‘s Ahn Ji Ho turned up a good performance. As did Penthouse‘s Choi Ye Bin.

All in all, Night Has Come served viewers with an entertaining 12 episodes of guessing and second guessing. It also managed to introduce audiences to new young actors. Kim Woo Seok, who actually has the potential to be a heartthrob because he looked like a cross between BTS’ Worldwide Handsome Jin and SEVENTEEN’s Seungkwan (It turns out he’s actually from Kpop group X1). The ending was good both as a series ender or a season ender which means the door is wide open for a second season.