 |
| Credit : Netflix’s If Wishes Could Kill |
Netflix’s new Korean web series If Wishes Could Kill premiered on April 24 and quickly became one of the platform’s most talked-about mystery horror dramas. Audiences around the world are praising the show for its dark atmosphere, emotional storytelling, and terrifying supernatural concept. However, while many viewers enjoyed the series, its complicated ending and layered mythology have left fans confused and searching for explanations.
Over the last few decades, South Korea has become globally famous for stylish psychological and supernatural horror through films like A Tale of Two Sisters, The Wailing, and Whispering Corridors. Yet horror has never dominated Korean television in the same way. Shows like All of Us Are Dead and Sweet Home became huge successes, but there has never truly been an occult K-drama that fully broke into the global mainstream.
If Wishes Could Kill may finally change that.
The series blends teen drama, technological horror, and Korean occult mythology into a deeply unsettling story that keeps viewers guessing until the very end.
What Is If Wishes Could Kill About?
If Wishes Could Kill is an 8-episode Korean drama centered around a group of high school friends who become trapped by a deadly cursed app called Girigo.
The app appears simple at first. Users only need to upload a recorded video showing their name and birthdate while making a wish. Once submitted, the wish comes true.
But the price is horrifying.
As soon as a wish is granted, a 24-hour countdown begins. When the timer reaches zero, the wishmaker dies.
The nightmare begins when student Hyeon-wook wishes for a perfect score on his math test. After successfully topping the exam, he excitedly shares the app with his friends Se-ah, Geon-woo, Na-ri, and Ha-joon, believing it to be a blessing.
Everything changes when Hyeon-wook suddenly slits his own throat in front of the class, seemingly controlled by an unseen force.
The Dark Rules Behind the Girigo Curse
As the story progresses, the surviving friends slowly uncover the terrifying rules of the curse.
They discover that whenever a new person makes a wish, the previous user’s countdown temporarily stops. This turns Girigo into a supernatural chain letter where survival depends on convincing someone else to use the app.
Only people who have made wishes can see the spirits connected to the curse. Because of this, the characters experience disturbing hallucinations, fake messages, manipulated phone calls, and psychological attacks designed to turn them against each other.
Before Hyeon-wook dies, two other members of the group have already used the app.
- Geon-woo wishes for Se-ah’s weekend track training to be canceled so she can attend Hyeon-wook’s birthday party.
- Na-ri secretly wishes for Hyeon-wook and another friend, Dong-jae, to die while drunk and angry.
When Geon-woo makes his wish, Na-ri’s countdown stops. Later, when Geon-woo faces certain death, Se-ah sacrifices herself by making another wish to save him, causing her own countdown to begin.
Running out of time, Se-ah and Ha-joon seek help from Ha-joon’s older sister Ha-sal, a powerful shaman living in the countryside with her boyfriend Bang Ui.
Korean Shamanism Plays a Major Role
One of the most fascinating aspects of If Wishes Could Kill is its strong inspiration from Korean shamanism, also known as Mu-sok.
In Korean spiritual tradition, ancestral spirits can influence human life by bringing either fortune or disaster. Shamans, called Mu-dang, act as intermediaries between the spirit world and the living world, helping people through rituals, healing, protection, and spiritual guidance.
The series presents shamans as quiet spiritual warriors capable of confronting dangerous supernatural forces.
This modern portrayal reflects a growing trend in Korean pop culture. The 2024 horror hit Exhuma also explored Korean shamanism and became a major success internationally.
The Origin of the Girigo App Explained
One of the show’s most important episodes reveals the tragic origin of the Girigo app.
Years earlier, a student named Kim Si-won lived a painful life as the daughter of a local shaman. Embarrassed by her mother’s profession and blaming her for her father’s death, Si-won isolated herself from society and often slept in an abandoned warehouse instead of going home.
Her only close friend was Do Hye-rung, who secretly stayed in contact with Si-won’s struggling alcoholic mother out of concern.
At school, Si-won was also a coding genius working with popular students on an app development project. During brainstorming, someone suggested creating a wish-making app inspired by shamanism. Si-won agreed because she did not want anyone mocking her mother’s background.
Things spiraled out of control when Si-won discovered Hye-rung’s secret contact with her mother. Furious and humiliated, she publicly exposed a private video in which Hye-rung wished for her crush Gi-tae to love her.
After learning the truth, Gi-tae mocked Hye-rung and even physically assaulted her under Si-won’s influence.
Broken by humiliation, Hye-rung used the app to wish for both Si-won and Gi-tae to die before taking her own life.
The wish came true.
However, before dying, Si-won used her own blood to make another mysterious wish that permanently cursed the app. Her spirit became tied to Girigo forever, turning the application into a supernatural killing machine.
If Wishes Could Kill Ending Explained
In the final episode, Se-ah and Ha-sal enter the spirit world to destroy the curse permanently.
According to Ha-sal, the only way to end Girigo is to destroy Si-won’s original phone.
However, the mission becomes far more dangerous because of Na-ri.
One of the show’s biggest tragedies is Na-ri’s transformation into an antagonist. Consumed by guilt over Hyeon-wook’s death and manipulated by Si-won’s lies, Na-ri becomes convinced that her friends no longer care whether she lives or dies.
At certain moments, Si-won possesses Na-ri directly, but eventually Na-ri willingly turns against Se-ah.
Inside the spirit world, Se-ah is forced to fight her former friend. In self-defense, she ultimately kills Na-ri.
After this heartbreaking moment, Se-ah finally finds Si-won’s phone and destroys it using one of Ha-sal’s arrows. The curse is finally broken, and both Si-won and Hye-rung’s spirits appear to find peace.
Is the Ending Really Happy?
Not completely.
Although Se-ah, Geon-woo, and Ha-joon survive, both Hyeon-wook and Na-ri die during the story. Bang Ui also barely survives after suffering severe injuries while protecting the group from vengeful spirits.
By the end of the series, Ha-sal and Bang Ui invite the surviving teenagers for dinner and perform a ceremony for Hyeon-wook’s peaceful passing.
It feels emotional and hopeful — but the story may not truly be over.
Season 2 Tease Explained
The final epilogue strongly hints at a possible second season.
Hyeon-wook’s online Discord friend — the person who originally introduced him to Girigo — returns to the school campus searching for Na-ri’s abandoned phone.
A mysterious Discord user guides him to the device and even provides the correct passcode.
When the phone is unlocked, the Girigo app is still installed.
This shocking reveal suggests the curse may still exist.
The identity of the mysterious Discord contact is never confirmed, but many fans believe it could be Na-ri’s spirit. She would know both the phone’s location and its password, and her anger toward her friends never fully disappeared before her death.
The series also established that the curse only becomes active when someone makes a deadly wish connected to hatred or revenge.
Did Na-ri create a new version of the curse before dying?
That unanswered question leaves the door wide open for If Wishes Could Kill Season 2.
For now, though, Netflix may already have one of the year’s most surprisingly successful Korean horror dramas on its hands.