Netflix‘s new horror show found its place at the top of its trending non-English horror series. While the series in question primarily follows an original storyline, it is hard not to see it as the perfect follow-up to Netlfix’s Alice in Borderland.
Alice in Borderland premiered on Netflix in 2020, and, like Squid Game, it gained immense popularity because of its compelling portrayal of a series of survival games. While Alice in Borderland never became as viral as Squid Game, it lasted long enough on Netflix to cover its original manga’s story and even go beyond the source material.
Just like Squid Game, Alice in Borderland ended its run in 2025, leaving a massive void in the thriller genre. Since Squid Game‘s future also seems uncertain after its recent end, there seems to be 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 also have ticking clocks over their heads, and they must race against time to be able to save themselves.
What made Alice in Borderland significantly different from Squid Game was the fantastical nature of its setting. While some of its games were as grounded as the ones in Squid Game, many others had extreme supernatural elements. The scale of the warnings and mysteries in If Wishes Could Kill is not as grand yet, but the show does not shy away from introducing supernatural aspects and drawing from Korean shamanism.
If Wishes Could Kill ranked #1 in Netflix’s Top 10 non-English shows list between April 27, 2026, and May 3, 2026 (via Tudum by Netflix).
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, though, it also follows a group of young characters who must confront their own personal demons to be able to have a shot at surviving the overarching threat.
Similar to the characters in Alice in Borderland, the ones in If Wishes Could Kill are forced to sacrifice a part of their morality to survive. Some of the gravest deaths in If Wishes Could Kill even remind one 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 of all time. After watching If Wishes Could Kill, it is hard not to notice how it shares quite a few parallels with the iconic movie as well. For instance, the Netflix series, like the movie, also explores how the fulfillment of one innocent wish through supernatural means can act as a Trojan Horse for a nightmare.
In both, characters are often a little too late with their realization of how their previous choices sealed their fates long before they had an opportunity to reverse them. If Wishes Could Kill also uses body horror as an effective narrative device for the physical manifestation of a spiritual or psychological illness.
Even the overarching rules in If Wishes Could Kill are eventually revealed to be cruel jokes that only further corrupt and destroy the main characters. With its shared parallels with an epic show like Alice in Borderland and highly-acclaimed movie like The Wailing, it is not surprising that If Wishes Could Kill is performing so well on Netflix.
