Gruesome new Korean thriller is being called the next Squid Game

The hype behind a new Korean drama series is very much real as it's being compared it to Netflix's smash hit Squid Game.

Take a look at the eerie trailer below:

Director Jeon Woo-sung has brought us a new series titled Bargain, which follows a group of men who are lured into a trafficking ring 'where their organs are auctioned off to the highest bidder'.

"After a catastrophic earthquake, the victims, traffickers and buyers all are trapped inside the crumbling building. Cut off from the outside world, they must fight to survive the aftermath at any cost," he synopsis reads.

Actors Jin Sun-kyu (Extreme Job), Jun Jong-seo (Money Heist: Korea) and Chang Ryul (My Name) take centre stage in the six-part series, which happens to be an adaptation of director Lee Chung-hyun’s short film of the same name that was released in 2015.

Paramount+

“All the characters in the series are rogues and villains,” Woo-sung told NME.

“I wanted to make the earthquake a punishment for them and I wanted to show how they’d react to this kind of natural disaster.

“Before it was released, I thought there would be both haters and lovers of this series – I thought maybe 40 per cent of the audience would love it.

“I wanted to make [the characters] resonate with the audience more while still being villains.”

While a host of media reports have compared the series to that of Squid Game, which followed 450 people who are abducted to take part in a deadly prize game, Woo-sung has had his say on the comparisons.

Paramount+

“It’s really interesting for me to see people talking about Squid Game and comparing it to Bargain,” he said.

“I actually didn’t think of it while we were developing this series.”

Although, the director does admit that there are some parallels that lie with the bloody violence and the characters' lack of regard for making moral decisions.

“The building is a metaphor for capitalism,” he added.

“To be more specific, I actually wanted to use it as a metaphor of the so-called ‘evil’ capitalism in Korean society. There’s the patriarchy and other factors [affecting] Korea.

“If you finish watching the show, you’ll see there are some [clues] that implie the possibility of a second season.

“I’m currently talking with producers [about things like] if we develop a second season, how are we going to make it? We haven’t decided anything yet, but we are talking about many things.”

All six episodes of the festival-award-winning South Korean drama will premiere on 5 October on Paramount+