Badland Hunters Monster: What Kind of Monster is Nam-San Up Against?

Badland Hunters is now available to stream on Netflix. In the Korean film, we see Ma Dong-Seok fight against some kind of monster in a dystopian Seoul. But what is the Badland Hunters monster that they fight against in the Korean film?

What Kind of Monster is In Badland Hunters?

The specific name of the monster we find in Badland Hunters has not been disclosed. The monsters originated from the failed experiments that a mad doctor did. Although some managed to survive his experiments, those who don’t either end up dead or appear to be reptilian.

Lee Eun-ho (An Ji-hye) discovers these monsters in a caged cell in the basement of the apartment complex. These mutated monsters were her former colleagues whom the evil doctor, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-jun), experimented on.

These monsters do not appear to be capable of thought. They also have a crazed look in their eyes and their tongues are sliced in half. They appear to be cannibals since they were attacking another human, perhaps a fellow comrade, in the cell before Eun-ho, Nam-san (Ma Dong-seok), and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) found them.

Then we’ve got Dr. Yang’s super soldiers that don’t seem to die, or in his words “an undying breed of humanity”. These were also Eun-ho’s former colleagues who decided to trust in the doctor’s goal of creating a new species of humankind– one that doesn’t thirst easily or won’t get killed.

Since basic necessities are scarce, access to drinking water is considered a gem. By creating this new breed of humans, there’s no longer a need to eat or drink water. They also seem to feed on small mice and regularly require shots to make sure they don’t mutate into something.

The only way to kill them, however, is to slice off their heads.

Why Does the Doctor Need the Teenagers?

As discovered by Han Su-na (Roh Jeong-eui), the doctor needs something from the pituitary glands of teenagers since it generate material that allows the process to occur.

Unfortunately, the process doesn’t work right away and needs to be fine-tuned. But thanks to the water that the doctor continually feeds the children, it gets activated. Without the water, however, nothing happens.

Because of this, the doctor asks his men to hunt for teenagers so they can harvest them. The children are then kept separate from their parents to “study” (more like brainwashed). Some of them seem to be in a trance and are barely conscious of all the experiments being conducted on them.

Badland Hunsters Monster: Are There Any Zombies in Badland Hunters?

It’s easy to assume there are zombies in Badland Hunters because of its trailer, which shows a group of soldiers attacking the lead characters. There’s also the scene where we first see the undying soldiers fighting with Nam-san and Ji-wan.

And let’s not forget, Ma Dong-seok was a fan-favorite in the highly successful zombie movie, Train to Busan. Seeing him in another dystopian show (like Badland Hunters) will make one think there are zombies around.

But as Dong-seok says in an interview:

“Some people say zombies appear in our film, but the truth is, there are no zombies. It features a different kind of creature.”

(via YNA)

So, there you have it. No zombies in sight. But you’ll find Dong-seok’s character pretty bad-ass (and adorable) in this film.

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