Trust Netflix to dissolve borders when delivering international gems to everyone's doorsteps. In its treasure trove of fresh chills and offbeat thrills, crime dramas have cemented a special place with one critically acclaimed tale after another. Enter, South Korean drama, Queen Mantis, a crime-thriller infested with fear and family wounds. Here, a grotesque history exhales through each image: a serial killer mother, a son tormented by her reputation, and woeful past terrors, almost begging to become an imitation of a true story.

In this dangerous dance of blood and memory, even fine-tuning fiction with imagination casts a shadow of a haunting familiarity.

Queen Mantis is not based on a true story. Alternatively titled, The Mantis: Original Sin, it is a South Korean adaptation of a French thriller miniseries by SBS, now streaming on Netflix. The K-drama revolves around Jung Yi-Shin, portrayed by Go Hyun-Jung, a murderer sentenced for a series of gruesome killings committed nearly twenty years ago. When a copycat wave of murders replicates her tactics, her estranged detective son, Cha Soo-Yeol, who grew up despising his mother, is faced with his darkest specter to prevent the crimes. 

With the Daily Dose of Sunshine fame Jang Dong Yoon, supported by Jo Sung-Ha, Lee El, and Kim Bo-Ra, the crime thriller is written by Lee Young-Jong and directed by Baeksang Arts Awards winner, Byun Young-Joo (Helpless), featuring 8 spine-chilling weekly episodes with a U/A 16+ rating. As Go Hyun-Jung tackles the cold-blooded imprisoned protagonist, designed to investigate trauma, identity, and the fractured relationship between killer and child, this cinematic reworking keeps the original's frightening premise without basing it on actual crimes.

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If the story sounds incredibly familiar, here is all about the lore of brutal murders that binds Queen Mantis to its French ancestor.

Queen Mantis is heavily inspired by its French origin, La Mante, by maintaining the original's core structural foundation, comprising a criminal mom, detective son, and the chilling rituals of a pattern of murder. With heightened Korean sensibilities such as broader emotional tides, family bereavement, and cultural nuance, the drama is a direct remake of the French thriller, which debuted on Netflix on 30 December 2017.

La Mante, directed by Alexandre Laurent, revolves around serial killer Jeanne Deber, known as The Mantis, who terrorized France 25 years ago, now offering her expertise to help authorities hunt down a copycat murderer with Detective Damien Carrot, her estranged son. Starring Carole Bouquet as Jeanne Deber and Fred Testot as Damien Carrot, La Mante takes its swift little time to present a captivating thriller in only six episodes. Meanwhile, Netflix subscribers can now watch new episodes of its K-remake Queen Mantis every week, following the streaming giant's current licensing deal with SBS, along with several upcoming Netflix releases this fall. 

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