A suffocating residential nightmare! Rotten Tomatoes predicts a 96% Fresh rating! IMDb preview score: 8.4! Metacritic Certified: 85!
“84 ㎡ Apartment = a prison of the human soul” — R-rated terrifying noise cracks the facade of neighborly harmony! A dark realist benchmark in Korean cinema!
Title: The Sound Outside the Wall
Release Date: July 18, 2025 (Netflix global exclusive)
Core Plot — When the Dream of Home Becomes Hell
A metaphor for real-life society: the title “84 Square Meters” points to South Korea’s standard middle-class apartment size, revealing middle-class anxieties tied to homeownership as a form of social ascent.
Protagonist Woo Sung (Kang Ha‑na) exhausts his savings, takes out loans, even mortgages his mother’s garlic farm to buy the “perfect” home—only to become trapped in a nightmare of high interest debt and horrifying noise.
Entering a new psychological thriller paradigm, the creepy noise becomes the engine driving the narrative, gradually exposing the hypocrisy and hidden violence of apartment community life.
Characters & Power Plays
- In‑hwa (Im Hye‑ran) — President of the residents’ association. Outwardly championing harmony, but secretly controlling a hidden power network in the building.
- Jin‑ho (Seo Hyun‑woo) — A journalist who teams up with Woo Sung to trace the source of the noise, aiming to expose the “evil neighbor” and the systemic oppression behind them.
- TV‑MA Rated — Confirmed to include graphic breakdowns, claustrophobic spatial violence, and noise pollution that becomes a physiological nightmare.
Cast — Acting Titans in a Human Horror Arena
- Kang Ha‑na — Takes a dramatic turn into horror after When the Camellia Blooms, portraying Woo Sung’s descent from frustration to madness with harrowing authenticity. Trailers show gripping scenes of eye tremors and self-harm that have sparked acclaim.
- Im Hye‑ran — Following her iconic role in The Glory, she now plays a deceptively charming residents’ association president who commands moral authority and secret intelligence.
- Seo Hyun‑woo — As journalist Jin‑ho, his character’s connection to the upstairs noise-maker forms the crux of the mystery—an identity that keeps viewers guessing throughout.