Jul 24, 2026 10:00pm IST
‘Spooky in Love’ Review: Park Eun Bin and Yang Se Jong’s Ghostly Romance Is Charming but Predictable
Taking a well-loved trope and turning it around to create another story can go either way—it can either breathe fresh life into a familiar idea or run it into the ground. “Spooky in Love” is the newest addition to the list of Korean horror-romance-comedy shows that focus on ghosts and their unfulfilled wishes.
Park Eun Bin’s Cheon Yeo Ri is an heiress of a conglomerate and the CEO of Reina Hotel. She can see ghosts and often helps them fulfill the desires they were unable to realize while they were alive. After landing on the wrong side of a powerful politician, prosecutor Ma Kang Wook (Yang Se Jong) finds himself drawn into an unlikely and intriguing relationship with her.
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The show gives a legal twist to the fantasy-horror trope, but the concept is so overcooked that, despite its case-of-the-week structure, there’s little hope of it offering anything genuinely fresh. Running on coincidences, much like many of its peers, the K-drama offers a series of chance happenings that become the base of the comedy in the story. It’s entertaining for a while but soon becomes repetitive and obvious, draining the fun from the narrative.
Park Eun Bin, who has made her mark with shows like “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” and recently “The WONDERfools,” stars as an executive at a powerful conglomerate. Her portrayal of the stoic, full-of-secrets rich woman is unimpressive. Yang Se Jong, who has consistently impressed in more serious roles, feels miscast in a character that is comedy-driven.
The entry of Ong Seong Wu as Kang Min Hwan brings much-needed freshness to the story and allows breathing room for a love triangle to bloom. His rivalry with Ma Kang Wook is expected to bring some bromance moments in the upcoming episodes.
Being able to see ghosts and giving them justice is a tried-and-tested formula in the K-Drama space. The popularity of shows like “While You Were Sleeping” and “Hotel Del Luna” is yet to be surpassed by their recent counterparts like Yoo Yeon Seok’s “Phantom Lawyer,” which also dips into the legal genre. It was only “Light Shop” that came close to matching the two shows with its sensitive take on the afterlives of the dead.
The comparison is inevitable, putting “Spooky in Love” at a disadvantage by inviting unavoidable parallels. Whether its strong ensemble cast can rise to the occasion in the coming episodes remains to be seen. Comparisons are inevitable, and they place “Spooky in Love” at an immediate disadvantage. It remains to be seen whether the talented ensemble can pull up their socks in the coming episodes.
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