“Inhuman”! Candidates collapse on set

By Alexander Frederick

“Squid Game” became a world success in 2021. With the South Korean series, Netflix captivated more viewers than ever before. According to the streaming service, users should have consumed the show 1.65 billion hours in the first 28 days.

Unsurprisingly, a second season is set to follow. But that’s not all, Netflix also announced a reality series of “Squid Game”. Almost the deadly games in real!

Of course, the game show called “Squid Game: The Challenge” shouldn’t be as bloody and dramatic as the original … at least that’s what the producers promised.

The Hollywood newspaper Variety writes about the “inhumane conditions” that would prevail on the set of the show. That’s what a former contestant, who goes by the name of John, tells the magazine. Earlier, British newspaper The Sun first revealed the disastrous conditions at Squid Game (the reality show was filmed in the UK).

“Squid Game”: Horror conditions during reality shooting!

In the “Squid Game” series staged by Netflix, there are over 30 million euros that can be won by a total of 456 indebted candidates. To do this, they must survive a series of extremely dangerous games – until only one is “alive” at the end.

Nobody should fear for their life in the reality version, at least according to the promise made by those responsible to the 228 participants, but in reality it should be quite different.

“Like a war zone”

The “Sun” quotes eliminated participants who make serious accusations against the production: It was “like in a war zone”. People were reportedly in tears.

Netflix denied the claims.

But the ex-candidate, who calls himself John, now supports the allegations in the “Variety” interview. Tells about the game “Red Light, Green Light” that was featured in the first episode of “Squid Game” and also had to be completed in “The Challenge”.

Without machine guns to mow down the losers, but in extreme cold, as John says. “This isn’t a ‘Bear Grylls’ show,” says John, referring to the British adventurer who put himself in the most breakneck situations for his documentary films. “If they had told us it was going to be that cold, no one would have gone along with it.”

Like all other competitors, John was out for the prize money. Because nobody was supposedly paid to take part in the show. “When it comes to these kinds of games, I’m good at it,” says John, who has a penchant for competition.

But instead of games, fun and wealth, he and his comrades-in-arms are said to have been confronted with disastrous shooting conditions. The game “Red Light, Green Light” was therefore produced in a flight hangar facility near Bedford (between London and Birmingham), at temperatures of around -10 degrees!

Paramedics would have been called to the set again and again because candidates had collapsed!

The game requires participants to move towards a target and stop and remain in position on command. Whoever moves gets kicked out. According to John, they had to stand in the cold for up to 30 minutes, partly because the cameras weren’t always rolling. One day of shooting lasted up to nine hours.

Netflix continues to deny the allegations. It was very cold, but: “The participants were prepared for it.”

Candidates had to inject artificial blood

The “Sun” relies on a few voices that are strikingly reminiscent of the original series. “Even when hypothermia set in, people were willing to stay as long as possible because there was a lot of money at stake,” says an anonymous candidate. “Too many were determined not to move, stood there for far too long.”

In the 2021 series, players who move will be shot. In reality, those who continued had to fight for their health. Also mentally. “There were people who came in thinking they were going to be millionaires, but left in tears,” said one voice.

Bizarre: The players should have worn vests with artificial blood preparations so that they burst when eliminated. So it should look like in the series as if the participants are being brutally executed.

According to “Sun”, everyone would only have been equipped with thermal pants, two socks, a shirt, sneakers and a green tracksuit. Heaters were reportedly not seen.

“Absolutely Inhuman”

Variety also spoke to a former competitor who goes by the name of Marlene. According to her, the conditions were “absolutely inhuman” and had nothing in common with the games themselves.

The reality candidates are said to have been woken up by phone at half past four in the morning, had to hand in their cell phones before the day of shooting and were also not allowed to communicate with each other.

Also “Rolling Stone‘ was able to speak to eliminated players who had little good to say about Squid Game: The Challenge. So it didn’t really feel like a game show for her, more like a well thought-out TV production in which not everyone has the same opportunities.

“It’s sick: They play with our morality”

Among the candidates are said to have been influencers and TikTok stars who would have been given preferential treatment. For example, those responsible would have simply allowed these celebrity participants to advance to the next round regardless of the results of the games.

Here the bloody original even has something ahead of the supposedly more harmless real implementation: In the series, all players have the same chances and are treated the same, albeit badly. But “we were just extras on a TV show,” according to a former The Challenge player.