By now, most film buffs are familiar with the acclaimed, wide-ranging world of Korean cinema and television, whether they've been wowed by Academy Award-winner Parasite or checked out a buzzy K-drama on Netflix. However, before either of these pop culture phenomenons took over the world, Korean horror films were the movies that brought South Korean entertainment to global attention. (In fact, the first Korean movie ever screened in U.S. theaters was a horror flick). Many of the country's most celebrated filmmakers have put their spin on classic horror tropes, elevating the genre through great characterization and themes reflecting on societal issues, from classism to child abuse to social discrimination against marginalized groups.
Below, check out some of the best Korean horror films of all time and where to stream them.
'The 8th Night' (2021)
This supernatural thriller follows two groups working to stop a demonic monster that crosses the bridge from hell into the human world. Centuries ago, it was stopped by ripping out its eyes and burying them in separate places, until a modern anthropologist unearths one of them and is possessed. A group of monks, including novice Cheon-seok (Nam Da-reum) and former student Park Jin-soo (Lee Sung-min), set out to stop the monster before it comes to full power. Meanwhile, skeptic detective Kim Ho-tae (Park Hae-joon) investigates the monster's ritual killings.
'#Alive' (2020)
At the start of this zombie thriller, live-streamer Joon-woo (Yoo Ah-in) watches from his apartment window as an outbreak overtakes his neighborhood, with infected humans turning into flesh-eating monsters in the blink of an eye. As he barricades himself in his apartment, while his family is stuck outside, Joon-woo slowly loses hope until he discovers another survivor (played by Park Shin-hye) in a neighboring building.
'A Tale of Two Sisters' (2003)
This psychological horror based on a Joseon-era folktale is the highest-grossing Korean horror film of all time and the first South Korean film to be screened in America. (It also received a U.S. remake, 2009’s The Uninvited.) Su-mi (Im Soo-jung), who’s just been released from a mental institution, returns home to the secluded country estate where she lives with her little sister, father, and cruel stepmother (Yum Jung-ah). As strange events occur, the sisters realize that the house may be haunted by restless spirits connected to the family’s dark secrets.
'Bedevilled' (2010)
Warning: The first half of this societal horror may be too much for the faint-hearted, as it spends a lot of time depicting the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that one woman, named Bok-nam (Seo Young-hee), endures. Bok-nam lives on a remote island where her husband and the townspeople treat her like an indentured servant. However, Bok-nam sees a chance at a better life for herself and her daughter Yeon-hee when Hae-won (Ji Sung-won), a Seoul businesswoman and childhood friend, visits the island.
'The Call' (2020)
This psychological horror-thriller puts a time-travel twist on the serial killer movie. Kim Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) returns to her childhood home to care for her ailing mother. There, she answers a call on a landline and finds herself unexpectedly connected to Oh Young-Sook (Burning's Jeon Jong-seo), who lives in 1999 and is being abused by her stepmother. Using the mysterious cordless phone, the women form a bond across time and try to change their fates, with dangerous consequences.
'The Closet' (2020)
Is it just us, or are horror movies with kids instantly a notch more terrifying? After losing his wife, Sang-won (Ha Jung-woo) moves into a new house with his young daughter, Ina (Her-yool). When Ina vanishes, the devastated man is approached by an exorcist (Kim Nam-gil), who tells him that she’s just the latest in a series of children who have gone missing. Can the pair save Ina from whatever malevolent force has taken Ina?
'Exhuma' (2024)
This movie by Jang Jae-hyun is a supernatural thrill ride based on folklore and the practices of Korean shamanism. When the newborn child of a wealthy family contracts a mysterious illness, they hire a renowned shaman (Kim Go-eun) and her loyal assistant (Lee Do-hyun), who traces the source to a generational curse stemming from an ancestor's long-hidden grave. She brings on a geomancer (Oldboy's Choi Min-sik) and a mortician (Yoo Hai-jin) to exhume and relocate the remains, not knowing that the grave holds a centuries-old evil.
'Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum' (2018)
This claustrophobic “found footage” movie is based on one of Korea’s most haunted sites, the abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. When the crew behind a horror web series travels there for a livestream, they quickly realize that they’re surrounded by something truly terrifying. In between all the scares, this film has been lauded for its likable characters, letting viewers form connections to the streamers before they meet their gruesome fates.
'The Host' (2006)
Parasite director Bong Joon-ho helms this 2006 monster thriller that's based on a based on a real-life act of pollution by U.S. officials in Korea. Years after a U.S. military official intentionally dumps formaldehyde into Seoul's Han River, a giant and bizarre sea monster emerges. The monster sweeps up a little girl named Hyun-seo, who lives with her poor, dysfunctional family helmed by her bumbling father Park Gang-du (played by Parasite's Song Kang-ho). With the military offering no help, Hyun-seo's family band together to save the girl.
'The Housemaid' (1960)
This domestic horror-melodrama by director Kim Ki-young is one of the most influential films in Korean cinema, filled with the class commentary that has helped put South Korean films on the map. The young Kim family, consisting of piano teacher Dong-sik, his wife, and their two children, decides to hire a maid to help with housework during Mrs. Kim's pregnancy. The young woman they hire, Myung-sook, eventually destroys the family from the inside out. (The Housemaid also has a 2010 remake, starring Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, and Youn Yuh-jung.)
'I Saw the Devil' (2010)
Warning: This horror-thriller by A Tale of Two Sisters director Kim Ji-woon is so unbelievably brutal that it may be too much unless you’re an ardent fan of gore. Kyung-chul (Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik) is a serial murderer who kills for pleasure. When he murders the pregnant fiancée of intelligence agent Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), Soo-hyun becomes obsessed with revenge and decides to punish the killer, even if he becomes a monster himself. The two men fall into a torturous game as the concept of revenge is pushed to its absolute limits.
'The Medium' (2021)
This joint Korean-Thai production takes inspiration from supernatural, found-footage films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. A documentary team goes to Thailand's northern Isan region to interview Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), a medium and shaman who says she is possessed by the soul of a local goddess called Ba Yan. Her niece Mink is set to become Ba Yan's next host, but when Mink starts behaving strangely, it becomes clear whether the goddess is a blessing to the family or a curse.
'Midnight' (2021)
Jin Ki-joo and Squid Game’s Wi Ha-joon star in this propulsive cat-and-mouse game between a deaf family and a serial killer. Kyeong-mi (Jin) is a sign language counselor and lives with her mother (Gil Hae-yeon). One night, she crosses paths with a mysterious man named Do-sik (Wi) as he’s in the middle of attacking another young woman. Kyeong-mi becomes Do-sik’s latest target, in an edge-of-your-seat chase heightened by the sound design, which simulates how the world sounds to the women.
'The Mimic' (2017)
This horror-fantasy is based on the urban legend of the Jang-san beom, a white tiger-like monster that lives on the Jang-san mountain in Busan. It's known for luring children out of the woods to eat them, and it can also mimic the voices of loved ones for this purpose. Soon after moving to the region around Mt. Jang, a grieving family, still reeling from the disappearance of their toddler son, takes in a mysterious child who sounds just like their living daughter, Jun-hee (Bang Yoo-seul). Soon, the mother Hee-Yeon (Yeum Jung-ah) begins to wonder whether the girl is human.
'The Quiet Family' (1998)
This black comedy sits on the edge of horror (and touts a high body count). It centers on the Kangs, an incompetent Seoul family—played by superstars including Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho—who convert a mountain building into a hunting lodge. Once it's open, all their guests start mysteriously dying one by one, causing the bumbling family to unravel.
'Save the Green Planet!' (2003)
This acclaimed movie is more of a sci-fi comedy with disturbing themes than a straight-up horror, but it's so dark that we're including it. (Plus Yorgos Lanthimos is working on a remake!) A childlike couple named Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) and Su-ni (Hwang Jeon-min) kidnap a powerful pharmaceutical executive who Byeong-gu believes is a top-ranking member of an alien race preparing to attack Earth.
'Thirst' (2009)
Park Chan-wook’s sexy and gory 2019 take on the vampire thriller centers on a man of faith tempted by his new bloodthirsty urges. When Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho), a Catholic priest, volunteers for an experimental medical treatment, he awakens as a lustful vampire. He tries to retain his morality, living on blood bags that he steals from the hospital, but he soon enters an intense affair with his friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin).
'Train to Busan' (2016)
If you’ve somehow missed this global phenomenon that brought Korean cinema to international attention, now’s the perfect time to watch one of the best zombie movies of all time. Businessman Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) and his young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) board the bullet train from Seoul to Busan as strange violent incidences break out across South Korea. An infected woman is the last to board, and all hell breaks loose as the train’s passengers fight for survival as society crumbles outside.
'Unlocked' (2023)
While Korean horror flicks often utilize aspects of modern society to terrifying effects, this film goes the extra mile to make viewers want to chuck their smartphones into the sea. After a night out, Na-mi (The 8 Show's Chun Woo-hee) loses her smartphone. It's returned by Jun-yeong (Run On's Yim Si-wan)… after he installs spyware. The stranger begins tracking her everyday life and eventually approaches her while concealing his identity. Around the same time, Na-mi's ordinary life spins out of control, Jun-yeong's father, police detective Ji-man (Kim Hee-won), finds traces of his estranged son at a crime scene.
'The Wailing' (2016)
This acclaimed film by Na Hong-jin takes place in a remote village plagued by a mysterious, murderous illness. The townspeople believe the sickness has something to do with a mysterious Japanese man who just arrived. When police officer Jong-goo’s daughter begins showing the symptoms of the disease, his attempts to quickly solve the mystery and save her become more and more desperate.
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