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Rosicler Kleckner
While American horror films and series tend to rely heavily on gore or jump scares, Korean horror bends the genre. Themes often include vengeance -- both supernatural and physical -- and female ghosts trapped between worlds to unleash terror on those they left behind. And they approach the genre in a different way stylistically.
Whether exploring ghosts or monsters, Korean films and television in the horror genre focus on the suffering and anguish of the characters enduring whatever darkness plagues them. Netflix has several frightening movies and TV shows hailing from Korea more rewarding to watch than similar content produced in Hollywood. These titles range from supernatural mysteries to zombie tales, and all of them are likely to reward horror fans seeking something new.
Based on the popular webtoon, Sweet Home is a horror/thriller TV series that depicts some very disturbing monsters on-screen. The show follows a young loner named Hyun who lost his entire family to a terrible accident. After moving into a new apartment, Cha Hyun-soo starts to realize that horrifying monsters are on the loose.
Sweet Home's first season premiered in December 2020, and it is very popular among audiences. The show is the first-ever South Korean series to be part of Netflix's Top 10 in the United States. It was also in the Top 10 on Netflix in 70 other countries, according to Korea Times. Sweet Home has been noted by viewers for its powerful female characters and impressive visual effects by Legacy Effects, a visual effects company that worked on The Avengers and Game of Thrones.
Based on a Hollywood screenplay by Matt Naylor, #Alive is a Netflix original film that puts a unique spin on the zombie sub-genre. #Alive follows a young video blogger who becomes trapped inside his apartment when a zombie apocalypse breaks out. The man has to choose between isolation or fighting against the undead.
#Alive is not the only feature film adapted from Matt Naylor's screenplay, which was entitled Alone. An English-language film called Alone starring Tyler Posey was released in October 2020. #Alive fared much better with critics and audiences than its English-language counterpart, earning an 88 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes while Alone received just 33 percent.
The Call is a lesser-known South Korean sci-fi thriller that takes notes from cult classics like Donnie Darko and Timecrimes. The film follows 28-year-old Kim Seo-Yeon, who is visiting her grandmother in the middle of nowhere. Seo-Yeon misplaces her phone and is afraid she'll have no form of contact with the outside world. But inside her isolated childhood home, Seo-Yeon finds a strange, old, cordless phone.
Seo-Yeon soon discovers that she is able to communicate with Oh Young-sook, a young woman who lived in the same house in 1999. Seo-Yeon tries to save the endangered Young-sook from disturbances far beyond her knowledge. What ensues is a wild sci-fi romp that destroys all expectations and was powerful enough to gain a perfect critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
While horror anthologies are fairly common in Hollywood, there aren't as many produced in South Korea. That seems to be changing since the release of the short-form horror anthology series Goedam. Each episode is a separate ghost story in an urban setting, with the tales being only ten minutes long or less. Goedam is not only unique because it's a Korean horror anthology series, but also because of its run time. Most anthology shows are at least a half-hour long per episode, so to see majorly effective horror stories told in a third of that time is very impressive. Most of the episodes focus on a modern-day version of a Korean folktale.
Svaha: The Sixth Finger is a psychological horror film that delves deep into the world of cults. The movie also depicts Buddhism and esotericism -- two subjects not often explored in films of this genre. Svaha follows a pastor who works to expose religious groups which do more harm than good.
The pastor discovers an active cult known as Deer Mountain, and when murders begin to take place, he suspects the Deer Mountain cult has something to do with the killings. The movie was very popular with Korean audiences at the time of its release in 2019, with 1.18 million viewers watching in the first five days. It's only slightly less popular in the United States, with a 73 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Consisting of two seasons and a 90-minute bonus episode, Kingdom is a visceral zombie series that demands viewers focus on the bloodshed occurring on screen. Taking place during the Joseon era of South Korea, Kingdom deals with political drama during a zombie apocalypse. The show has its fair share of gore, but it is also enjoyably dramatic and very entertaining for anyone who enjoys soapy dramas. The show is akin to a cross between Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and just as violent.
Combining demonic possession and murder mystery, The Guest is Korea's answer to Twin Peaks, but with more fantasy elements. The show follows Yoon Hwa-Pyung, a psychic bent on stopping evil demons called Sohn -- or Guest -- who possess the weak and force them to kill their loved ones, then gouge their own eyes out. Hwa-Pyung teams up with a priest and a detective who is skeptical about the existence of spirits. The series deals heavily with the horror themes of exorcism and shamanism. It has a rating of 8.1/10 on IMDb, and after its 2018 release, viewers waited eagerly for a second season. But fans have yet to see either The Guest Season 2 or the rumored movie sequel as of 2023.
Based on the 2009-2011 Joo Dong-Geun webtoon of the same name, All of Us Are Dead premiered on Netflix in January 2022. It begins when a bullied student is hospitalized for a traumatic fall from the rooftop of a South Korean high school. He begins exhibiting zombie-like behaviors that catch the attention of his father -- a science teacher. As a zombie outbreak wreaks havoc on the school, students are cut off from the outside world by the government in an attempt to isolate the outbreak.
Left with no choice but to take up whatever arms they can find around the school and fight, the students battle for their lives. Unfortunately, there are those among them who would rather be infected, just so they can go on terrorizing their peers. The series was renewed for Season 2 in June 2022, but there's no release date yet. RELATED: Fans of M3GAN's Allison Williams Will Love This 2019 Netflix Horror
Inspired by the South Korean webtoon Amazing Rumor by Jang Yi, The Uncanny Counter follows the exploits and adventures of a group of demon hunters who work in a noodle shop by day. By night, they use their supernatural abilities to hunt down demons who escape from the afterlife in search of immortality. Season 1 reveals that all of the heroes were once in comas, but awakened and instilled with the power of a spirit to take on the demons.
When one of their number is killed, the spirit seeks a new host, taking up residence in the body of a disabled boy named So Mun, who begins dreaming of the spirit. In search of answers, he finds himself at the noodle shop. Everything in So Mun's life will change because the survival of humanity depends on it. Season 2 of The Uncanny Counter is expected to premiere sometime in 2023, but no official date has been announced for that either.
In her work to discover the truth about IT conglomerate Forest, truth-seeking reporter Im Jin-Yee finds herself allying with a mysterious, spirit-possessed young teenager with a powerful ability. Baek So-Jin can bring death to the living with little more than the utterance of a name or an object belonging to her target. In her quest for the truth, Im Jin-Yee discovers a spiritual consulting company connected to Forest, and the head of the firm is a demon who will do whatever it takes to achieve his sinister goals. Filled with suspense, drama, mystery and horror, The Cursed is a roller coaster of darkness that ticks all the right boxes. The series was followed by the 2021 film The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey.
When compared to Western horror franchises and classics, there are few similarities in Asian cinema. Like the terror in both, it often relies on gore and jump scares. But the latter has long celebrated its subtle style of psychological stories, where the unease comes from the setting and the folklore.
Netflix houses a stellar collection of Asian horror movies that are perfect for watching with friends or family. This handpicked list includes both contemporary entries and undiscovered gems, and each one of them has enough unnerving scenes to get under your skin and haunt you for days. So dim the lights and dive into this list of the scariest Asian horror movies you can watch on Netflix!
Inhuman Kiss is a Thai supernatural horror film that offers an exceptionally chilling take on the traditional tale of the Krasue, a female who lives a normal life by day but detaches herself from her body by night and hunts for flesh and blood. The movie is set in the 1940s, and centers around four teenagers Jerd, Sai, Noi, and Ting, who once had an encounter with a Krasue in the forest she protected and have since experienced strange instances.
Writer-director Sittisiri Mongkolsiri makes sure Inhuman Kiss is long enough to have you hooked to its premise, only to then shock you with its insanely good climax. The movie places emphasis on the relationship between humans and the supernatural in a way that is unique, thought-provoking, and fascinating. Its compelling narrative paired with the juxtaposition of horror and romance truly makes it stand out in terms of storytelling and sensory overload.
Directed by Timo Tjahjanto, this Indonesian horror film combines the haunting folklore that Asian cinema is known for with scathing family drama. It also helps that the film has enough blood-soaked gore of the classic Western horror movies that fans truly love. Shot with elegance, its slow-burn story also turns out to be a poetic lesson about sins and how they lead to debts that come and haunt one later.
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