Thanks to such world-class filmmakers as Bong-Joon Ho, Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-Woon, and others, South Korean filmmakers are at the forefront of current horror cinema. For example, the uniquely heartfelt zombie film Train To Busan was the biggest box-office release in the country in 2016, marking the first film to attract over 10 million moviegoers. In addition to its commercial success, the movie garnered rave reviews from international critics across the board.
While Train To Busan proved how popular horror cinema is in South Korea, the number of high-quality horror movies did not begin in 2016. For a look back at some of the greatest horror films that the country has to offer, scroll below.
10 The Wicked (2014)
In one of the newer entries on the list, Young-son Yoo's workplace horror film The Wicked offers a salient social commentary of female empowerment in tandem with its terrifying thrills and chills.
The movie centers on Saeyaoung (Joo-hee Park), a newly added office employee who becomes bullied and harassed by her superior, Lee Seon (Soo-Yoon Na), due to her shy demeanor. As Saeyoung experience cutthroat office politics, petty backstabbing, and the like, she flips the script and begins stalking Lee Seon with sinister intent.
9 Three Extremes (2004)
Three Extremes is an international horror anthology film made by three Asian directors: Japan's Takashi Miike, China's Fruit Chan, and South Korea's Chan-wook Park.
The best of the bunch belongs to Park's chapter, Cut, in which a film director becomes the victim of a vengeful acting extra who appeared in five of his films. When the aggrieved extra forces the Director and his wife to play a deadly game that entails the Director maiming an innocent woman. If he refuses, the extra will cut the Director's body parts off, one by one, until he complies.
8 Hide And Seek (2013)
Not to be confused with the bad Robert DeNiro movie of the same name, Jung Huh's Hide and Seek is one of the most disturbing South Korean chillers to come out in the past decade.
The film follows Sung-soo (Son Hyun-Joo), a meticulous businessman who lives in a spotless luxury apartment with his seemingly perfect family. Upon receiving a cryptic phone call claiming that his brother has gone missing, Sung-soo ventures to his brother's apartment to begin his search. Through a series of eerie symbols and numbers carved into the walls, Sung-soo discovers that a slew of sinister strangers has been secretly living in their house.
7 The Handmaiden (2016)
Currently ranked #221 on IMDB's Top 250 is The Handmaiden, Chan-wook Park's sublime psychological horror/thriller peppered with erotic overtones. The film is loosely based on Sarah Water's 2002 novel Fingersmith.
The complex plot of Hitchcockian proportions is divided into three distinct parts. The overarching story involves a Korean maid sent to serve an affluent Japanese family in the 1930s. However, the maid was sent by a cunning con-woman out to bilk the wealthy patriarch's family fortune. Following a series of psychological head-games, the maid begins a torrid love affair with her female boss.
6 A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003)
After dipping his toe in the horror pond with his first film The Quiet Family and his chapter of Three Extremes II, immensely talented Korean filmmaker Kim-jee Woon turned in one of his finest films with A Tale of Two Sisters in 2003.
The film finds a young mental patient named Su-mi (Im Soo-Jung) released from an asylum. When she returns home with her younger sister to live with their father and abusive stepmother, the entire family must deal with the girl's troubled mental state. When a ghost linked to the family's sordid past begins haunting the house, all hell breaks loose.
5 Thirst (2009)
While the violent revenge thriller Old Boy is Chan-wook Park's most notorious movie to date, his best outright horror yarn likely belongs to the 2009 vampire film Thirst.
Inspired by Emile Zola's Therese Requin, the story concerns Sang-Hyun (Kang-ho Song), a hospital clergyman who kindly volunteers for a radical vaccine experiment. Unfortunately, the vaccine contains a lethal virus that becomes injected into the priest's body and slowly turns him into a bloodthirsty vampire. When saved by a vampiric blood transfusion, the priest becomes a flesh-starved beast.
4 The Host (2006)
Prior to solidifying himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers on the planet with Parasite in 2019, Bong-Joon Ho first drew international acclaim for his splendid creature-feature The Host in 2006.
When a Lochness monster-like creature rises from the Han River and begins devouring the citizens of Seoul, widespread panic ensues. Once an elderly snack-bar operator named Park Hee-Bong (Byun Hee-Bong) witnesses his young daughter dragged off by the beast, he leads a heroic effort to save Seoul from utter destruction.
3 The Wailing (2016)
Akin to the Korean version of Se7en, Hong-jin Na's The Wailing is a superb blend of religious horror, murder-mystery, and viral illness plaguing a small Korean fishing village.
When a strange hooded figure arrives in said village, people begin turning up violently ill. Policeman Jong-Goo (Do-won Kwak) is assigned to investigate and is driven further down a complex web of violent intrigue when his own daughter suddenly falls victim to the plague. A shaman is summoned to perform a seance and rid the evil, but the ritual has unforeseen consequences.
2 I Saw The Devil (2010)
While Kim-Jee Woon's I Saw The Devil technically belongs to the revenge-thriller subgenre, the sheer amount of unflinching graphic violence makes most horror movies pale in comparison.
Jang (Min-Sik Choi) is an at large serial killer responsible for some of the most gruesome murders in the country. Upon viciously slaughtering his latest young female victim named Joo-Yeon (San-Ha Oh), the girl's father Kim (Byung-hun Lee) takes it upon himself to find Jang and serve him his just deserts. A series of catch and release scenarios ensue as Jang and Kim brutally bash each other's brains out.
1 The Housemaid (1960)
Often hailed as one of the finest Korean movies ever made, regardless of genre, Ki-young Kim's The Housemaid is a mortifying tale of domestic horror. The film was remade in 2010 by Korean director Im Sang-soo.
When faithful family man and piano teacher Jin (Dong-Sik Kim) and his wife accept a young attractive housemaid named Myung-Sook (Eun-Shin Lee) into their home, all seems well at first. However, the sexually predatory nature of Myung-Sook is slowly revealed as she begins to drive a wedge between the married couple in the attempt to seduce Jin.
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