22 of the Best Korean Horror Movies to Watch Right Now

If you love a good zombie movie, "Train to Busan" should be at the top of your watchlist. The film stars Gong Yoo ("The Silent Sea") as Seok-woo, a divorced father who buries himself in his work. He and his daughter take a trip to Busan to go see his ex-wife, and we meet a diverse cast of characters on the train, including a man named Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, high-school basketball player Min Yong-guk and his cheerleader girlfriend Kim Jin-hee, business executive Yon-suk, and more. One of the passengers is a sick woman who turns into a zombie and bites one of the other passengers. The infection spreads like wildfire, causing complete chaos on the train.

"A Tale of Two Sisters" is a psychological horror film based on a Korean folktale about two sisters who are mistreated by their stepmother. The film begins with a teenage girl named Su-mi being released from a mental institution and returning to her family's home in the countryside. She reunites with her younger sister Su-yeon and her widowed father, who has gotten remarried to a woman named Eun-joo.

The sisters try their best to put up with Eun-joo for their father's sake, but just when things seem to be going back to normal, strange and inexplicable events start happening in the family's home. You won't see the film's end coming.

Soon after a stranger arrives in the village of Gokseong, a mysterious disease that causes people to become violent and kill their families begins to spread. The police initially believe this change in behavior is caused by wild mushrooms, but Officer Jong-goo begins to suspect that the newcomer could be responsible for the chaos after a woman accuses him of being a ghost. After Jong-goo's daughter gets sick, the cop goes directly to the stranger's home in the mountains to investigate. "The Wailing" has ghosts, exorcisms, and demons, making it a must-see film for horror lovers.

Fans of Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" should watch his 2006 monster film, "The Host." According to the LA Times, Bong based his movie around a real-life scandal from 2000, when a U.S. military mortician ordered his employees to formaldehyde down the drain — which eventually ended up in the Han River.

The beginning of "The Host" depicts a similar incident, with Bong putting his own twist on the story: the chemicals in the river cause an amphibious creature to mutate, become violent, and kidnap a girl. The creature is also the host of a deadly virus, causing anyone who comes into contact with it to instantly fall ill.

"Monstrum" is a period film set in 1527 during the reign of King Jungjong. In the film, rumors of Monstrum, a bloodthirsty creature lurking in the mountains, run rampant. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, King Jungjong asks general Yun-kyum to form a team of hunters — including his daughter Myung, a skilled archer; his friend Sung-han; the King's messenger, Hur; and a number of other soldiers — to find out whether the beast is real. Yun-kyum soon realizes that the rumors were true, leading to a bloody confrontation with the creature.

Based on the 2002 novel "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters, "The Handmaiden" is a psychological thriller set in the 1930s. The film tells the story of a con man named Count Fujiwara, who is determined to marry a wealthy Japanese woman named Izumi Hideko to obtain her fortune. His plan involves hiring pickpocket Nam Sook-hee to become Hideko's handmaiden and encourage Hideko to marry him. If his plan succeeds, Fujiwara will send Hideko to a psychiatric hospital so he can get her money. However, his plan proves to be more difficult than anticipated.

If you're a fan of found-footage films, you'll love "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum." The movie centers around a crew filming a web series at an abandoned psychiatric hospital rumored to be the location where a number of patients were killed by the hospital director. The crew initially fakes scary scenarios to get more views for their livestream, but the deeper they get into the building, the more disturbing and inexplicable occurrences start happening. According to a report from Movie Flicks, the haunted asylum is based on a real-life hospital where a director experimented on her patients.

Another zombie-apocalypse film, "Alive" centers on a video-game streamer named Oh Joon-woo who is forced to remain inside his apartment after a mysterious infection starts turning everyone into zombies. He tries to find help, but when he loses phone and internet access — and runs out of food and running water — Joon-woo's hope for survival dwindle. However, things change when he notices another survivor living in the apartment building across the street. The two meet up and cook up a plan to survive the apocalypse together.

"Killer Toon"'s Kang Ji-yoon is a popular artist who creates horror webtoons. Shortly after she sends her latest draft to her editor, Seo Mi-sook, Ji-yoon discovers Mi-sook dead on the floor — with her face slashed in a way that looks eerily like the gruesome images in Ji-yoon's latest comic. Detectives suspect Ji-yoon as the murderer, and things get worse when another series of murders are traced back to Ji-yoon. Viewers will be on the edge of their seats as they get closer to the truth behind the mysterious killings.

"Warning: Do Not Play" is about an up-and-coming horror-movie director named Park Mi-jung (starring Seo Ye-ji from "Lawless Lawyer") who is set on finding her next big movie idea. When Mi-jung learns about a cursed student film that was banned eight years ago, she is determined to find it, hoping it will lend her some much-needed inspiration. Her search leads her to the film's director, Kim Jae-hyun, who tells Mi-jung that she doesn't know what she's getting herself into. Mi-jung ignores his warning, of course, and finds the haunting footage.

In "The Call," we meet a woman named Seo-yeon who moves back into her childhood home to look after her sick mother, Eun-ae. The two don't have the best relationship, since Seo-yeon blames Eun-ae for causing the fire that killed her father years ago. While at her mother's house, Seo-yeon starts receiving calls from a woman named Young-sook, who says that she's being tortured by her adoptive mother. Seo-yeon goes to visit Young-sook's house and, upon discovering that the woman is actually living in the past, asks Young-sook to save her father from the fire. Young-sook does so — but Seo-yeon soon realizes that there's a price to pay for changing the past.

If you loved Lee Jung-jae's performance in "Squid Game," check out "Svaha: The Sixth Finger." The actor plays Pastor Park, a man who runs an organization that exposes religious cults for money. One day, his character is hired to look into a group called Dear Mount, which causes him to cross paths with Police Captain Hwang. Hwang is investigating a murder whose prime suspect is a member the cult, and the two gradually unravel the secrets behind Dear Mount.

Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, "Oldboy" stars "I Saw The Devil" actor Choi Min-sik as a man named Oh Dae-su who gets arrested for public drunkenness. His friend picks him up from the station, but as soon as he's out, Dae-su is kidnapped and imprisoned inside a hotel room. While watching TV, he learns that his wife was murdered — and that he's the prime suspect. Dae-su is kept in isolation for 15 years until he's released one day. His captor calls him and challenges him to find out the reason for his imprisonment, leading Dae-su on a wild chase to discover the identity of the mysterious figure.

Set in the 1950s after the Korean War, "The Piper" centers around an injured piper named Woo-ryoung and his ill son, Young-nam. The duo are making their way to Seoul to find a doctor for Young-nam when they stumble upon a remote village, where they decided to spend the night. They realize that the village is infested with rats, and Woo-ryoung volunteers to get rid of them using his pipe in exchange for money for his son's medical fees. The deal falls through, and Woo-ryoung goes on a path of revenge.

The film is based on the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" legend, in which a man is hired to lure rats away from a small town with his pipe. When the townspeople refuse to pay him, he lures their children away as revenge.

Based on the Japanese novel "Ring" by Koji Suzuki, "The Ring Virus" is a heart-pounding story about a journalist named Hong Sun-joo ("Kingdom" star Bae Doona), who comes across a mysterious videotape after investigating the sudden death of her cousin. The tape contains a curse that causes anyone who watches the video to die within a week unless they fulfill certain tasks. Before Sun-joo can find out what she has to do in order to survive, the tape cuts off — leading Sun-joo on a dangerous journey to unravel the mystery behind the curse. Will she survive? You'll have to watch "The Ring Virus" to find out.

A remake of the 1986 Korean horror film "Woman's Wail," "The Wrath" portrays an orphaned young woman named Ok-bun (Apink's Son Na-eun) who is sold to a rich and powerful family to become a wife. The household is run by Lee Gyeong-jin, a high-ranking officer of the Joseon Kingdom. After two of Gyeong-jin's sons mysteriously die, Ok-bun discovers that the family is cursed. The third son impregnates Ok-bun in hopes of breaking the curse, but his plan fails. Ok-bun is forced to navigate the haunted house while dealing with her evil mother-in-law, Lady Shin. Warning: "The Wrath" gets really gruesome, so it's not for the faint of heart.

Fans of director Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden" and "Oldboy" will likely also enjoy his horror film "Thirst." The movie centers on a respected priest named Sang-hyun, who volunteers to participate in an experiment in order to find a cure for a deadly virus. The experiment goes wrong, and Sang-hyun catches the disease and dies. He's miraculously brought back to life after undergoing a blood transfusion — but the procedure turns him into a vampire. Sang-hyun questions his faith as he deals with his newfound bloodlust as well as his attraction to a woman named Tae-ju (who also happens to be his friend's wife).

"Bedevilled" follows a woman named Hae-won, who decides to travel to the island of Mudu in order to visit her childhood friend Bok-nam. We learn that Bok-nam is living in an abusive household, and that the only thing that keeps her going is her love for her daughter, Yeon-hee. When Bok-nam begins to suspect that her husband, Man-jong, is sexually abusing Yeon-hee, she begs Hae-won for help. Hae-won refuses to get involved, forcing Bok-nam to try to escape on her own with Yeon-hee.

Bok-nam gets caught by her husband, who tries to punish her. Yeon-hee intervene and is accidentally killed by Man-jong, who pins Yeon-hee's death on his wife. Bok-nam snaps and sets out to kill everyone on the island — including Hae-won, whom she blames for Yeon-hee's death.

"Into the Mirror" is one of the most chilling Korean horror films you'll come across. It centers around a former policeman named Woo Young-Min, who quits his job after inadvertently causing the death of his partner during a hostage situation. He begins working for his uncle as the head of security at a shopping mall. Things take a turn, however, when a number of the mall's employees are found dead. The police suspect a serial killer, but Young-Min discovers that the deaths may be linked to a parallel word inside mirrors.

"The Mimic" is based on the Korean urban legend of the Jangsan Tiger, a man-eating creature with sharp teeth and white fur that lives near the mountain of Jangsan. The creature lures people to their deaths by making a sound that resembles a woman's scream.

In the film, people begin disappearing in the woods after hearing the voices of their dead loved ones. The movie follows a woman named Hee-yeon; her husband, Min-ho; and their daughter, Joon-hee. The couple's son, Jun-seo, mysteriously disappeared five years ago. Still traumatized by their loss, Hee-yeon sees Jun-seo walking alone at night — but it turns out to be a mysterious girl, whose name is also Joon-hee and who sounds just like Hee-yeon's daughter.

"I Saw the Devil" is a 2010 thriller starring "Oldboy"'s Choi Min-sik. Choi plays a bus driver named Kyung-chul, who is secretly a serial killer. One night, he offers to help fix a pregnant woman's flat tire after she's stranded on the road and ends up beating her, decapitating her, and throwing her remains into a river. After her head is found, the woman's fiancé, an agent for the National Intelligence Service, is determined to find her killer and make him pay.

Based on the classic fairytale of the same name, "The Red Shoes" follows a divorced mother named Sun-jae, who moves into an apartment with her daughter, Tae-su. While riding the subway one day, Sun-jae finds a pair of bright-pink heels and decides to take them home. What she doesn't realize is that the shoes are cursed and cause those around it to become greedy. Sun-jae's best friend, Kim Mi-hee, becomes affected by the shoes and steals them, only to die shortly afterward. Sun-jae tries to get rid of the shoes, but she soon discovers that they follow her wherever she goes.