If you are a horror film buff, then you should try the South Korean horror movie genre! If you want to stay scared, then this is precisely where you should look. Any K-horror film will be scarier than your average Hollywood movie! Over the years, it has left a big stamp on Asian cinema. What works is the treatment of the stories and how it manages to enter the scary realms were no Hollywood has ever dared to venture!
It seriously gets outright brutal out there, bringing some mind-boggling twists and turns and bringing ample blood and gore, and strange characters — but also bringing social values, a clear case of art imitating society, with horror as a backdrop! It’s no wonder that these movies heavily inspire American directors. Okay, now it is time to grab some popcorn (expecting a lot to spill out of the tub because of the jump scares it gives you!)
A Tale of Two Sisters
This 2003 movie started it all and has been hailed a classic for all and sundry! This movie will keep you riveted to your screen and holding on to who you’ve got and what you’ve got!
And if you think the average Hollywood movie has twists, you haven’t watched this crazy horror movie! It has also been the highest-grossing horror Korean movie ever, and it was so popular that it made its way to Hollywood theatres too! As the name suggests, it is the story of two sisters. After Sumi, one of the sisters, returns to her home from an asylum, things started getting wrong! It will scare you, make you shudder, and the plot twists will make you go like OMG, what the heck was that.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum
This is one of the best contributions to the “found footage” genre. And it is one of the highest-grossing films in the Korean horror genre’s history, second to only A Tale of Two Sisters. It’s eerily real as it draws inspiration from a real place in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, a Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, a real haunted location! And one of the places that can make you jump out of your skin as per CNN Travel.
The film is about a crew traveling to a hospital for a Livestream, and they soon realize that there is something freakingly terrifying about the place. Watching it will scare you and scare you, and it will scare you! Get the drift, now watch it at your own risk!
The Doll Master
Dolls, especially those that act like humans, give us the heebie-jeebies! We watched ‘Child’s Play‘ when we were younger, and we haven’t recovered ever since. We kind of look gingerly at the dolls that act smart and start jabbering without batteries!
Venturing into a doll’s museum is an entirely different experience altogether. We can only watch with a blanket and reduce the sound to endure the scarier parts. It has all the right ingredients to make for a classic horror movie! A rambling doll museum, a macabre doll collection, a group of unsuspecting people, and a host who has things to hide. If one Chucky wasn’t enough for you, there is a museum full of Chuckys out there — brace yourself as you may have to rethink before watching it.
The Mimic
This movie is kinda eerie, creepy, scary all rolled into one! A messed-up plot adds to its intrigue value. A mother uses her child substituting for the one she has lost. Also, ahem, the child may not turn out to be a human. If you ever want to watch a classic ghost story, well, this is the one for you. It makes you feel that something ominous is going to happen at the next bend. And you wouldn’t be wrong!
Hee-Yeon’s ( the protagonist’s) child, Jun-Seo, goes missing for five years. The family moves to live in the countryside to forget the devastating incident and heal! The mother discovers a creature in a forest who resembles the little girl she has lost, at least her voice, and things start going downhill at a rapid pace for the family. The girl, as you can guess, is nothing that you would imagine her to be, and the tale goes off from there, making it a frighteningly crazy watch!
So, these are our four picks that are scary and perfect watch on rainy days. And it can come in handy on days where all you need is something to jolt you out of your reverie! Did your favorite movie make it to the list?