Let’s be real: some of the most exciting horror in recent memory has come out of Asia. Films like Audition, Cure, The Host and The Wailing have caught the attention of horror fans around the world.
But what happens when you’ve seen all the best known horror films from that corner of the world? Here’s a list of some great under seen Asian horror films to start building out your knowledge into the wide and wild world of Asian horror.
The Housemaid (1960)
When Bong Joon-ho compiled his Sight and Sound list in 2022, he included only one film from his home country, The Housemaid. And it’s easy to see why and how all of the other directors who took inspiration from this film.
The 1960 film is full of social commentary, incredible visual symbolism, and wildly entertaining. All of it rides on the incredible lead performance by Lee Eun-shim, who plays her rebuffed housemaid with rage and desperation. It’s not much of horror film but it’s an incredible psychosexual thriller that gives a window into 1960s South Korea.
Kuroneko (1967)
Kaneto Shindo directed two landmark feminist horror films in the 1960s. Onibaba is the better known but Kuroneko is as equally as good. Two women in a mother and her daughter in law are murdered during a time of civil war in Japan. They come back as vengeful spirits who murder samurai that travel on a road near them. A soldier is sent out to investigate but the twist is that it’s the son/husband.
There’s a lot of commentary on how disposable and forgotten women become during war and Shindo has an immense amount of sympathy for the mother and daughter. This is also one of the most beautifully shot black and white films ever made. The night time scenes alone, with their deep blacks and swirling mists, make this a must see.
Lake of Dracula (1970)
What if Hammer Studios made a film in Japan? The answer would likely be something like Lake of Dracula. This takes the story of Dracula and transports it to then modern Japan! Director Michio Yamamoto has an eye for gothic visuals with a modern flair, draping scenes in shadows and mist. The vampire’s death is an all time great ending. Yamamoto made two other vampire films, The Evil Doll and Evil of Dracula, also worth checking out.
A Chinese Ghost Story (1986)
Likely, this is the most well known of the films on here but honestly, it deserves a bigger audience in North America. Both director Tony Ching Siu-Tung and writer Yuen Kai-Chi adapt a Qing era story into an action packed horror film shot like Evil Dead II. A tax collector played by the great Leslie Chung falls in love with a ghost and gets dragged into a battle between good and evil.
Given this is 1980s Hong Kong film, the action scenes are incredible. But what’s really surprising about this film is how it balances all of the tones; the horror, the comedy, the romance, and the action. This is an entertaining film that was a massive hit in Asia and certainly worthy of a massive audience here.
The Cat (1992)
How do you describe The Cat to another person? “Well, there’s an 1000 year old alien cat from outer space whose natural enemy is an evil space fungus. The hero is a writer that teams up with a young girl, who is also from space? Maybe? There’s a fight between cat and dog that involves flips. One scene seems right out of Terminator 2. It’s got everything!”
Calling this weird is both a compliment and an understatement. Like Lam Nai-choi’s other films, The Seventh Curse and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, this is a film that truly needs to be experienced, preferably in the company of others.
Memento Mori (1999)
This is the rare queer Asian horror film. The ghost of a lesbian student haunts her fellow students at a Korean school but that’s not where the terror lies in this film. What makes Memento Mori work so well, outside of it’s non linear storytelling and weirdo visuals, is how it nails the horrors of going to high school. Young women can be the worst to each other and this film knows it.
Noroi: The Curse (2005)
Noroi: The Curse is that rare thing; a legitimately great found footage film. Taking the form of an episode for a cheap TV paranormal show, it follows a journalist on the trail of a missing psychic girl. Or is he? Writer/director Koji Shirashi allows the terror to boil slowly.
Writer/director Kōji Shiraishi plays with whether this is real or not mixing in real TV personalities with actors fake news footage. It gives the proceedings both a scope and a verisimilitude often not present in this genre. It’s multiple running plot lines only gets creepier as they slowly unfurl into a horrifying collision.
Thirst (2009)
Park Chan-wook dabbles in horrific imagery in his films but Thirst represents his lone full foray into the horror genre and what a foray! A priest, played by the incredible Song Kang-ho, becomes a vampire after participating in an experiment for a vaccine.
This is a pure horror comedy with Park being funny in a way that he didn’t really explore until last year’s No Other Choice. He has fun with vampire lore, gets to diverge into romantic comedy, and of course there’s some deeply uncomfortable images. You’ll never look at a flute the same way.
Exhuma (2024)
In Exhuma, directed by Jang Jae-hyun, four spiritualists of different belief systems get tasked with solving the curse plaguing a family. Everything goes badly. This is the rare horror flick where there’s a genuine respect for spiritualists.
These characters get to be concerned professionals trying to do their job instead of conmen forced to believe in the supernatural. In that respect, it recalls The Exorcist and that film’s healthy belief in supernatural evil. The cast is a delight, including one played by Choi Min-sik from Oldboy, and there’s some really spooky visuals from a chained coffin to the most menacing pile of dirt in film history.
Exit 8 (2026)
2026 has been a great year for liminal horror and Exit 8, a video game adaptation, is one of the best. The terror builds as a man child stumbles into a subway corridor that repeats on itself. His only way out is noticing the differences between each iteration of the corridor.
The film’s director Genki Kawamura gets a lot of tension out whether or not Kazunari Ninomiya’s lost man has once again stumbled all the way back to the beginning. Kawamura plays into the video game source material but also imbues the film with a whisked away into a demon dimension quality. The set only becomes more demonic the longer we spend time there.
