Halloween is right around the corner, and there’s no better way to spend it than marathoning some blood-curdling horror movies.
You’ve probably watched a lot of North American horror movies, so we’ve compiled a list of the most pants-sh*ttingly scary movies from around the world that you may have missed.
Bonus: Some of these horror movies are free to watch!
We asked the editorial team at Daily Hive for their recommendations, and it turns out that we all watch and love many foreign films. The number of staffers who are fans of creepy cinema is worryingly high, and maybe HR should schedule a team therapy session, but that’s beside the point.
Here are some of our favourite horror movies from Japan, Sweden, India, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, France, and other parts of the world.
Grab a pillow for comfort. This will be a wild ride
Sandrew Metronome/IMDb
Genre: Swedish fantasy horror
IMDb plot description: Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Logan Pictures/IMDb
Genre: Iranian romantic horror
IMDb plot description: In the Iranian ghost town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware a lonesome vampire is stalking them.
Available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
IMDb
Genre: Taiwanese horror mystery
IMDb plot description: Six years ago, Li Ronan was cursed after breaking a religious taboo. Now, she must protect her daughter from the consequences of her actions.
Available on Netflix.
Next Entertainment World/IMDb
Genre: South Korean action horror
IMDb plot description: While a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.
Available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
Netflix/IMDb
Genre: British drama thriller
IMDb plot description: A refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.
Available on Netflix.
Yukoh Films
Genre: Argentinian-Uruguayan thriller
IMDb plot description: It’s a soaking wet day with rain pouring down, and one of the best things to do is seek refuge in a great old cinema. There’s just one problem: a murderer is on the loose, and he also has taken refuge there.
Nordisk Film/IMDb
Genre: Danish psychological thriller
IMDb plot description: A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unravelling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.
Available on Amazon Prime.
Toho/IMDb
Genre: Japanese supernatural horror
IMDb plot description: Two women are raped and killed by samurai soldiers. Soon, they reappear as vengeful ghosts who seduce and brutally murder the passing samurai.
Available on Archive.org.
Rizzoli Film/IMDb
Genre: Italian mystery thriller
IMDb plot description: A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Colour Yellow Productions
Genre: Indian-Swedish fantasy horror
IMDb plot description: A mythological story about a goddess who created the entire universe. The plot revolves around the consequences when humans build a temple for her firstborn.
Toho Company/IMDb
Genre: Japanese comedy horror
IMDb plot description: A schoolgirl and six classmates travel to her aunt’s country home, which turns out to be haunted.
Available on Archive.org.
Showbox/IMDb
Genre: South Korean horror
IMDb plot description: The crew of a horror web series travels to an abandoned asylum for a live broadcast. It soon encounters much more than expected as it moves deeper inside the nightmarish old building.
Available on YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
EuropaCorp/IMDb
Genre: French slasher film
IMDb plot description: Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia’s parents’ secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls’ idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
Manfred Jelinski Film & Fernsehproduktion/IMDb
Genre: German grindhouse horror
IMDb plot description: The series has seven episodes, each taking place on a different day of the week, and it explores the themes of suicide and violent death.
Available on Archive.org.
Basara Pictures
Genre: Japanese horror mystery
IMDb plot description: A reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumoured to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.
Available on YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
Amazon Studios/IMDb
Genre: German fantasy horror
IMDb plot description: A darkness swirls at the centre of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
Available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
First Floor Features/IMDb
Genre: Dutch slasher movie
IMDb plot description: A hard-boiled police detective sets out to capture a gruesome serial killer terrorizing the canals of Amsterdam.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Machi Xcelsior Studios
Genre: Taiwanese slasher horror
IMDb plot description: A young couple trying to reunite amid a city ravaged by a plague that turns its victims into deranged, bloodthirsty sadists.
Available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Netflix
Genre: Indian supernatural thriller
IMDb plot description: A man returns home after years to find his brother’s child bride, who is now grown up and abandoned, and his ancestral village is plagued by mysterious deaths.
Available on Netflix.
Filmadora Nacional/IMDb
Genre: Mexican mystery horror
IMDb plot description: A dark fairy tale about a gang of five children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug war.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Jorkwang Films/IMDb
Genre: Thai horror mockumentary
IMDb plot description: A horrifying story of a shaman’s inheritance in the Isan region of Thailand. What could be possessing a family member might not be the goddess they make it out to be.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Hakuhodo
Genre: Japanese sci-fi horror
IMDb plot description: Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the internet.
Available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
20th Century Fox/IMDb
Genre: South Korean horror drama
IMDb plot description: Soon after a stranger arrives in a little village, a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman, drawn into the incident, is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
Available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Apache Films/IMDb
Genre: Spanish supernatural horror
IMDb plot description: Madrid, 1991: A teen girl finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she plays Ouija with two classmates.
Available on Netflix.
Gerald Kargl
Genre: Austrian thriller
IMDb plot description: A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.
Available on Amazon Prime.
Arté France Cinema
Genre: French-Belgian sci-fi horror
IMDb plot description: Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with [his] son, who has been missing for 10 years.
Available on YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
Filmax
Genre: Spanish thriller
IMDb plot description: A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.
Available on Apple TV.
Mosfilm
Genre: Russian mystery drama
IMDb plot description: A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
Available on YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.
I Film Dell’Orso
Genre: Italian horror drama
IMDb plot description: A man wandering in a volcanic desert forms a band of murderous cannibals. A post-war German industrialist learns that his son is unable to make decisions or form relationships.
Available on YouTube.
Xanadeux
Genre: Japanese mystery thriller
IMDb plot description: A documentary filmmaker explores seemingly unrelated paranormal incidents connected by the legend of an ancient demon called the “kagutaba.”
Available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Basara Pictures
Genre: Japanese-South Korean horror mystery
IMDb plot description: A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be, after all.