Top 20 Best Foreign Horror Movies: From Train to Busan to Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and more

Horror is an interesting genre. While plenty of people love being spooked by creaky door hinges and shadowy apparitions, others love the films that explore something more- this can be social issues, romance, and more. It’s also a genre where the macabre cerebral or psychological aspects of human beings can be portrayed along with the effects on the physical body.  

Well-made spine-chilling horror movies are plenty in the anglosphere, but what if you are in the mood to branch out and check what other countries are offering? From Spanish bone-chillers to South Korean fear inducers, here are some of the best horror films from other countries. From vampires and zombies to abandoned asylums and orphanages, we have it all in this list. 

20. Poison for the Fairies (1986)

Where to Watch: Shudder
Cast: Ana Patricia Rojo, Anna Silvetti, Arturo Beristáin, Carmela Stein
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada
Country: Mexico

This 1986 film written and directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada tells the story of a friendship between two girls- Flavia and Veronica. However, this isn’t a normal friendship that’s forged through gossiping, hanging out, and going to school. This one is based on spells, superstitions, and witchcraft. 

The film slowly explores the dynamic between the two young girls, who gradually sink deeper and deeper into morbid activities that push the boundaries of what is permissible. 

19. Audition (1999)

Where to Watch: Tubi
Cast: Eihi Shiina, Fumiyo Kohinata, Jun Kunimura, Kanji Tsuda
Director: Takashi Miike
Country: Japan

Audition follows a widowed TV producer who sets up a dating service to search for the perfect woman who can be his new wife. While the premise might seem simple, the film delves into multiple subjects ranging from human loneliness to female objectification. 

This movie isn’t for the faint hearted because it is violent and unsettling. The sound design and visual eeriness will stay with you for days on end. However, its artistic exploration of humans, on an individual and societal level makes it a worthwhile watch. So put this on your foreign horror movie to watch list.

18. Let the Right One In (2008)

Where to Watch: Tubi and PeacockTV 
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Country: Sweden

Vampires hold an eternal place in the horror genre, and it’s always interesting to see how different filmmakers treat them. In Let the Right One In, 12-year-old Oskar is relentlessly bullied, but things change when he meets Eli, a new girl at his school. 

Soon, he falls in love with her, but later on discovers that she is a vampire. This tale of young love is bloody sweet. The film was remade into an American one and also received a television adaptation.

17. The Orphanage (2007)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera
Director: J.A. Bayona
Country: Spain

The Orphanage is a classic in the horror community. The story follows Laura, who takes her children back to the orphanage she was raised in. She plans to reopen it so that other children like her can also find shelter. 

However, things take a dark turn when her son tells her that he has invisible friends. The Orphanage’s eerie and dreadful atmosphere as well as dark secrets will tingle your spine as the plot threads slowly unravel. 

16. One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Where to Watch: Apple TV+ and Netflix
Cast: Ayana Goda, Donguri, Harumi Shuhama, Harumi Syuhama
Director: Shin'ichiro Ueda
Country: Japan

One Cut of the Dead, written and directed by Shin’ichirô Ueda, burst into the global scene because of its creative screenplay. The film follows a director shooting a low-budget zombie movie with his film crew.

However, things take a weird turn when the abandoned WWII facility they are all in gets attacked by real zombies. The film is full of surprises, and even though it had a shoestring budget, the director was able to make something special that wowed horror fans worldwide. 

15. Train to Busan (2016)

Where to Watch: Netflix, Tubi, and Prime Video
Cast: Ahn So-hee, An So-hee, Baek Seung-hwan, Cha Chung-hwa
Director: Sang-ho Yeon, Yeon Sang-ho
Country: South Korea

Train to Busan is one of the most successful and loved zombie-horror films from South Korea in recent years. The film follows a father-daughter duo who get caught in a rapidly spreading zombie virus outbreak. 

Trapped in a train going from Seoul to Busan, they as well as other fellow passengers try to survive and reach a safe zone. This big-budget spectacle is filled with great set pieces where the ending will make you teary-eyed as the father tries his hardest to hold onto his humanity. This should be on your foreign horror movie to watch list.

14. Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Béatrice Altariba, Alexandre Rignault
Director: Georges Franju
Country: France

Eyes Without a Face is a black-and-white horror film that explores body horror along with themes of murder, isolation, guilt, and immoral medical experiments. The film follows Dr. Génessier as he and his assistant Louise kidnap and surgically remove the faces of young women so that they can be grafted onto the face of his daughter- Christiane. 

Is it a father’s love for his daughter that pushes the doctor to do this? Or is he just a monster who loves experimenting on living beings? His morbid facility hides more dangerous secrets as Christiane grapples with her disfigured face and the price she (and other women) have to pay for it. 

13. Suspiria (1977)

Where to Watch: Apple TV+ and Shudder
Cast: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy

Suspiria follows Suzy, a new American student who takes admission at a prestigious German ballet school. However, she soon finds out that the school isn’t ordinary and is hiding a lot of sinister secrets of its own. 

The film is celebrated for its disturbing visuals and shocking twists. Also, its aesthetic elements and technical presentation were ahead of the curve during its time. The frightening music and the colorful cinematography add to the terrifying beauty of the film. 

12. I Saw the Devil (2010)

Where to Watch: Netflix 
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Jeon Gook-hwan
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Country: South Korea

I Saw The Devil isn’t the kind of horror movie where there are ghosts and apparitions. Instead, the movie is about the monstrosity of a serial killer who murders for pleasure. The film begins with Kyung-chul, a dangerous man who kills the pregnant fiancée of a special agent, Juyeon. 

Her fiancé becomes obsessed with revenge and is consumed by the desire to track him down. In this cat-and-mouse chase, who ultimately is the monster is hard to tell. The film is lauded for its tight screenplay and an ending that will leave you satisfied. 

11. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Where to Watch: Netflix and Apple TV
Cast: Ivana Baquero
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Country: Spanish Mexican

Pan’s Labyrinth is mystical, magical, and horrifying. The film is set in 1944 Spain right after the end of the Civil War. Carmen and her daughter Ofélia move into her new husband, Vidal’s house. He is authoritarian and a captain in Franco’s army. 

Unable to bear her new life, Ofélia goes searching for something that will give her respite and finds a sprawling mysterious labyrinth right next to the family house. Pan, a mystical guardian creature, reveals to her that she is the princess of a magical kingdom. But to get to the throne, Ofélia will have to complete some tasks. 

10. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Navabi, and Dominic Rains
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Country: Iran

Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is Iran’s first ever Vampire Western. The film is moody and stylized as it follows a vampire who goes after men who disrespect women. Completely black-and-white, the movie explores multiple genres as well as themes of isolation, feminism, and more. 

This is a great experimental horror film that has become a cult classic in the horror community. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night should be on the list for those looking to watch something different. 

9. The Wolf House (2018)

Where to Watch: Tubi
Cast: Amalia Kassai, Natalia Geisse
Director: Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña
Country: Chile

The Wolf House is a stop-motion genre-pushing film told in the style of a fairytale where a girl named Maria runs away into the forest and hides in a house with two pigs. Its unsettling animation as it seamlesly shifts from paper mâché to paint is spectacular. 

Inspired by the horrors of Chile’s Colonia Dignidad- a cult colony that was turned into a torture camp under the Pinochet regime, the film explores fascism, colonialism, and more through allegories. This is one of the best foreign horror movies to watch.

8. Zana (2019)

Where to Watch: Tubi 
Cast: Adriana Matoshi, Alketa Sylaj, Astrit Kabashi, Bislim Muçaj
Director: Antoneta Kastrati
Country: Kosovo

Antoneta Kastrati’s Zana explores the psychological effects of war on a society that has just begun to heal from it. The plot follows Lume, a married woman who is pressurized by her mother-in-law and husband to conceive. When modern medicine fails, they consult a witch doctor and then a televangelist. 

The latter two tell her that she is cursed by a jinn. Lume seems apathetic to it all but inside her lies secrets that don’t let her have respite. The movie isn’t an out-and-out horror film but has elements of horror mixed with explorations of other topics. 

7. House (1977)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Country: Japan

House follows a schoolgirl who visits her ill aunt, a retired piano teacher, at her country home with six friends. There, the group faces supernatural events that put their lives in jeopardy. The film features practical and animated effects, the latter of which are deliberately made to be unrealistic. 

Obayashi’s film has multiple themes, but the most prominent is the effect of war on a generation that has lost its youth and will never get to relive it again. The bold and funky music score, combined with the cinematography, challenged established Japanese filmmaking at that time. 

6. Vampyr (1932)

Where to Watch: Apple TV and Max
Cast: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany

Vampyr is a cornerstone of the horror genre. Adapted from the stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, the film follows an occult-obsessed student's foray into a small French village where he gets involved in a family’s struggle with evil forces. He finds that an undead creature rises from its coffin to terrorize the family. 

The film has a surreal tone to it, where the entire village seems to be in a trance. Events also happen without seemingly any rhyme or reason as shadows suddenly come to life and dreams become reality. Even the camera movement is designed to disorient one. This, as well as the sound design, gave a new dimension to the horror genre. 

5. Under the Shadow (2016)

Where to Watch: Netflix 
Cast: Amir Ranjbar, Aram Ghasemy, Arash Marandi, Avin Manshadi
Director: Babak Anvari
Country: The film is in Persian-language.

Under the Shadow follows Shideh as she tries to save her daughter Dorsa from a jinn that wants to possess her. However, the film isn’t a straight-cut horror as it also echoes the effects of the Iran-Iraq war. 

In the film, bombs shake the ground as Shideh and Dorsa struggle with loneliness and isolation while their husband and father is out on the frontlines. Director Babak Anvari utilizes every second to ensure that the viewers feel unsettled by even a rustle of the wind. 

4. The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Country: Spain

Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil's Backbone follows an orphan named Carlos who arrives at a boys orphanage not knowing that his father was killed during the Spanish civil war. There, a pale spectre of a previous resident urges him to find out the secrets of the orphanage. 

Mixing themes of war (symbolized by the unexploded bomb that sits in the courtyard) with abandonment, guilt, and pain, the film explores little Carlos’ life as he struggles to survive. 

3. Shrew's Nest (2014)

Where to Watch: Prime Video
Cast: Macarena Gomez, Nadia de Santiago, Luis Tosar, Hugo Silva
Director: Juanfer Andrés, Esteban Roel
Country: Spain 

Shrew's Nest is set in 1950s Madrid where two sisters live. The protagonist is called Montse, but we never learn the name of the younger sister. Their mother passed away during the birth of the younger sister, and their father ran away, unable to deal with this. 

Montse is the one who works as a seamstress and takes care of them both. However, she is strict and doesn’t let her sister mix with boys. Things change when a man called Carlos takes refuge in their home with a broken leg. What follows is a tale of obsession as various truths about Montse are brought to light. Definitely add this to your foreign horror movies to watch list.

2. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

Where to Watch: Netflix and Prime Video 
Cast: Hyun-bin, Yoo Ji-tae, Sung-Woo Bae, Park Sung-woong
Director: Beom-sik Jeong
Country: South Korea

The Blair Witch Project took the horror world by storm with its handheld camera and found-footage filming style. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum also utilizes that, and to keep up with the times, it adopts a live stream concept to give viewers an edge-of-the-seat spine-tingling horror experience. 

The plot is about a streamer who gathers a group of people to explore the Gonjiam Mental Hospital, one of the 7 Horrific Sites of the world. However, what begins as a normal shoot for their web series turns into a ghastly nightmare for all as they find out that they should have left this place alone. 

1. Shutter (2004)

Where to Watch: Netflix and Shudder
Cast: Ananda Everingham, Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, Achita Sikamana
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Country: Thailand

Shutter is iconic and has been remade in multiple languages. The plot follows Jane and her photographer boyfriend Tun, who decide to drive away after hitting a girl with their car. However, they soon begin to find white spots and apparitions in Tun’s photographs. 

To make matters worse, he suddenly experiences back and neck pain coupled with sudden weight loss. Soon, mysterious and haunting incidents escalate as the couple rushes to find out what is happening to them and how to stop it.  This film needs to be on your foreign horror movies to watch list.