Fear Has a New Face: Five Korean Horror Movies to Watch in 2022

Let me be open and honest about my experience with horror movies: I enjoy watching them despite being terrified of them. It is likely that a lot of you share my enthusiasm for the genre. The emotions of terror, dread and trepidation stimulate us and have the power to set off the fight-or-flight response. It is our natural reflex to a frightening condition that equips one for either forcible resistance or escape. That’s why many people, including me, like the rush of being scared. Unsurprisingly, as a fan of Korean entertainment, my fondness for Korean horror films is significantly stronger than their western counterparts.

Like its Japanese equivalent, Korean horror is well regarded for its original approach to the horror brand. A great example of this is The Housemaid (1960) – widely credited with ushering in the horror era in Korean cinema – correctly cited by koreanfilm.org as a “consensus pick as one of the top three Korean films of all time.” The popularity of Korean horror films compounded incrementally thanks to works like Whispering Corridors (1998), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), and director Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece Thirst (2009), which evidenced their specificity through their slick filmmaking and visually stunning narration.

Korean horror cinema is also viscerally captivating due to its meticulously planned bloody mayhem and crushing excitement. If you’ve seen Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil (2010), you’d recognize my point. The element of heart-pounding adrenaline in the film is something that ought to be experienced. Jim Vorel from Paste deemed it the finest horror movie of that year and said of its climax, “It’s one of the great, empty victories of horror cinema in the 2010s.”

Together with the global success of K-zombies like Train to Busan (2016), The Wailing (2016), The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale (2019) and Peninsula (2020), Anton Bitel asserted in Sight & Sound that South Korea is among the world’s major hubs for horror cinema. As I see it, with audiences increasingly interested in the monster, the ghost and the darkness, contemporary Korean horror blockbusters like Sweet Home (2020), Squid Game (2021), and All of Us Are Dead (2022) are gearing up for a second season.

Horror, therefore, will always be well-liked in South Korea as long as the country keeps investing in it, regardless of how gruesome and graphic the visuals may be. On the whole, a frenzy of annual releases proves that the country is ardently creating more horror flicks.

Listed below are five spine-chilling Korean movies from 2022 that you must watch.

Urban Myths

Urban Myths – a horror anthology film that Hong Won-ki has directed – embodies his vision of abject terror. The omnibus movie is a collection of 10 short stories about fears that are set in real-world situations, featuring K-pop and K-movie stars. Tooth Worms is my favorite of the lot – a story that follows a man with chronic toothache who seeks dental care. Oddly enough, the dentist (Choong Jae) can’t figure out what’s causing it. He doesn’t realize that the toothaches are more serious until he consults with his mentor and conducts studies. The ability to immerse viewers into a world of darkness where facts and fiction are muddled is Urban Myth’s main asset, in my opinion.

The Witch: Part 2. The Other One

This sci-fi action horror movie that Park Hoon-jung helmed is a follow-up to The Witch: Part 1. A Subversion. Kim Da-mi, Lee Jong-suk and Uhm Tae-goo make cameo appearances alongside the leads, Shin Si-ah, Jo Min-su and Park Eun-bin. At the center of The Other One is a “girl” who escapes from the “Ark,” a clandestine research facility, and befriends siblings Kyung Hee (Park) and Dae Gil (Shin). As the plot progresses, we see Kyung Hee striving to keep the girl safe from a group looking for her. They eventually locate the girl, but when they do, unexpected savagery overtakes them.

The Other One was a resounding hit and is currently the fourth-highest-grossing Korean film of 2022. Bloody Disgusting‘s Meagan Navarro commended the movie for throwing up exciting new possibilities for a third instalment. She noted, “The Other One instils interest and deep curiosity to see where this insanely bloody, wild saga goes next.”

Seire

The premise of Park Kang’s brainchild – an inventive Korean horror film – is based on the legend of ‘Seire’, a sacred term that denotes the 21 days following a baby’s birth, during which the family must refrain from stepping outdoors or breaking specific taboos to protect the child from negative energy. Woo Jin (Seo Hyun-woo), who has only recently become a parent, learns of the demise of his ex-girlfriend, Seo Young (Ryu Abel). He visits the burial in stealth and meets Seo Young’s twin sister. Following this episode, Woo Jin and his family begin encountering a spate of bizarre, cataclysmic events.

Seire, which had its world premiere at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021, is anticipated to hit theatres this year. By replicating a classic horror film cliché and concurrently redefining the terror element that emerges from breaking cultural taboos, Seire skillfully blurs the distinction between the real and unreal through a great narrative.

Umma

Being averse to electronics, Korean immigrant Amanda (Sarah Oh) and her daughter Chrissy “Chris” (Fivel Stewart) live off the land on a farm, raising chickens, selling honey, and keeping bees. Their idyllic routine is upended when Amanda receives a bag bearing the cremated remains of her estranged ‘umma’ (mother in Korean). Soon after, she grows anxious about being possessed and begins to panic. Life becomes a nightmare when her fright is realized, and umma’s vengeful spirit takes control of her while Amanda tries to bury the ashes.

Despite the movie’s conflicting reviews, I found it to be an effective horror story that expertly addressed a mother-daughter relationship and the issues of guilt and regret. It’s worth a watch.

Carter

This Korean action thriller will satisfy you like nothing else if action movies are your thing. But hold on, where is the horror in this? I’d say, to experience horror on a new level, watch Carter. Directed by Jung Byung-gil, Carter begins amid a fatal pandemic brought on by a virus that originated in the Korean Demilitarized Zone and turns its victims vicious and zombie-like.

At the outset, we witness a man (Joo Won) waking up in a hotel room in Seoul, unaware of who he is or why he is there. A female voice within his ear (that only he can hear) informs him that his name is Carter and he must follow her instructions in order to survive. What ensues is a frantic rollercoaster of horrific violence and fight scenes that Joo Won pulls off flawlessly. Extra points for his exceptional athleticism. Notwithstanding criticism from some quarters for its brutal violence, Carter, in my estimation, creates a throbbing action-horror thriller unlike any other.