South Korea has a thriving film industry, and they are excelling with horror films. If you’re looking for some stories to keep you on the edge of your seat or biting your nails down to the quick, look no further than these offerings.

Train to Busan

Dad is busy and distracted, and his daughter is lonely and missing her mom. When Dad botches his little girl’s birthday present he decides to make it up to her by taking her to Busan to see her mom, even if that means being out of the office during a busy time at work. This may sound noble, but in the early stages he’s often on his phone with people from work, allowing his daughter to slip away unnoticed.

Strange things are happening. A skyscraper was burning in the distance. There’s a man on the train mumbling things about people being dead. And then, it happens.

Someone infected is on board and they attack others. Those people die and turn into zombies, and these aren’t the slow-moving zombies from some other series. They’re fast and brutal.

It isn’t long before Dad realizes his daughter is missing and goes to find her. As panicked passengers flee the zombies people make tough choices, and the stakes are raised throughout.

This is an intense horror thriller that keeps raising the stakes to the bitter end. Avoiding spoilers, all I can say is, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering how things will turn out for the characters we’ve come to care about. Highly recommended for fans of horror and thrillers. If you like The Walking Dead or World War Z you’ll likely appreciate this one.

The Wailing

Where to even start? Well, there’s a death. More than one, in fact. Someone has murdered their whole family. This is shocking in this village. What’s even more shocking is, this isn’t the only incident.

This starts out like a police procedural and quickly gets turned on its ear as more and more strange things happen. One of the cops has a family, and his daughter gets sick. From his experiences with the murders in his jurisdiction he recognizes the symptoms, and his terror for his family collides with his duty.

And that’s just one aspect of this story. There is a lot going on. My quick and dirty summary is that this is batshit crazy on steroids, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s impossible to see the end from the beginning because of all the twists and turns throughout. It’s one part bumbling cop procedural, one part parent going to any lengths to protect their child, one part revenge story, one part possession and all of it is intense. Again, I highly recommend it for fans of horror and thrillers. If you like scary possession stories, if you like crime stories with some supernatural elements, this one’s for you.