Get Scared Korean Style

I would probably call myself a horror fan. I quite like being scared while knowing that it’s just on screen and the monsters won’t come out of the screen to grab and strangle me. I guess that’s the general appeal of horror movies – you get the rush of adrenaline while not taking any actual risks. Well, except for falling off the chair during a spooky scene, perhaps. To be honest, I haven’t watched anything horror for quite a while, but that’s because this genre needs specific mood – it is not something you’d want to watch after a tiring day at work now, is it?

I should also point out that Korean horror movies are quite different not only from Hollywood productions, but from Japanese horror movies as well. American horror is mostly blood, and gore; Japanese is more psychological, and Korean is… Well, sometimes it’s just paranormally sad and not really horror at all. But I actually like that. In most cases it is a story full of mystery, about a ghost who has been betrayed, bullied or somehow else mistreated (in addition to probable unnatural death, of course). The soul tries to get revenge against the criminals or other bad guys, while usually there is someone who’s trying to find out the truth. Yes, that’s the overall plot of most horror stories, but Korean horror movies mainly focus on the story of mistreatment and emotional appeal about the injustice to the victim.

So here are some Korean horror movies that I have seen and would like to recommend.


A true masterpiece. A movie you will want to watch for the second time. And, in order to understand all the hidden things, you will need to. But that is only to the benefit of the movie, at least in my opinion. Im Su Jeong's acting is priceless, and the music really helps to create the mysterious and spooky mood. It‘s not gory, though there are a few bloody scenes. Overall I would categorize it as intellectual horror, since there certainly are many twists and turns that are not only unexpected, but in some cases even a bit difficult to understand right away. It‘s also one of the cases that when you think you've already grasped all the cunning pieces of the story, you should think again.


Bestseller actually had a deeper plot than there usually is in a horror movie.  It has the sense of a detective  story, tracking aspects to find the truth behind the ghost’s death. Despite many negative comments I have read about Uhm Jung Hwa, I truly enjoyed her acting in this movie (I haven’t seen anything else with her). The movie itself gave more of a detective feeling rather than your straight ghost story; therefore, I really enjoyed it, since it felt something different.


This one is also more mystery horror than horror horror. I would even call it a sad movie with horror elements. At the end I wasn‘t really scared as much as I pitied the children and wished they had had a better childhood.


This is the only thing I have seen with Ha Ji Won, but I already realize why everyone loves her. She was great. And the movie was really good. It even had the “super creepy exorcist-ish kid” character, which is usually found in American horror. And trust me; she was scarier than the actual ghost was. The story moved me very much, especially because SPOILER the husband seemed so loving and caring in the beginning.




The series, consist of 5 movies: Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori, Wishing Stairs, Voice, and A Blood Pledge. Every movie can be watched completely separately. The series don’t even have decent plot connection. The only common theme is that the action takes place at school and the characters are high school students. From the series I really liked two movies: A Blood Pledge and Wishing Stairs. A Blood Pledge gave me the general good horror feeling and it showed how untrue the bond between friends sometimes is. And in Wishing Stairs I really loved the overall idea of “be careful what you wish for” and “everything comes with a price” (P.S. Song Ji Hyo is in it), though the portrayal was a bit gruesome to me and so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have. Voice was okay too, but only 'okay'. 


To be honest, I’m quite on the fence with this movie. It had an original storyline, the K-pop bits weren’t overwhelming, nor did they disturb the development of the story. It was even a bit funny to watch Eunjung in a movie about bullying within a female K-pop band, when just 2 or 3 months before watching this movie, I was following the whole T-ara bullying scandal. However, with a great story came poor execution. I’m not even sure if it was poor acting or bad directing. I think they also overdid the final scene. So, as a whole – if you want an interesting plot – watch it, if you care about execution – then don’t.



Yes, you heard read me right. In my travels through Dramaland, I have even come across horror dramas. 


I haven’t completed this drama yet, but I still can tell you what it’s about. Each episode features a Korean legend (for example, the first episode was about a gumiho), which is portrayed horror style. They are not very scary as such and I’m watching this drama not because of the horror. It's in this way that I can find out more about Korean culture, especially because I’m interested in various mythologies and folklore. Each episode can be watched completely separately and randomly – you can freely choose only the stories or the cast that interest you and watch those episodes only. There is also a sequel, Hometown Legends 2009, and it follows the same pattern.


There were three main reasons why I decided to watch this drama. First, Supernova’s Geonil was in it. Second, it was a horror drama. At that time I hadn’t heard about Hometown Legends, so it was intriguing to see a drama in a horror genre. Third, it’s only 10 episodes. I wouldn’t call it an excellent or outstanding drama, but I wasn’t disappointed either. There were a few WTH moments and scenes, and some things were left unexplained. However, for the most part I did enjoy this drama and it was something different from what I was used to (plus, my inner fangirl was quite satisfied with romantic Geonil), and I was amazed by Im Joo Eun's acting. Therefore, I would recommend it to those who crave for something different in a drama. At least give it a go.

So this has been my horror drama/movie review from Korea, and please let me know if you’re interested in a Japanese edition as well. I haven’t seen that many Japanese horror movies yet, but I feel the horror craving in me rising again, so it will be a pretext to expand my knowledge in Japanese horror ;)