The 20 best foreign horror movies

Based on the novel of the same name, Sweden’s Let the Right One In is a story about friendship and love with a biting twist. Twelve-year-old Oskar is a victim of vicious bullying when he meets Eli, a strange girl. He falls in love with her before discovering she is a vampire. Eerie and beautiful simultaneously, this bloody tale of young love will haunt you. Let the Right One In was remade into the American film Let Me In and also received a television adaptation. 

From Spanish director J. A. Bayona (The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), The Orphanage is considered a classic among foreign horror films. Laura takes her family back to live in the orphanage she was raised in, specialized for disabled children. Hoping to reopen the orphanage, she is unnerved when her son tells her he has "invisible friends." Filled with dread and atmosphere, dark secrets about the orphanage are revealed in this spine-tingling yet emotional film.

Korean film and TV have had huge success globally, thanks to hits like Parasite and Squid Game. This extends with Train to Busan, a claustrophobic and action-packed take on the zombie movie. A zombie virus breaks out when a father and daughter ride on a train from Seoul to Busan. They and other passengers must fight for survival against the flesh-eating horde. Train to Busan features incredible effects, make-up, and fast-paced thrills, making it a horrifically entertaining ride.

From visionary Italian director Dario Argento, Suspiria is a creepy yet dazzling cinematic triumph. American student Suzy is new at a prestigious German ballet school. She discovers the school has a sinister secret when a series of violent events occur. The film is a great introduction to European horror. While shocking and disturbing, it is celebrated for its technical and aesthetic elements. The colorful cinematography and frightening music make for a unique sensory experience. 

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a stylish and moody take on vampire flicks. The Persian film by director Ana Lily Amirpour is set in an Iranian town where a vampire preys upon men disrespecting women. Shot in black-and-white, it heavily relies on the atmosphere to create a sense of isolation and unease. With its feminist undertones and artistic touches, it makes for truly immersive viewing and is one of the most experimental recent horror films.

Speak No Evil is not for the faint of heart and is difficult to stomach, even for the most seasoned horror viewer. A Danish family befriends a Dutch family on holiday and are invited to their home. The idyllic trip takes a turn when warmth and hospitality quickly turn into discomfort and nihilism. A slow burn to begin with, the film becomes increasingly shocking as it nears its brutal climax. An English-language remake starring James McAvoy is also on the way.

A24’s Lamb is a strange and boundary-pushing folktale. The story follows a childless couple in Iceland who discover a newborn on their farm. There’s a twist, however: the baby is half human and half sheep. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. Overcome with gratitude and love, the couple raises the child as their own but are eventually confronted by external forces that threaten their family unit. While the premise may sound bizarre, it is executed in a chilling and effective way. 

Scary kids are a common trope in horror movies, but they are presented with disquieting realism in the Norwegian film The Innocents. Over a Nordic summer, a group of children discover they have powers. While playing and experimenting away from their parents, things take a dark turn. The film is subtle yet outright with its brutality, posing the question of how innocent children are simply because they are children. It is daring, thematic, and thought-provoking horror at its finest. 

Hatching is a creature feature that can also be classified as a satire or coming-of-age film. Twelve-year-old gymnast Tinja desperately tries to impress her influencer mother, who documents their seemingly perfect life online. When she finds a strange egg that hatches to reveal a grotesque monster, their squeaky-clean family image is threatened. Hatching features some very gooey body horror and seriously impressive VFX that bring its central creature to life. 

Goodnight Mommy is an Austrian psychological horror that is dreadfully captivating from start to finish. When their mother comes home in bandages after facial reconstructive surgery, twin brothers Elias and Lukas begin to question her identity. The film gets under your skin with its creepy atmosphere, unsettling characters, and shocking twists and turns. It received an American remake of the same name starring Naomi Watts, but the consensus is that the original is superior. 

Easily one of the scariest movies of all time, [Rec] uses found-footage filmmaking to create a realistic and absolutely terrifying experience. The Spanish film sees a television reporter and her cameraman follow emergency workers into an apartment building. When a woman is infected with a virus, the building is sealed off, and they become trapped in a nightmare. The use of the found-footage style makes [Rec] feel totally believable and terrifyingly intimate. Watch in a dark room for full effect.

Before director Bong Joon-ho swept the Academy Awards with his film Parasite, he made the horror sci-fi film The Host (which also features Parasite actor Song Kang-ho). When a monster emerges from the Han River in Seoul and captures a young girl, her family attempts to rescue her. At its core, The Host is a good old-fashioned monster movie but is elevated by Joon-ho’s storytelling strengths. The creature design and VFX for the central monster are also excellent, making it a formidable foe for our heroes.

Viewers may be more familiar with The Ring, starring Naomi Watts, but that is a remake of the Japanese film Ringu. It follows a similar plot involving a cursed videotape that kills its viewers and is investigated by a reporter. Once she views it, she must uncover its origins before it kills her or anybody else. The ghostly villain known as Samara Morgan is Sadako Yamamura here. Ringu can be credited with kicking off the mainstream global success and influence of Asian horror.

It’s just a photo; it can’t hurt you, right? Wrong. Thai film Shutter sees a photographer and his girlfriend discover a shadowy figure in their photographs after a hit-and-run incident they fled from. They discover their friends are also being haunted and that there may be a connection between the victim of their accident and the figure in their photographs. Shutter has been remade in several countries, including in the U.S., starring Joshua Jackson, but none have measured up to the thrills of the original. 

House is a Japanese experimental horror film following a young girl and her classmates. They travel to her aunt’s country house to find it haunted. Described as Alice in Wonderland for the horror genre, the film has a comedic tone as the girls face outlandish threats like flying pillows and killer pianos. It is not your typical haunted house movie and feels more like a psychedelic fever dream. House is considered a classic thanks to its surreal nature and creative (yet bizarre) imagery. 

The Devil’s Backbone is one of Guillermo del Toro’s earliest films and helped to eventually cement him as one of the greatest directors of our time. Twelve-year-old Carlos arrives at a boys' orphanage after his father dies in the Spanish Civil War. He soon learns that the orphanage is haunted and discovers its dark secrets. Like many of his other films, Del Toro combines horror with realism, as Carlos deals with both the supernatural and the horror of war. 

Warning: The French horror film Raw is not for those with a queasy stomach. It follows Justine, a vegetarian forced to eat raw meat while studying at veterinary school. Once she does, she develops a concerning taste for human flesh and becomes a full-blown cannibal. As expected, the film is excessively gory and graphic, fully embracing its icky premise. Raw puts a profoundly disturbing twist on the coming-of-age drama and is not for everyone. 

Just like Ringu, Ju-on: The Grudge is a Japanese horror film that has received the U.S. remake treatment (more than once). However, the original is the scariest of them all. It follows a vengeful spirit who goes after any person who enters the house it resides in, where the murder of a woman and child took place. Rather than rely on jump scares, it effectively builds tension and atmosphere to scare its audience and uses non-linear storytelling to create a gripping viewer experience. 

Perhaps the most classic and influential horror movie of all is 1922’s Nosferatu. From the silent era and inspired by Dracula, the film follows vampire Count Orlok, who has his sights (and fangs) set on real estate agent Hutter’s wife. Nosferatu is one of the best and most notable silent films, which still manages to be thrilling despite its age and lack of dialogue. Count Orlok has become a staple in pop culture and media, even appearing in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Netflix’s The Platform is a unique and gritty examination of class that uses horror elements to its advantage. It is set in a dystopian prison where inmates receive food on a descending platform. The wealthy prisoners on the upper levels get as much food as they like, while the lower class below is left only with scraps. When one man decides to fight against the system, chaos ensues. The Platform is utterly grim, as desperate inmates turn towards violence and even cannibalism.