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Originally published by Paul Hsiao. Last updated by Jianne Soriano, Celia Lee, and Ashley Siu.
If 2023 has not been scary enough for you, here are 19 spooky horror films on Netflix Hong Kong to make any Halloween watch party that much creepier.
A Korean horror classic, Train to Busan is not your run-of-the-mill zombie apocalypse. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, this is the first Korean film to break box office records with over 10 million viewers its first year. Set for the most part on a high-speed train travelling from Seoul to Busan, the film follows Seok-woo and his daughter Su-an when a passenger turns into a zombie and attacks everyone on board. Soon, the only survivors left, including the father and daughter, are forced to make difficult decisions to ensure their safety. Watch to find out how the pair escape the zombie mob, and don’t forget to prepare tissues for the film’s tear-jerking ending.
Sightless is the psychological horror story of Ellen Ashland, a prominent violinist who is left blind after suffering a violent attack. She is assigned a carer to help her with recovery and reintegration into society but as the days go by and Ellen’s world remains shrouded in darkness, strange and terrifying things begin to take place around her. After being attacked again in her own apartment, Ellen decides to escape the hopelessness of life by jumping from her apartment balcony, only to wake up to a reality worse than she imagined.
The first-ever Korean animated horror film, Beauty Water is an adaptation of Oh Seong-dae’s webtoon Tales of the Unusual. Directed by Cho Kyung-hun, the horror animation revolves around makeup artist Yaeji, who is considered “ugly” according to Korean beauty standards. An incident causes her to take an extra’s place on set, and her face ends up publicly broadcasted for all the internet to see and shame. This pushes her over the edge: Yaeji begins to religiously use beauty water to shape her face and body according to beauty standards. However, the more she does, the more the side effects become apparent. This addition to Korea’s horror scene questions society’s obsession with beauty and materialism.
Cloverfield is almost synonymous with mystery and suspense in the horror movie scene. The Cloverfield Paradox is the third film in the Cloverfield franchise, and this time, they are taking the iconic, supernatural suspense and mystery to space. Following a group of international astronauts, The Cloverfield Paradox follows their quest in trying to resolve Earth’s energy problem. A particle accelerator labelled Shepard is chosen for the task, but it causes a power surge on the space station after being activated. Strange happenings begin to occur from this point on. Not only has Earth vanished from sight, but the crew discovers strange transformations on their bodies, too.
When you think of vampires, what comes to mind is likely to be the film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula—pale, disfigured monsters of the dark that feast on human blood. Or you might be reminded of Robert Patterson’s sparkly counterpart in Twilight. However, the vampires in Blood Red Sky are nothing like their filmic predecessors. As a mysteriously ill woman and her son journey across the Atlantic, their flight is hijacked by a group that threatens the survival of everyone on the plane. Little do they know, an unlikely passenger on the plane is ready to unleash her monstrous secret to protect her son.
This suspenseful piece is another brilliantly bone-chilling addition to the Scandinavian horror scene. The movie begins in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster in Norway and follows a family of three on their quest to survive in a city of ruins. After food supplies are devastated by the disaster, the starving family and their neighbours happily accept a charitable offer to attend a fully catered feast at an abandoned theatre. As the audience is lured in with offerings of food, they are unaware of the sinister game they are about to be a part of, and the dark truth behind the theatre’s opulent supply of food.
Researchers uncover an unknown species of pterosaur-like creatures from a mine and are immediately killed on-site by the creatures. As the “vesps” escape their ancient prison, they began to attack humans, who have grown to be noisy and loud in our contemporary world. The Silence follows the story of a deaf teenager, Ally, and her family as they try to survive a world recently made apocalyptic. Everyone must stay silent if they want to live.
The sequel to the critically acclaimed 2018 post-apocalyptic horror film A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place Part II revolves around Evelyn, Regan, Marcus, and Evelyn’s new-born baby. Now a family of four, they track down other survivors. Regan, who is deaf, discovers that high-frequency audio feedback weakens the noise-driven alien creatures that have landed on Earth and killed most of human life. Armed with this knowledge and the hopes that there are survivors beyond the sea, the family splits up to explore an island off the coast. But even there, the family is far from safety.
While we often come across horror film premises that centre around the exploits of fanatical cults and unexplainable supernatural occurrences, it’s not often that we get one focused on mythological lore, and that’s what sets The Ritual apart. A group of friends set out on a trip through the Swedish wilderness in an attempt to console each other over a recent death and become entangled in the affairs of ancient evil beings. In order to survive, they have to face creatures from Norse legends and their corrupted followers.
World War Z is a nostalgic watch for the millennial horror lovers out there. This depiction of the ever-popular zombie apocalypse is a classic that doesn’t age. Gerry, a former United Nations investigator, is driving his wife and two daughters through the streets of Philadelphia when a zombie outbreak occurs. They quickly escape aboard a US Navy vessel with other officials, but the danger follows them. Faced with the threat of his and his family’s eviction from the ship, Gerry must help develop a vaccine to protect the rest of the population, which may very well result in his own death.
Here, the stacked cast alone—featuring Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Jennifer Jason Leigh—is worth the price of admission. When her husband goes missing, biologist and former soldier Lena joins a mission to enter “the Shimmer,” a mysterious plot of land where the laws of biology are bent. Unsettling, tense, and with a completely bonkers ending that you will not see coming, Annihilation is one of the best examples of cosmic horror. Fun fact: At the time of release, this film was notable for being the highest-profile direct-to-Netflix purchase the streaming giant made!
Florence Pugh shines in this nail-biting story that follows the misadventures of a team of con artists led by brother and sister Jackson and Angela, who run fake paranormal encounters for profit. During their recent assignments, strange and unexplainable things begin to occur to the siblings, and Angela suspects that there is more to their new clients than they are letting on. Angela looks into the history of the estate and comes across a string of unsolved murders and the malevolent spirits that are haunting the mansion.
Horror films where “a family moves into a haunted house and disturbing things ensue” is the bread and butter of the industry, but if you’re looking for a truly good scare, critics agree that Don’t Listen is a must-watch to add to your list this Halloween. Directed by Angel Gómez Hernández, this Spanish thriller follows a family whose latest house-flipping project turns out to be more than they bargained for when Eric, their son, begins to hear strange voices from within “The House of the Voices” shortly after moving in.
Now for something a little different: Apostle is a period horror film set in the Edwardian period, with a cast that includes British stars Dan Stevens, Lucy Boynton, and Michael Sheen. Former missionary Thomas (Stevens) makes a journey to a remote island in Wales to rescue his sister Jennifer, who is being held hostage by an infamous religious cult. As he investigates, he uncovers dark and dangerous secrets. Expect sacrificial rituals, a steady build-up of tension, violent confrontations, and a supernatural twist.
South Korean filmmakers just seem to have that special touch for dystopian zombie flicks, and #Alive is a worthy addition to its growing repertoire. Penned by Hollywood screenwriter Matt Naylor and co-developed with director Cho Il-hyung, the film centres around Oh Joon-woo, who locks himself inside his family’s home when a mysterious disease breaks out across the city. While fighting off infected neighbours and other victims of the virus who attempt to break into his flat, he comes across another survivor of the zombie outbreak.
Author Stephen King has long been at the top of his game in the horror genre, so when his 1992 novel of the same name was adapted into a psychological thriller, long-time fans were excited to see what was considered an “unfilmable” work hit the screens. Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood star as a married couple who go to Alabama for a vacation in order to rekindle their lacklustre sexual relationship, but things go awry when the husband suddenly passes away, leaving the wife handcuffed to the bed without a way to escape and no hope of rescue. Hallucinations soon take over as she tries to find a way to survive.
Long before winning the Academy Award with his black comedy thriller Parasite, director Bong Joon-ho caught our attention with this horror film. Similar to his award-winning picture, The Host also touches upon themes of inequality and generational consequences, albeit with a gory twist. After a monster emerges from the Han River in Seoul and kidnaps his daughter, Gang-du, a slow-witted man, stops at nothing to get her back.
Another terrifyingly terrific sequel, Halloween Kills is a continuation of the 2018 slasher Halloween. In the previous movie, serial killer Michael Myers is left to die in Laurie’s burning house, but in the continuation of the story, he has yet to succumb to the flames. He murders the firefighters sent to extinguish the flaming home before fleeing the scene, still wearing his signature white mask. Following Myers’s long string of kills in Haddonfield, a group of survivors, including Laurie’s granddaughter, come to the realisation that Myers is trying to return to his childhood home. A mob of Haddonfield’s residents form to hunt Myers down and avenge the fallen, but—as seen in most horror movies—things do not go as planned.
From the producers of The Haunting of Hill House comes another horror sensation that’ll have you fearing creepy medical facilities more than you already do. Eli Miller is a young boy who suffers from a rare disease, causing him to live life in protective gear. His parents have almost given up on finding a cure to his illness when Dr Isabella Horn steps in, offering treatment in a large, old house that has been modernised for medical purposes.
Eli begins to undergo painful procedures, causing him to see spectres, and he takes it upon himself to investigate his convictions that the house is haunted. Equipped with jump scares galore, Eli offers horror fans a truly terrifying story. In a humorous turn, Indiewire dubbed it as a meeting between Bubble Boy and The Conjuring—which is pretty accurate.
Paul, the founder of Movieconomist, likes to watch movies and make graphs. He also writes a monthly column on Localiiz about new Netflix releases and is a lead community director for Finimize. His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, Asia Investor, and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. He also spends a great deal of time playing squash.
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