The Best Foreign Language Scary Movies
Year in and year out, movie fans turn to the same few horror movies every October.
While there’s nothing wrong with revisiting classics such as A Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, anyone who sticks to American productions diminishes their spooky season viewing. Some of the most thought-provoking, delightful, and outright terrifying horror movies have come not just from the United States but also from countries around the world.
This list covers some of the best foreign language scary movies the world has to offer.
1. The Host (2006)
Korean director Bong Joon-Ho has become one of the most recognizable filmmakers in the world, thanks in part to the Best Picture Oscar won for his 2019 movie Parasite. Director Bong first gained a following among American moviegoers with his 2006 creature feature, The Host. The Host features a reptilian kaiju who wreaks havoc in the life of a small family who lives along the Han River.
Anchored by outstanding performances from stars Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona, The Host veers between horror, comedy, and powerful drama, making for a unique monster movie.
2. Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Eyes Without a Face contains some shocking gore for a movie from 1960. Directed by Georges Franju and adapted from the novel by Jean Redon, Eyes Without a Face stars Pierre Brasseur as Dr. Génessier, a brilliant surgeon devastated by the damage done to his beautiful daughter Christiane’s (Édith Scob) face. With the help of his assistant Louise (Alida Valli), Génessier kidnaps women and removes their faces, hoping to transplant them onto the daughter.
With haunting images of Christiane floating down hallways and calliope music from Maurice Jarre, Eyes Without a Face chills viewers even without the blood and guts.
3. Atlantics (2019)
Set in the Senegalese city Dakar, Atlantics stars Mame Bineta Sane as Ada, who loves construction worker Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), despite a forced betrothal to the upper-class Omar (Babacar Sylla). Forced to look for work overseas because his wealthy boss refuses to pay his wages, Souleiman and his friends die after their boat disappears at sea.
At the same time, Ada’s friends begin experiencing strange sickness, suggesting that the ghosts of the boys have come back for revenge. Director Mati Diop, who co-wrote the film with Olivier Demangel, grounds the movie in Senegalese culture, but Atlantics will resonate with anyone familiar with paranormal romance tales.
4. [REC] (2007)
Found footage films tend to miss more than they hit, but the Spanish zombie movie [REC] offers a powerful case for the genre’s existence. Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, who co-wrote the screenplay with Luis A. Berdejo, follow newscaster Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) as she trails a group of firefighters on an overnight shift.
When she follows the firefighters to a call at a quarantined apartment building, Ángela must survive a viral zombie attack. [REC] uses its “camera always running” conceit better than nearly any other found footage film, making scares no viewer will soon forget.
5. Onibaba (1964)
Even those not well-versed in international horror may recognize the ghost mask from Onibaba, a grimacing face referenced in countless Western films.
The face comes from Japanese mythology, which writer and director Kaneto Shindō references in his story about an older woman (Nobuko Otowa), her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura), and a young man (Kei Satō) who deserted the Onin War. As the trio descends into jealousy and anger, the ghost mask becomes a symbol of the evil in their hearts.
6. La Llorona (2019)
La Llorona, the crying woman, has existed in Latin American culture since before the arrival of Spanish colonizers and has been the subject of several movies. None carry quite the punch of 2019’s La Llorona, directed by Jayro Bustamante and written by Bustamante and Lisandro Sanchez. Set in Guatemala, the titular ghost comes to haunt dictator Enrique Monteverde (Julio Díaz), who orchestrated the genocide of indigenous Mayans decades earlier.
However, that doesn’t stop Monteverde from taking an interest in his new maid Alma (María Mercedes Coroy), who has a hidden connection to the deposed dictator. La Llorona has scary scenes, but its true power comes from its connections to real-world atrocities.
7. Raw (2016)
Even the most adventurous viewer may have trouble with Raw, the debut feature from writer and director Julia Ducournau. On a surface level, Raw tells a coming-of-age story about university freshman and committed vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) adjusting to college life.
However, it also becomes a richer tale about family history and acceptance as Justine manifests a hunger for human flesh. Equal parts stomach-churning and thought-provoking, Raw stands as one of the most memorable horror films of the past decade.
8. Audition (1999)
Prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has a history of putting shocking imagery on the screen, and Audition stands as his masterpiece. For most of its runtime, Audition plays like a cynical romance film, as rich widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) searches for a new wife via a game show produced by his television executive friend (Jun Kunimura).
After Shigeharu falls for the beautiful Asami (Asami Yamazaki), Audition shifts gears, turning into one of the most punishing thrillers of all time.
9. Demon (2015)
The best horror films don’t just scare their viewers, but they also make them face facts people would rather avoid. Polish director Marcin Wrona uses that fact to great effect in Demon, which he co-wrote with Pawel Maślona. Set during the reception celebration for newlyweds Piotr (Itay Tiran) and Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), Demon explores the lingering guilt of Poland’s actions during World War II.
That past comes to light after Piotr begins to witness a woman in a wedding dress called Hana (Maria Dębska), who may be a dybbuk, a figure from Jewish folklore.
10. Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)
Like many of the movies on this list, writer/director Issa López’s Tigers Are Not Afraid combines ghost stories with references to real-world violence. It follows little Estrella (Paola Lara) and a group of children orphaned by the Cartels of Mexico City and the violent boss Chino (Tenoch Huerta).
When Estrella and her friends take possession of a cell phone that has a video that could convict Chino, they must fight to save their lives. Tigers Are Not Afraid works by blurring the line between the real and the fantastic, the horrific and the hopeful.
11. Kairo (2001)
Like many popular Japanese horror movies of the 1990s and 2000s, Kairo got an American remake in the form of Pulse from 2006. And like most of those films, the original is far, far superior. By telling the story of ghosts seeping into the world through the internet, writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa captures the sense of malaise and disconnection among young people in the early days of the web.
Lest that sound too philosophical, rest assured that Kairo contains some of the most disturbing imagery of any horror movie, including a shot of a ghost running down a hallway that no one will ever forget.
12. The Skin I Live In (2011)
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar established his reputation with hilarious melodramas about the lives of memorable women. With The Skin I Live In, Almodóvar takes on horror by adapting the French novel Mygale by Thierry Jonquet.
This Frankenstein-inspired tale stars Antonio Banderas as Robert Ledgard, a scientist who has created an artificial skin. Ledgard tests that skin on Vera (Elena Anaya), a woman he holds as a captive. As Vera and Ledgard engage in battles of wit and romance, The Skin I Live In becomes a chilling narrative about identity and power.
13. Hour of the Wolf (1968)
For its first 45 minutes, Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf feels like an existentialist relationship drama about a married couple on an idyllic island, not unlike his other films, Autumn Sonata or Scenes From a Marriage. By the midway point, it becomes clear that the concerns Alma (Liv Ullmann) has about her painter husband Johan (Max von Sydow) may be deeper than she feared.
Nightmarish visions overtake Johan, which might be connected to the cult that operates on the other side of the island, giving Bergman a new way to explore the darkness of the human psyche.
14. Train to Busan (2016)
Zombie movies have flooded theaters for over a decade, choking all the life out of a once-vibrant sub-genre. So Korean director Yeon Sang-ho and writer Park Joo-suk deserve all the credit they receive for their thrilling zombie flick Train to Busan.
When selfish businessman Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) agreed to take his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) from Seoul to Busan, he never expected to be fighting for their lives against an army of zombies. But that premise allows Yeon to deliver exciting sequences and powerful character moments, as Seok-woo learns how to care about others to save his child.
15. The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
One might point to spirits as the monsters of most ghost stories, but more often than not, these apparitions reveal the evils of the living. Take The Devil’s Backbone, from Mexican master Guillermo del Toro. Set during the last days of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone follows a group of children at an orphanage.
For years, an unexploded bomb has remained buried in the orphanage courtyard, but the real threat comes in the form of a spectral child who appears to the kids. As with his most famous work, Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro uses the supernatural to draw attention to the terrible things people do to one another.
16. Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
It’s hard to say where Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut movie Girl Walks Home Alone at Night takes place. Although shot in black and white, all of the characters speak Persian and make references to Iranian culture and politics.
That blurriness suits Amirpour’s approach, which features a chador-clad vampire (Shelia Vand) who skates around the city looking for prey. Amirpour uses this play of location and genre to shift between horror, romance, and Western, blending the styles to create a singular vampire story.
17. The Vanishing (1988)
Of all the movies on this list, The Vanishing might have the most insulting American remake. The problems with the American version won’t be apparent to those who watch the first few acts of the Dutch thriller from writer/director George Sluizer and co-writer Tim Krabbé, who wrote the novel on which the film is based.
The American version follows the Dutch story of traveler Rex (Gene Bervoets), who encounters the mysterious Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) while searching for his missing girlfriend Saskia (Johanna ter Steege). But the two movies diverge in their final act, making the original Dutch film the only worthwhile version of The Vanishing.
18. Revenge (2017)
Exploitation and horror films have a long history of making women into little more than victims, brutalized by the men around them. In her debut film Revenge, director and writer Coralie Fargeat flips that trope, focusing on the lengths to which hero Jen (Matilda Lutz) goes to destroy the men who assaulted her and left her to die in the wilderness.
Fargeat revels in the nastier parts of Jen’s quest, making Revenge a movie not for the faint of heart. But anyone who can stomach it will be treated to horror filmmaking of the highest caliber.
19. Baskin (2015)
Directed by Can Evrenol, who co-wrote the film with Cem Özüduru, Erçin Sadıkoğlu, and Eren Akay, Baskin tells the story of a group of Turkish policemen who investigate the remains of a cult ceremony. However, that brief description doesn’t capture the sheer power of Baskin. As the police officers look further into the mystery, they see and experience nightmares too terrible to describe.
Evrenol uses quick cuts to distort images of the inferno the officers encounter, forcing the viewers’ imaginations to do most of the work. But Baskin still has plenty of terrible sights to show, scenes that will stay in the audience’s mind long after the credits roll.
20. Tumbbad (2018)
Shot on location in the titular Indian city, the Hindi-language film Tumbbad borrows from folk mythology to tell the story of a man searching for a cursed gold coin. That coin belongs to the greedy deity Hastar, who has been trapped in Tumbbad for centuries.
As Vinayak Rao (Sohum Shah) fights to take the coin, he faces monsters far beyond the imagination, all brought to life by director Rahi Anil Barve, who wrote the screenplay with Mitesh Shah, Adesh Prasad, and Anand Gandhi.
21. The Pool (2018)
Watching The Pool feels like playing a game of chicken with Thai director Ping Lumpraploeng. After all, it takes place almost entirely in an empty swimming pool, in which photographer Day (Theeradej Wongpuapan) has trapped himself. He has just two companions: his girlfriend Koi (Ratnamon Ratchiratham), knocked unconscious in an accident, and a giant alligator.
That flimsy premise doesn’t seem like enough to carry a 90-minute film, but Lumpraploeng finds inventive ways to keep the narrative going, carried along by Wongpuapan’s compelling screen presence.
22. Under the Shadow (2016)
For most people, the constant bombings shown in Under the Shadow would horrify enough. They came during the War of Cities, part of the Iran/Iraq war that devastated Tehran in the 1980s. However, director and writer Babak Anvari chooses to explore the psychology of war by adding a supernatural element in the form of an evil entity attacking medical student Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi).
Anvari combines legends of the djinn and war footage with dynamic filmmaking to create a film that satisfies as both a protest film and a horror picture.
23. Let the Right One In (2008)
As long as people have told vampire stories, the idea of the perpetual child has struck them: a creature turned at an early age and stuck forever in a young person’s body. Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist used that idea to tell a tragic love story between a bullied boy and a monstrous girl, brought to the big screen by director Tomas Alfredson.
For all the frightening scenes in Let the Right One In, the relationship between Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson) drives the story, maintaining pathos even when the central characters do horrible things.
24. Ojuju (2014)
Crowned Best Nigerian Movie in the 4th annual Africa International Film Festival, Ojuju gives a distinctly Nigerian twist to the Western zombie tale. Gabriel Afolayan plays Romero, whose plans take him beyond the slum shantytown where he lives. But when his neighbors change into mindless killers, Romero must discover the source of the mutation, which he traces to the local poisoned water supply.
Shot on video by writer and director C.J. Obasi, Ojuju has an immediacy and energy lacking in most zombie flicks.
25. Maria Leonora Teresa (2014)
The killer doll sub-genre continues to attract fans, despite its inherent implausibility. After all, what would anyone find scary about a cute little toy? Filipino director Wenn V. Deramas and screenwriter Keiko A. Aquino get around that question for their soulful and frightening Maria Leonora Teresa.
After the three title characters die in an accident, an experimental psychiatrist (Cris Villanueva) offers dolls in the likeness of the girls, suggesting the parents take them for comfort. As the parents struggle to accept the dolls, they all experience strange phenomena, which suggests that the children may still be with them, though changed from the loving girls they once knew.