What I like about horror is the versatility of the genre: it can be appropriated and reworked in a million different ways. Every country and every culture has unique approaches and unique stories to tell through horror, and we’re missing out if we’re not opening ourselves up to them.
But opening ourselves up means authentically to predispose ourselves to accept and appreciate foreign horror movies in their particularity. Especially when it comes to countries in what’s usually called “the Third World”–countries with radically different cultures, histories, and perceptions of what qualifies as horror. And, also, countries in which filmmakers more often than not work with limited budgets and have only recently started producing horror movies.
The last decade has helped these local industries take off: video-on-demand services have made these movies easier to access internationally, and new producers (like Netflix and Shudder) have begun investing in foreign projects. As viewers, the best we can do is watch these movies–show our support so they can keep growing and enriching the film industry, horror included.
For all these reasons, for anyone’s potential October watch-a-ton (either this year or the ones to come), I’d like to suggest a theme: horror movies from all over the world. And, if you’re interested in knowing major content warnings for these movies, you can check this Letterboxd list.
Argentina. TERRIFIED (2017). Dir. Demián Rugna.
Supernatural.
Terrified aims to please its national public first and foremost, putting at the center of its story the key element any Argentine viewer is looking for in a horror movie: to be scared. The plot is simple, because what matters here are the well-crafted tension, dread and constant fear of jumpscares—all that without ever actually resorting to cheap tricks.
Australia. LITTLE MONSTERS (2019). Dir. Abe Forsythe
Comedy. Zombies.
“I was in a jam fight!” Lupita’s character tells her kindergarten students when she gets back from fighting zombies, covered in blood and guts. That’s what Little Monsters is like: lots of comedy, considerable amounts of gore, and a loving take on teachers and their hard work looking after and protecting the children under their care.
Check out Horror Homeroom’s post on Little Monsters and teaching in the apocalypse.
Canada. BLOOD QUANTUM (2019). Dir. Jeff Barnaby
Drama. Zombies.
Written and directed by an Indigenous man, and starring a mainly Indigenous cast, Blood Quantum tells the story of a zombie apocalypse that finds the Indigenous inhabitants of a reservation are the only ones immune to the new virus.
Colombia. THE SQUAD (2011). Dir. Jaime Osorio
Drama. Psychological thriller. Supernatural.
Colombia had been enduring decades of internal armed conflicts when this movie was made, another entrance on the “isolated men descending into madness” subgenre that has a lot to say about its country’s reality: the fear of enemies, the ever-growing paranoia, and the violence perpetuated by the same people that should be protecting civilians.
Egypt. THE BLUE ELEPHANT (2014). Dir. Marwan Hamed
Drama. Thriller. Fantasy. Supernatural.
This Egyptian genre-mixing film has become a classic in the country: it has a sequel and a third part in the making. It follows the story of a psychotherapist as he tries to prove the innocence of an old friend accused of murder, accidentally uncovering truths he thought couldn’t exist.
Estonia. GHOST MOUNTAINEER (2015). Dir. Urmas Eero Liiv
Historical. Survival. Thriller. Supernatural.
An unexpected combination of genres and elements, Ghost Mountaineer is allegedly the first ever horror movie from Estonia and also allegedly based on real events, specifically the lived experience of writer and director Urmas Eero Liiv during his youth in Soviet Estonia.
Finland. RARE EXPORTS (2010). Dir. Jalmari Helander
Dark Comedy. Fantasy.
Imagine The Mummy and its tomb robbing premise, but instead of Egypt it’s Finland and instead of an ancient Egyptian priest it’s the one and only, Santa Claus. Rare Exports plays with traditional horror elements and twists them into a dark comedy that still doesn’t forget its terrifying origins.
France. HIGH LANE (2009). Dir. Abel Ferry
Survival. Slasher.
Much like in The Descent (2005), what starts as a survival tale during an outdoors sports trip turns into a violent chase when High Lane’s protagonists discover they are not the only ones in the woods—but this time with less mysterious underground creatures and more sadistic loners living in the woods.
Great Britain. ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2018). Dir. John McPhail
Comedy. Drama. Zombies. Musical
A Christmas musical about a zombie apocalypse. What else is there to say? Anna and the Apocalypse mixes comedy, drama, zombie beating and catchy songs in one undoubtedly original movie that’s bound to leave you with at least one of its tracks stuck in your head.
Guatemala. LA LLORONA (2019). Dir. Jayro Bustamante
Drama. Historical. Supernatural.
A retelling of the well-known Latin American myth of La Llorona, this film tackles the Mayan genocide carried between 1981 and 1983 in Guatemala, a wound that (like most genocides, and most processes of violence against Indigenous populations in America) has yet to heal and still haunts Guatemala’s population in the present.
Hong Kong. THE SLEEP CURSE (2017). Dir. Herman Yau
Drama. Historical. Supernatural.
This horror piece blends historical facts (Japanese occupation during WWII) with ghost/curses mythology and raw violence to talk about karma and the ways past violence echoes in the present, following two different generations in an alternating timeline.
Hungary. WHITE GOD (2014). Dir. Kornél Mundruczó
Drama.
Award-winning White God starts as a slow-paced and anxiety-inducing coming-of-age drama that walks us, slowly but surely, to one climax like no other: a raw and bloody canine uprising, hundreds and hundreds of abandoned and abused mutt dogs revolting against humans.
You can read Dawn Keetley’s review of White God for Horror Homeroom here.
Iceland. RIFT (2017). Dir. Erlingur Thoroddsen
Psychological thriller
Much like the movies that have impacted his career, Thoroddsen’s film is “about the journey, not the conclusion.” Rift is a slow-paced speculative drama following two ex-lovers who, months after their fall-out, reunite—only to realize they’re being followed by someone or something.
India. GAME OVER (2019). Dir. Ashwin Saravanan
Supernatural. Home invasion.
This horror movie from India was co-written by both the director and doctor-turned-writer Kaavya Ramkumar. It’s moving and gripping, telling a story about survival and sisterhood in the face of misogyny by combining paranormal and home invasion elements.
Indonesia. MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS (2017). Dir. Mouly Surya
Drama. Western. Rape/Revenge. Supernatural.
Another reimagining of elements traditionally used in horror, Marlina The Murderer crafts a rape/revenge story with subtle supernatural elements and slaps a western aesthetic into it through its setting, rhythm and music.
Iran. UNDER THE SHADOW (2016). Dir. Babak Anvari
Drama. Historical. Supernatural.
In the war-torn city of Tehran, in the 80s, a mother and her young daughter start being harassed by an evil entity: A Djinn, a supernatural creature present in the folklore of most (if not all) Middle Eastern cultures.
Check out Horror Homeroom’s review of Under the Shadow here.
Italy. THE END? (2017). Dir. Daniele Misischia
Zombies.
This movie makes the most of its one location (an elevator stuck between floors) to tell the story of a zombie outbreak. Come for the savvy use of limited filming resources, stay for all the hilarious Italian cursing.
Laos. DEAREST SISTER (2016). Dir. Mattie Do
Drama. Supernatural.
Mattie Do isn’t only the first female director from Laos, but also the first ever horror director of any gender from the country. Dearest Sister is her second film and follows a young girl from a rural area who moves to the city to help her estranged cousin, who’s losing her sight to a degenerative disease—all while secretly developing the ability to see the dead.
Dawn Keetley reviews Dearest Sister for Horror Homeroom here.
New Zealand. HOUSEBOUND (2014). Dir. Gerard Johnstone
Comedy. Supernatural.
Joke after joke and twist after twist, this gripping movie about a young woman forced into house arrest who suspects there’s something in her home has to be one of the most solid pieces of horror-comedy that have come out of the last decade, a must watch for lovers of this subgenre.
Nigeria. LIVING IN BONDAGE: BREAKING FREE (2019). Dir. Ramsey Nouah
Drama. Cult. Supernatural.
While it works as a stand-alone, this movie is actually a sequel to the Nigerian horror classic Living in Bondage (1992), and it’s been brought to video-on-demand by senior-actor-turned-director Ramsey Nouah. Much like its predecessor, it’s a cautionary tale about seeking power and richness through the occult.
Panamá. DIABLO ROJO PTY (2019). Dir. Sol Moreno
Comedy. Supernatural.
First ever horror movie from the country, this flick is a love letter to old school effects and Panamá’s culture and folklore. The driver and assistant of a Diablo Rojo, a type of public transport traditional from Panamá, find themselves—along with two cops and a priest—trying to escape from supernatural entities brought out of Panamá’s mythology.
Perú. LA LUZ EN EL CERRO (2016). Dir. Ricardo Velarde
Drama. Mystery.
This is an intrinsically Peruvian tale about greed and the reverberations of colonialism in the present. The suspicion of ancient gold buried in the hills of a small Andean town—common-place myth among Perú’s populations—heightens tensions in relationships and awakens the worst in almost every party involved.
Philippines. AURORA (2018). Dir. Yam Laranas
Drama. Supernatural.
Slow-paced and eerie, Aurora is set on a poverty-stricken island where a passenger ship tragically wrecks along the shore. Allegedly inspired by the real-life accident of the MV Doña Paz ferry, the story intertwines a tale of economic problems and corruption with a supernatural approach to speak about the victims of the shipwreck.
Poland. THE LURE (2015). Dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Drama. Musical. Fantasy.
The Lure is a very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid, following two sisters who find themselves becoming part of the human world as performers at a nightclub. It’s equal parts grim and shiny, mixing moments of bloody violence with whimsical musical numbers.
Read more about The Lure in Sara McCartney’s two-part article on the new girl-monster of horror film.
Russia. SPUTNIK (2020). Dir. Egor Abramenko
Drama. Historical. Science fiction.
Abramenko is a child of the Soviet Union, and that’s the setting of this science fiction film that offers a fresh and gripping take on the alien subgenre: during the Cold War, a soviet astronaut returns to earth unknowingly carrying a passenger with him, and a daring psychiatrist is brought in to examine him.
Senegal. ATLANTICS (2019). Dir. Mati Diop.
Drama. Supernatural.
Real-life horrors are met with supernatural horrors in this slow-paced, haunting and unnerving film that’s been described as a paranormal romance but that cannot have its more traditional horror elements forgotten.
South Africa. THE TOKOLOSHE (2019). Dir. Jerome Pikwane
Supernatural.
Slow-paced and unnerving, The Tokoloshe uses the eponymous mythical creature from Zulu’s traditional religious beliefs—here presented as a monster that takes children and “those left behind” away—to talk about child sexual abuse and navigating trauma.
Thailand. THE POOL (2018). Dir. Ping Lumpraploeng
Drama. Survival.
Both plausible and improbable, unless you have the worst luck ever, this film follows a man that gets stuck inside a massive, empty and isolated pool—only to have a crocodile fall inside with him.
Tunisia. DACHRA (2018). Dir. Abdelhamid Bouchnak
Folk horror. Supernatural.
With a bleak, slow-paced and unsettling atmosphere, the self-proclaimed first horror movie from Tunisia follows three Journalism students as they dive in a small community that turns to be far more than meets the eye.
Uruguay. THE SILENT HOUSE (2010). Dir. Gustavo Hernández
Thriller.
Shot with a hand camera and a six-thousand-dollar budget, The Silent House became an international hit and even got a US remake, praised for its faux-one-take editing and the dreadful tension built as we follow Laura—almost as if it’s a third-person game—while she explores the empty, isolated house she’s staying in, in the wake of strange sounds.
Venezuela. THE HOUSE AT THE END OF TIME (2013). Dir. Alejandro Hidalgo
Drama. Supernatural.
Marketed as the first horror movie from Venezuela—and also the first movie by writer and director Hidalgo—this one is a drama with twisty speculative elements that begins looking like one thing and ends up turning into a totally different thing.
Isabella Capuselli is a History major who loves analyzing History through pop culture. Born, raised and living in Argentina, she has a couple of academic accomplishments in Spanish that aren’t worth mentioning in English. She’s a die-hard fan of movies and books, and aspires to one day publish her own work. You can find Isabella on Medium.
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