10 Korean Zombie Horror Movies You Need To Watch (And Where To Watch Them)

It's pretty common for zombie movies to serve as a reflection of current issues plaguing the world of the living, but #Alive felt a little too on the nose with its themes of isolation and anxiety when it was released just a few months into the pandemic. Starring Burning‘s Too Ah-in, #Alive centers on a young video game livestreamer trapped inside his apartment building while zombies wreak ravenous chaos outside.

As with many movies released in 2020, #Alive got a little swept under the rug from audiences outside of South Korea at the time of release due to, err, everything else going on. No better time than now to get caught up.

#Alive is now streaming on Netflix.

Widely considered to be South Korea's first ever zombie movie, Beom Gu-kang's A Monstrous Corpse is a pseudo-remake of Jorge Grau's The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, or Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, centering on an uprising of the dead caused by a newly installed radio transmitter using experimental ultra sonic wavelengths.

What A Monstrous Corpse lacks in any real scares or gore it makes up for by being a fascinating slice of Korean horror history, and worth a watch for anyone even remotely interested in the roots of the genre.

Thanks to the efforts of the Korean Film Archive, A Monstrous Corpse is available to watch for free on YouTube.

Ok, ok, sure, Kingdom is a series not a movie, but it's our list and we make the rules, and this period-set horror story is too good not to include on a list of zombie media from the Land of the Morning Calm.

Starring Ju Ji-hoon and the always incredible Bae Doona, Kingdom is set in Korea's Joseon Dynasty era (1601, to be precise), and blends political court drama with grisly horror in the tale of a prince investigating a mysterious epidemic that resurrects its deceased victims as – you guessed it – bloodthirsty flesh-eating fiends. If you like your zombie stories with a hefty dose of sociopolitical commentary, even if it does apply to the 17th century, Kingdom will be right up your alley.

Kingdom is now streaming on Netflix.

Quirky zom-rom-com Zombie for Sale from director Lee Min-jae is one for fans of Shaun of the Dead and Warm Bodies. A dysfunctional family of scammers, gamblers and losers find their fortunes changing when grandpa Man-deok gets bitten by a walker, and instead of turning into a shambling, shuffling member of the army of the living dead, regains his youth and vitality in a way that instantly puts won signs in the eyes of this clan of crooks.

This being a Korean movie, Zombie for Sale goes heavy on the anti-corporate themes, but with lighthearted, hilarious reverie.

Zombie for Sale is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Before Kingdom depicted zombie horror in Korea's dynastic Joseon period, Kim Sung-hoon's Rampant traded shotguns for arquebuses with its bloody tale of monstrous royal affairs. Starring Hyun Bin as an exiled prince who must return to his homeland to claim both the crown and victory over a vicious zombie outbreak, Rampant unfortunately wasn't a huge hit at the Korean box office, but still boasts plenty of blood, guts, and epic swordsmanship.

Rampant is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Even those with just a passing interest in Korean horror have surely seen Yeon Sang-ho's masterpiece Train to Busan, but on the off-chance you haven't, stop reading right now and go and watch it. Without a doubt the most critically and commercially successful of all Korean zombie movies, Train to Busan stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-Mi, Ma Dong-seok and Choi Woo-shik as passengers aboard a high speed KTX train that becomes overrun with a deadly infection that turns its victims into aggressive, mindless fiends.

With its commentary on class struggles and corporate greed, Train to Busan is as much a heartfelt plea for altruism as it is one of the most thrilling horror movies of the modern age. Watch it without crying, we dare you.

Find out where you can rent and watch Train to Busan here.

Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busan put high speed horror on course for Korea's biggest southern city, but its prequel kept things in the capital. The animated Seoul Station depicts the onset of the zombie epidemic that ravaged the KTX train of the original, following three survivors who have enough on their individual plates without getting eaten alive by aggressive infected.

While not as successful as Train to Busan, Seoul Station is still very much worth a watch as an exploration of the same universe, with its distinctive Korean aeni style putting a fresh spin on the gore and guts.

Seoul Station is available to watch on StudioCanal via Amazon Prime.

Yeon Sang-ho's fourth entry on this list (keep scrolling) may not have been as unanimously well-received as his Train to Busan, but the standalone sequel still has plenty to offer fans of Korean horror. Set four years after the initial outbreak, Peninsula follows Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won), a former South Korean Marine Corps Captain tasked with retrieving a truck full of money from his zombie-ravaged homeland.

Just as Train to Busan was, Peninsula is far more interested in the arcs of its human characters than delving into the origins of the virus, and while it doesn't quite hit the same emotional notes as its predecessor, just being back in Yeon's Busan-iverse is a thrill.

Peninsula is now available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime.

Lee Soo-seong's Gangnam Zombie was unfortunately a flop in its native South Korea, (possibly due to years of post-Train to Busan fatigue, or the fact it is set during the pandemic, a time we'd all rather forget) but there are definitely worse ways to spend your time than checking out this spunky low-budget action horror.

Set in Seoul's affluent Gangnam neighborhood, the pic contains plenty of the hallmarks associated with Korean genre cinema, notably a distrust of corporations, heavy criticism of capitalism, and a wry sense of humor.

Gangnam Zombie is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Even after Train to Busan, Seoul Station and Peninsula, Yeon Sang-ho still has plenty of fresh blood to offer the zombie genre with his latest, Colony. Starring My Sassy Girl’s Gianna Jun, the action-packed horror-thriller centers on a group of survivors trapped inside a Seoul high-rise as an aggressive viral infection ravages attendees of a bio-tech conference.

While Train to Busan was Yeon's plea for compassion and unity in the face of an ever-fractured society, Colony ponders if, in the age of the Internet and high-speed information exchange, could we actually do with putting a little more distance between ourselves? For FANGORIA's full thoughts on Colony, check out our review right here.

Colony is now playing in select theaters.