7 New Movies That Will Make You Fall In Love With International Horror

Celtic folklore is full of eerie entities and creepy creatures, but writer-director Colum Eastwood is taking it right to the top, tackling a bona fide deity in his folk-horror film The Morrigan.
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Expanding on Eastwood’s 2015 short of the same name, The Morrigan follows an archaeologist specializing in Gaelic mythology who travels to a remote region of Ireland with her rebellious teenage daughter in tow. But far from marvelling at the gorgeous landscapes and perhaps bonding over a cheeky pint of Guinness, the pair find themselves fighting for their lives after a vengeful pagan war goddess is released from her tomb.

Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Emily Flain, and Toby Stephens (The Severed Sun) star in the flick, which hit digital platforms on February 3.

Also titled Dracula: A Love Tale, French filmmaker Luc Besson’s Dracula is, you guessed it, an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that leans into the novel’s sumptuous streak of Gothic romance. And since it hits theaters on February 6, it’s the perfect movie for a Valentine’s Day pregame with your favorite blood bag.
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In the English-language French film, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) plays the titular Dracula, a 15th-century prince who denounces God and is subsequently cursed with vampirism following the death of his wife (Zoë Bleu). Condemned to wander the earth for lonely centuries, he is guided by a single hope: to be reunited with his lost love. Christoph Waltz (Frankenstein) also stars in Dracula, which features music by Danny Elfman.

If you enjoy peeling back the skin of a horror movie to peer at the dark heart beating within, then director Rupert Russell’s The Last Sacrifice is for you. The documentary explores the still-unsolved murder of farm worker Charles Walton, whose body was discovered in the sleepy English parish of Lower Quinton on Valentine's Day 1945, and the whisperings of witchcraft that surrounded the case—whispers that would feed into the British folk horror boom of the following decades, particularly 1973’s The Wicker Man.
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I caught The Last Sacrifice at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival a few years back and was impressed with the care it took not to demonize the Wicca practitioners of the day. It’s also got a killer epilogue that takes on new meaning in the wake of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (you’ll see). Check it out when the doc hits Shudder on February 16.

All aboard! Director Tak Se-woong’s Ghost Train is speeding out of South Korea and onto VOD platforms in North America on February 17.
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The supernatural anthology horror film stars Joo Hyun-young, who rose to prominence on Korea's version of Saturday Night Live. She plays Da-kyung, a horror YouTuber who, desperate to get her views up, begins investigating the strange disappearances plaguing a supposedly haunted subway station. But when she interviews the station master (The Wailing’s Jeon Bae-soo), the tales he tells her are each more chilling than the last. Fair warning: if you suffer from trypophobia, the trailer for this one may not be for you…

As a former Sunday School teacher (hard to believe, I know), I’ve always got my eye out for some hot new religious horror, and Diabolic looks set to scratch that itch this month. Director Daniel J. Phillips’ film is slated to release on demand and in limited theaters on February 20.
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Elizabeth Cullen stars in Diabolic as Elise, a woman who returns to the fundamentalist Mormon compound where she was raised after experiencing unsettling blackouts. Once there, she learns that she’s being haunted by the vengeful spirit of a witch.

Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner and Kit Harrington reunite in The Dreadful, an R-rated Gothic horror film written and directed by Natasha Kermani.
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Inspired by the same Shin Buddhist parable that the 1964 Japanese classic Onibaba was based on, The Dreadful is set in 15th-century England and follows Anne (Turner) and Morwen (Academy Award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden), her domineering mother-in-law, as they struggle to survive on the outskirts of society. But when a man from Anne’s past (Harrington) returns from war, a curse begins to take shape that threatens to destroy them all.

Soak up the deliciously violent medieval vibes in the trailer, and seek out The Dreadful on VOD platforms and in limited theaters from February 20.

If your ex asked you to temporarily care for their senile mother, would you do it? You might think twice after seeing Crazy Old Lady (Vieja loca), the feature directorial debut of Martín Mauregui, which takes up residence on Shudder on February 27.
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In the Spanish-language film, Pedro (Daniel Hendler) is the unfortunate soul who receives the desperate request. But what starts as a simple favor turns into a nightmare when the aforementioned mother, Alicia (Spanish screen legend Carmen Maura), refuses to let him leave.
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Those are just a few of the international treasures you can look forward to this February! Check back next month for more horror highlights from around the world—and in the meantime, take a peek at some of the movies we’re most excited for this year!