10 International Horror Movies I Need to See

by Patrick Bromley

Horror can be just as scary with subtitles.

I was trying to think of a piece to write for the end of the month and coming up with nothing, so I took social media to see if anyone had any ideas. I lucked out and this article was born! I'm sure this list will make it seem like I haven't seen many international horror movies, which I promise is not the case, though in several instances below you'll see I have no excuse because we own some of these on Blu-ray and I just haven't watched them yet. I'm going to try and see all of these before next Scary Movie Month. Well, most of them. Some, maybe. Just Pulse.

Thank you to Manuel Clavel on BlueSky for the suggestion!

1. Pulse (2001, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

In addition to Manuel's suggestion on social media, this is the movie that more or less inspired this list because Adam Riske just talked about it on the last show and I mentioned that I still have never seen it. Imagine my excitement to realize we own the Blu-ray! Now I have no excuse but to watch what I understand to be one of the crowing achievements of the J-Horror movement of the early 2000s and a movie I'm told is deeply, profoundly sad. What a way to close out October!

2. Pin (1988, dir. Sandor Stern)

This psychological horror film from Canada has been on my radar since reading Psychos! Sickos! Sequels! in the 1990s, at that time my go-to book about '80s horror. It wasn't even a great book, but at the time in my life when I first bought it from Tower Records and would read it obsessively alone at a Taco Bell, it was exactly what I needed to turn me on to some new films and get me to revisit some I had seen but maybe not given a proper chance. This one was pretty hard to see for a number of years but has maybe gotten easier thanks to streaming? (Checks Amazon) Nope! Just an OOP DVD. But it does star David Hewlett from my beloved Stargate Atlantis so it's my mission to track a copy down some time in the next year.

3. Thirst (2009, dir. Park Chan-wook)

Another one we own on Blu-ray, meaning I have no reason for having not already seen it. Plus it's Park Chan-wook, one of my favorite South Korean directors, making a vampire movie! I know it wasn't as well-received as some of his other films upon release, but I also know there are a lot of people who really dig this movie and a cult has developed around it. I know the movie is about a priest who becomes a vampire and falls in love and I wonder if the religious angle kept me away? Probably not. I think I just never got to it. Have I seen Verotika several times, though? Stop asking so many questions.

4. Viy (1967, dirs. Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov)

This is a 1967 Russian folk horror movie that I only even became aware of when Severin released it on Blu-ray a couple years back. Folk horror is a pretty big blind spot for me and Russian cinema is an even bigger blind spot, so it makes sense that I've missed this movie up to this point. Wait, do I own this one too? (Checks the shelves) I do! Viy is included as part of the All the Haunts Be Ours box, which we do have. That means I can watch it! This screenshot makes me want to.

5. Cronos (1992, dir. Guillermo del Toro)

I'm weirdly ashamed to admit that I've never seen this Guillermo del Toro-directed horror movie, one of only two GDT movies I have yet to see (the other is his animated Pinocchio -- well, and his upcoming adaptation of Frankenstein hitting Netflix in a few weeks, but at least I have an excuse of that one as it's not out yet). I remember this being the movie that put him on the map back in the 1990s and is one I've always meant to check out, especially seeing as it sounds more up my alley than a lot of his other work. The older I get, the more movies he makes, the more I have to come to terms with the fact that del Toro is not really one of my guys (sorry Mike). I. think he's great and I'm so glad he exists but I don't connect with his work all that often. Maybe this one will be different!

6. Macabre (2009, dirs. Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto)

I have no excuse. I'm a big Timo Tjahjanto guy and my understanding is that this is a loose Indonesian remake of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, one of the best horror movies ever made. For that reason alone I should have seen this already. I think I started watching it once years ago when it was on Netflix but never finished it (not because I didn't like it, just ran out of time) and nowadays it's not readily available for streaming in the US. This is where I must invoke the snooze/lose clause.

7. The Phantom Carriage (1921, dir. Victor Sjöström) 

I know there's a Criterion release of this silent Swedish horror film and that it's considered a classic and blah blah blah, but it was almost completely off my radar until I heard it talked about on a recent episode of Destroy the Brain (one of my favorite horror podcasts) discussing silent horror. It sounds rad: the specter of Death drives a carriage (a Phantom one) and forces a drunk to litigate his past mistakes on New Year's Eve. It's like Sweden's take on A Christmas Carol, minus an aged-up Johnny Depp. Maybe I can pick it up during the next Barnes & Noble sale.

8. In My Skin (2002, dir. Marina de Van)

I feel like this is one of the movies I've heard tell has made people pass out in the past. I know it's French and I know it's fairly extreme even though I don't think it's considered part of the New French Extremism (most of the entries of which I've already seen). Maybe it is? I'm clueless. Director de Van stars as a woman who suffers an injury and begins slowly mutilating herself. I suspect this would be a tough watch but I have friends who speak very highly of it and I need to see it for myself. Double feature with Raw!

9. Day of the Best (1995, dir. Álex de la Iglesia)

Every time I watch a movie from Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, I have the same thought: I love this filmmaker because I have no idea how to categorize his work or where his movies are going to go. I literally just finished watching The Last Circus and thought it was great, so I absolutely need to see what it considered to be one of his best (if not his very best) movies. This is another one we've had on our shelves for a couple of years but then I forget that it's there and end up watching Kuffs again. I know he has so many movies and has worked across so many genres but I'm really only aware of his work in horror. What other de la Iglesia movies do I need to see?

10. Luz (2018, dir. Tillman Singer)

This German horror is one I know pretty much in name only. I remember it making quite a bit of noise a few years ago among my friends who are into the artier side of horror but never even took the time to educate myself on the movie or what it's about. Apparently, it's about a cab driver who is interrogated by a hypnotist who might be more than he lets on. I did see director Tillman Singer's follow-up movie, last year's Cuckoo, and have to admit that I didn't connect with it much. Maybe I'll have better luck with his first feature.

Which ones am I missing?