Pulse and 4 Other Best Korean & Japanese Horrors if You're Tired of Hollywood Ones

Asian horror films attract viewers with their rich folklore and variety of subgenres. Of course, Japanese horror films, in which curses and ghostly terror are the result of human cruelty, have enjoyed the greatest popularity since the 2000s.

But Korean films about zombies, vampires, and ghosts have also been successful at the global box office.

1. Ju-on: The Grudge, 2002

Many years ago, a terrible crime was committed in a house in Tokyo. A jealous man killed the entire family and placed a terrible curse on the house.

Since then, anyone who finds themselves in that terrible place becomes a victim of supernatural forces and soon dies.

The Grudge expands on the idea established in Ring that an evil destiny is transmitted to a person like a virus. Instead of a VHS causing quick death, people are driven out of this world by an ordinary looking house inhabited by vengeful spirits.

2. Pulse, 2001

Student Ryosuke Kawashima stumbles upon a website on the Internet that asks if he wants to see ghosts and then shows strange images of people frozen in front of the monitor.

Programmer Michi Kudo commits suicide for no apparent reason. At the same time, related events begin to occur in the lives of several strangers – their loved ones disappear and turn to soot, and the few who remain speak of ghosts that have invaded the real world.

3. Audition, 1999

Tired of his loneliness, widower Aoyama decides to get his life in order. He asks a producer friend to arrange a bride casting for him under the guise of a screen test.

Aoyama's heart is touched by former dancer Asami, whom he asks out on a date. The widower loses his head over the shy girl and makes a fatal mistake.

Audition is one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films. Unlike most Japanese horrors, which frighten with manifestations of the mystical and a slow build-up of suspense, this film by provocative director Takashi Miike shocks the viewers in a different way.

4. Thirst, 2009

A priest named Sang-hyun, who works at a hospital, dreams of dedicating his life to serving people. He travels to Africa where he participates in testing a vaccine against a deadly virus.

A medical experiment gets out of control: Sang-hyun dies, then rises from the dead and discovers that he has superhuman abilities.

A man suffers from an unbearable thirst for blood and struggles not to harm the wife of a childhood friend to whom he feels an uncontrollable attraction.

5. A Tale of Two Sisters, 2003

Sisters Bae Su-mi and Bae Su-yeon were treated at a psychiatric hospital after losing their beloved mother. While the girls try to cope with their loss within the walls of the hospital, their father remarries.

When the sisters return to their father's house, they find their stepmother acting strangely and clearly suffering from paranoia. The woman, who takes tranquilizers, believes she is being haunted by an evil spirit.