Horror movies in the East are very different from those in the West. While the West tends toward slasher-style films, with numerous franchises running for decades with multiple entries, horror in the East tends to be more geared towards the supernatural and folklore with heavy roots in tradition and history.
While slasher films aren't that common in the East, especially in Korea, there are a few standout entries in the subgenre. From high school pranks gone too far to beach meet-ups turning to murder, here some great Korean slasher movies that horror fans might not have heard of.
The Record
In a tale as old as time, a group of high school classmates decides to record a fake snuff film for a prank. The class nerd, complete with a pollution mask and perennial cough, is relentlessly bullied by his peers. Two girls take pity on him and invite him to spend the weekend at a remote cabin to make him feel better. Once there, the boy is attacked by three masked men who stabbed him repeatedly. It's soon revealed that the attackers are the bullies, one of the girls was in on the prank, and the knife was a fake. Except, the knife malfunctioned, and he is dead.
Panicked, they bury him and set the body alight, but he bolts upright before running off a cliff in a fiery blaze. If this sounds familiar, it is a very clear homage to Western slashers of the early 2000s, specifically I Know What You Did Last Summer. A year after the incident, a masked killer begins to stalk the students, eliminating them one by one.
Bloody Beach
A group of friends, who have been communicating in an online chatroom, decide to finally meet in real life. They convene for a summer vacation on a secluded beach. It's all fun in the sun as the friends meet for the first time, and luckily they are all incredibly attractive. As the usual folly of youth unfolds, so does something more sinister. A masked man is picking off the happy vacationers one by one in suitably grisly fashion.
The killer reveals themselves to be Sandmanzz, a former member of the chat room who committed suicide after the others banned him. It turns out that some members didn't want to ban him, but most decided he had it coming. Another clone of Western teen slashers, Bloody Beach succeeds with a fun premise, a mix of likable and unlikable characters, and grisly kills. It also features a killer with an epic early 2000s internet name.
Death Bell
2008's Death Bell continues the trend of school-set horror when 20 students gather to take part in a class for elite students to prepare them for an important upcoming exam. Soon after the class begins, it's interrupted by a television showing the top student trapped in a tank that is rapidly filling with water. The PA system soon announces that they will all die if they try to leave, and of course, they immediately try to escape, finding one of the teachers beaten to death. Now, the students are trapped in a game of cat and mouse, forced to solve puzzles to save kidnapped members of their class.
A mix between Saw and Battle Royale, Death Bell sees the elitist class systems and hierarchies of Korean schools dismantled as these star pupils race to figure out not only the sadistic puzzles but who is holding them captive and why.
Bloody Reunion
Bloody Reunion begins at the end. Detective Ma arrives to investigate a massacre at the home of Ms. Park, an ex-teacher, where only she and her caretaker Mi-Ja, an ex-student, have survived. Five people are dead and Mi-Ja recounts the story of what happened to the detective. The two women decided to organize a class reunion, inviting former students to Ms. Park's home for the get-together. Se-Ho, Eun-Young, Dal-Bong, Sun-Hee, Myung-Ho, and Jung-Won all arrive and all have reasons to resent their former instructor.
As the drinks flow and the night wears on, each former student becomes more agitated and violent, several attempting to attack their teacher. However, there is another figure in play. Someone in a bunny mask is hauling the classmates off and brutally murdering them. Throughout the carnage, flashbacks are shown of the students bullying the teacher's child, who struggled with a deformity and wore a bunny mask to hide it. Filled with gore and a killer twist, Bloody Reunion is one of the more extreme slashers from Korea.
Nightmare
Also known as Horror Game Movie, Nightmare is widely considered to be the best slasher film to come out of Korea. After graduating from college, six friends go their separate ways, a seventh, Kyung-ah, having committed suicide by jumping from an apartment building. Years later the group begins to have nightmarish visions of the dead girl, who was ostracized for supposedly being possessed and the bringer of misfortune.
Soon enough, the group is killed one by one as tensions mount and the revenge of the dead girl is viciously enacted. Along with the murders and in-fighting, a mystery is unraveled and the truth about five of the friends and Kyung-ah is revealed, finally unveiling the spirit's motives.