Finest Asian Horror Movies Every Movie Buff Needs to Watch

The finest Asian horror movies every film buff should watch include A Tale of Two Sisters from South Korea, Shutter from Thailand, One Missed Call from Japan, Incantation from Taiwan and Exhuma, the 2024 Korean hit. Asian horror leans on folklore, family guilt and slow dread more than jump scares. Here are the picks and where to stream them in India.

Quick list: Asian horror movies and where to watch

Streaming was checked in October 2026. Older Asian titles move between services often, so search the film name in your app if it is not listed.

Why Asian horror works

Japan gave the world The Ring and The Grudge, and Hollywood remade both. Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia have since built their own horror traditions, drawing on local ghosts, rituals and religion. The scares come from grief, guilt and family secrets, which is why many of these films stay with you.

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Finest Asian horror movies to watch

1. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Kim Jee-woon’s film is loosely based on a Joseon-era folk tale. Two sisters come home after a stay at a mental hospital and find a cold stepmother and a house that seems to hold their dead mother’s presence.

It is a psychological horror that rewards a second watch, since the final act changes how you see everything before it.

2. Incantation (2022)

Kevin Ko’s Taiwanese found-footage film follows a mother who broke a religious taboo six years earlier and now tries to protect her young daughter from the curse that followed. It found a wide audience after its Netflix release.

The film also plays a trick on the viewer that is best left unspoiled.

3. Shutter (2004)

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom made this Thai film about a photographer who starts seeing white shapes in his photos after he and his girlfriend flee a hit-and-run. It was so popular that it was remade in Tamil, Hindi and English.

4. One Missed Call (2003)

Takashi Miike’s film is based on a novel by Yasushi Akimoto. A psychology student watches her friends receive voicemails from their own phones that predict the time of their deaths. She traces the curse back to a girl who died after years of abuse.

A 2008 English remake was released but was poorly reviewed. Stick to the original.

5. Munafik (2016)

Syamsul Yusof wrote, directed and starred in this Malaysian film about Ustaz Adam, a religious healer who loses his wife and then meets a woman possessed by evil forces. It was the best-selling Malaysian film of 2016 and got a sequel, Munafik 2, in 2018.

6. The Maid (2020)

Lee Thongkham’s Thai film follows Joy, who takes a job as a maid in a rich family’s mansion. The house seems haunted, and she soon learns the ghost is linked to her own past. It begins as a ghost story and turns into a revenge thriller.

7. Exhuma (2024)

A new pick for 2026. Jang Jae-hyun’s Korean film follows a shaman, her apprentice, a feng shui expert and an undertaker hired to move a rich family’s ancestral grave. Choi Min-sik and Kim Go-eun lead the cast.

It was one of South Korea’s biggest hits of 2024 and mixes folk ritual, history and creature horror.

8. The Medium (2021)

Another newer pick. Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun, the co-director of Shutter, and produced by Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin, this Thai mockumentary follows a family in rural Isan whose inherited shaman role turns into a nightmare. It is grim and not for the faint-hearted.

Also worth a watch

The Wailing (2016), Na Hong-jin’s Korean film about a village hit by a strange illness after a Japanese stranger arrives, is often called one of the best horror films of the last decade. It was not streaming in India when we checked in October 2026, so keep an eye out for it.

How to start with Asian horror

If you are new to the genre, start with Shutter or One Missed Call. Both are short, easy to follow and use simple ideas, a camera and a phone, to build fear. Then move to A Tale of Two Sisters, which is slower and more layered.

Save Incantation and The Medium for last. Both use the found-footage style and get very dark. Watch with subtitles rather than dubs where you can, since much of the mood comes from the original voices and the sound design.

A note on this update

Our earlier list included a Vietnamese film listed as The Guardian, about a singer who turns to a Kumanthong doll for fame. We could not confirm the title, year or director from a reliable source, so we have removed it rather than give wrong details.

For more picks, see our movies section and our listicles.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: One Missed Call, Wikipedia, Munafik, Wikipedia, The Maid, Wikipedia, Exhuma streaming in India, JustWatch.