The horror genre, like love and music, has no vocabulary of its own. The year 2021 was a positive one for the entertainment business, allowing it to get back on track. In addition to highly anticipated content such as ‘Malignant,’ ‘The Night House,’ ‘Last Night in Soho,’ and new installments in the ‘Halloween,’ ‘Paranormal Activity,’ and ‘Candyman’ franchises,’ 2021 has spoiled horror fans with new installments in the ‘Halloween,’ ‘Paranormal Activity,’ and ‘Candyman’ franchises.
That is not all, though. International horror films will provide even more for horror aficionados. Last year was also a banner year for horror films from throughout the world. We can now sit at home, relax, and enjoy any movie, regardless of its language or origin, thanks to streaming platforms like Netflix, Shudder, Amazon Prime, and others. From the plethora of foreign films available, we have selected the ten most undervalued horror films that demand your attention.
The Medium: (2021 – Thailand)
‘The Medium’ is a Thai mockumentary supernatural horror film and was declared the best feature film at the 25th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. It was also awarded ‘Bucheon Choice Award for the best film. The film is directed and co-produced by Banjong Pisanthanakun.
The film follows a Thai documentary team traveling to Isan, located in the northeast part of Thailand. Their purpose is to make a documentary on Nim, who acts as a medium for the spirit of Bayan. Bayan is the local deity worshipped by the villagers. Bayan has possessed the women in Nim’s family for many generations. According to the timeline, Nim’s sister Noi was to become the next medium, but Noi refused to become a medium and converted to Christianity.
Because of this, the spirit of Bayan has stayed with Nim ever since. Nim informs the team that the men in their family faced extreme misfortune. The only people left in the family are Nim, Noi, and Noi’s daughter Mink. Mink has also refused to join Shamanism and attends the church with her mother. Soon, everyone is shocked to notice Mink’s strange and aggressive behavior and she displays multiple personalities. At first, Nim thought that Bayan was expressing the desire to make Mink his next medium, but Nim had no idea about the horrible and disastrous events that awaited them.
The film received positive reviews displaying a dense narrative with exorcism, combined with the unique culture of Thailand. The film also presented cannibalism, animal cruelty, self-harm, and incest. So, dear horror fans, please prepare yourselves well before watching this horror-fest.
The 8th Night: (2021 – Korean)
‘The 8th Night’ is a South Korean mystery thriller released in 2021, directed by Kim Tae-Hyong. Like ‘The Medium,’ this film also highlights another struggle for an exorcism to prevent the resurrection of the devil whose eyes were locked up in two different caskets for 2500 years. The devil was known to have tormented humanity for years.
The story went back to as late as two and a half millenniums ago when a monster had planned to unleash hell on earth. Even Lord Buddha could not kill it, but he managed to rip out his eyes and defeat him. The monster has one red eye and one black eye. The red-eye followed seven ‘stepping stones, which are seven human beings that the red-eye had used as the bridge to reach humanity. The last of those seven persons was the Virgin Shaman. After defeating the red-eye, Buddha stored them in different caskets. He then buried one eye in the Far East mountains and the other in the Far West Desert to ensure that the eyes would never reunite and resurrect the monster.
However, after a few centuries, a disgraced professor decided to reawaken the monster’s red-eye. The red-eye wreaked havoc, leaving detective Kim Ho-Tae perplexed with the series of strange decaying corpses. Monk Chung-Seok sought the help of Park Jin-soo, who was a banished monk well-prepared to stop the unification of the two eyes. The two monks and detective Kim began hunting the Virgin Shaman to prevent the red-eye from entering her as the last stepping stone and awaken the monster.
The critics say the screenplay is incredibly thoughtful and leaves the audience guessing. The performance of the stars was also applauded by the audience. The film avoids big scares but provides a highly creepy supernatural environment. The innovative cinematography and amazing visual effects make the film stand above the standard horror movie.
Last Night in Soho: (2021 – UK)
Next on the list, we have ‘Last Night in Soho,’ a British psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Kristy Wilson-Cairns. The film tells the story of an aspiring fashion designer who can mysteriously time travel to the 1960s, and her dreams start weaving something much darker.
Eloise Turner or Ellie, aspiring to become a fashion designer, had always been enchanted by the music and fashion of the 1960s. Her mother, also a fashion designer, had committed suicide when Ellie was a child, but Ellie often encountered her mother’s ghost in the mirror. Soon, Ellie shifted from her rural home to London to pursue her studies at the London College of Fashion.
But in her College, she found it difficult to adjust with her peers, especially her roommate Jocasta. Unhappy, Ellie moved into a bedsit owned by elderly Ms. Collins. That night, Ellie was transported to the 1960s in her dreams, where she observed a smart woman, Sandie, who aspired to become a singer at the club.
The next night, Ellie had another dream where she found Sandie giving an audition at the Soho nightclub while she had rented the same bedsit where Ellie was living. Ellie changed her looks and fashion style to look exactly like Sandie and took a job at a pub.
In her following dreams, Ellie discovered that she was converted to an escort by the club manager, Jack. Soon Ellie’s life turned into a nightmare as she started being disturbed by Jack and all the men who had abused Sandie. What is the actual truth behind Ellie’s dreams? Is it what she thinks of Sandie or some mystery that she couldn’t even imagine?
The film premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Apart from the script, every other aspect of the film, like cinematography, costume, production design, direction, and performance, received positive feedback even from the critics. Many critics even praised the fact that the movie had successfully blended horror with the glamour of the 60s.
The Sadness: (2021 – Taiwan)
Next, we bring to you a Taiwanese horror film that has been written and directed by the debutant Canadian director Rob Jabbaz. The film follows the reunification of a couple amidst a deadly virus outbreak converting people to mindless cruel creatures. The film manages to touch the right cord at the right time. On the one hand, the world is fighting the horror of the pandemic. On the other hand, there is always the fear of how and when the virus will mutate itself!
In Taiwan, the government had refused to take any step and ignored the potential surging effects of the ongoing “Alvin Virus.” The repeated warnings of the virologists also went unheard by the government. Soon, the virus started to mutate and converted common people to bloodthirsty, cannibalistic monsters. The worse fact about this virus was, the infected people retained their senses and control over their bodies, but they succumbed to their most disgusting tendencies and desires.
This made them creepier and more dangerous than brainless zombies. The virologists warned them that people would be aware of what they are doing in the near future, but they would be totally unable to control their actions. The film commenced with the couple, Jack and Kat. Kat headed for her office while Jack remained at home.
Soon violence spread across the city as someone’s face got peeled off, some people were brutally stabbed, some got hit by a car, while a woman jumped from the top of the building. Amidst the widespread violence, the two leading characters had to put up maximum effort to reunite with one another.
The film’s bloody gore and gruesome effects pose a challenge even for a hardcore horror fan. It is too much bloodshed to accept. Yet, the film won the New Flesh Award for Best First Feature in the Fantasia Film Festival.
Titane: (2021 – France)
“Titane” is a French-Belgian co-production movie, written and directed by Julia Ducournau. Agathe Rousselle debuts as Alexia, who had a titanium plate fitted to her head after encountering a severe car accident in her childhood.
During a car drive, Alexia, as a little girl, kept disturbing and distracting her father resulting in a car crash. She suffered a major skull injury, and so a titanium plate had to be fitted into her head. After being released from the hospital, she totally ignored her parents and embraced the car. After growing up, Alexia worked as a showgirl at a motor show.
One night after the show, Alexia’s hardcore fan followed her to the parking lot and forcefully tried to kiss her. Alexia killed the man using her hairpin. Eventually, she ended up having sex with the car.
It is revealed that she was a serial killer responsible for murdering several men and women, but even her parents living with her were unaware of the fact. Alexia then realized that she was pregnant as her vagina started secreting motor oil. After attending a house party, Alexia initiated a mass murder of all the guests in the party except one woman who managed to escape.
Subsequently, she locked her parents in their bedroom and set her house ablaze. As police started looking for her, she altered her entire look and disguised as a young boy, Adrien Legrand. She approached the police, pretending to be Adrien, where his father Vincent accepted her without a DNA test. Alexia started her new life with Vincent, who was a fire captain, making Alexia an apprentice in the fire station. How will Alexia hide her pregnancy from the entire world? Find out!
“Titane” received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received the festival’s topmost award. Many critics termed the film “disturbingly shocking” and “thrillingly provocative.” Overall, the film grabbed 14 awards and 59 nominations.
The Cursed: Dead Man’s Prey (2021 – South Korean)
This South Korean occult thriller is the extended version of the 2020 series, “The Cursed.” The film follows a remarkable story that investigates a major incident at a pharmaceutical company where dead men were murdering the company’s employees. The film is directed by Kim Yong-wan, who had also directed the series and written by Yeon Sang-ho.
The film commenced with a murder where the police detective Sung-Joon discovered that the murderer had already died three months ago. Then the audience is introduced to I’m Jin-hee, who was the director of the Urban Detective news channel. She was live on air when she received a call from a stranger who declared that he was the mastermind behind the strange murder that had occurred the day before and was keen on giving an interview on her channel the following day.
In the interview, the caller issued a threat where he demanded that the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company apologize on a public platform, or he would kill the senior management officers every alternate day. The caller didn’t disclose the reason for the apology to the public, but later it was revealed that the caller was also a dead person.
Panic and chaos broke loose in the management meeting of the pharmaceutical company, while the CEO’s daughter decided to take advantage of the situation and become the controller of the company. Meanwhile, Jin-hee was joined by So-jin, the teenage girl with exceptional power to connect to the supernatural, and together they proceeded with the investigation with detective Sung-Joon.
The action, drama, and fantasy settings were very attractive, but if an audience is not aware of the storyline of the series, some of the details regarding the main character may not be comprehensive. The special effects regarding the disintegrating looks of the corpses are incredible, while the critics and the audience have highly appreciated the action in the movie.
The Deep House: (2021 – France)
The next movie on the list is another supernatural horror French movie, written and directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. The film centers around two Youtubers who are experts in underwater exploration videos and explore a house submerged under a remote French Lake.
Ben and Tina are a young, dynamic couple belonging to New York and very passionate Youtubers. They had been traveling enthusiastically all over Europe to hunt down reputed haunted houses and live-streamed their experiences in these houses. One day they visited southwest France to locate a submerged sanatorium in an artificial lake, only to find it to be a crowded vacation spot.
A local, Pierre, offered to help them and took them to another mansion that had been preserved under the lake in the forest of Chanteloup. On reaching the spot, Ben and Tina dived into the water and found the mansion, which was indeed very well preserved. But soon, bizarre incidents started to take place as they heard strange voices and noises. Their equipment started malfunctioning and the motion tracker picked up movement while they couldn’t see anything to trigger the movement.
Inside some of the rooms, they discovered the photos and news articles about missing children while also encountering satanic symbols. Inside the kitchen, they also found a door blocked by a cross, leading them to another room containing corpses in chains and another side room full of pickled human body parts. They tried to escape but were stranded inside while the two corpses came alive and attacked them.
The underwater exploration concept had an interesting appeal to it. Nothing could be really determined about the performance of the actors as most of the time they had been wearing diving masks. The found-footage camerawork and the claustrophobic, creepy settings are also worth mentioning.
Ghost Lab: (2021 – Thailand)
We have one more Thai film on the list, “Ghost Lab,” written by Vasudhorn Piyaromna and directed by Pawan Purijitpanya. Released as a Netflix original, the film tells the story of two doctors who become obsessed with proving the existence of ghosts after having a paranormal experience in their hospital.
The film introduced us to the doctors Dr. Wee and Dr. Gla, who are also very good friends. While Gla believed in paranormal activities, Wee was only interested in science. But suddenly, Lee and Gla were shocked to encounter a ghost in their hospital, but they couldn’t capture any photo of the ghost. Gla eventually revealed that he had been obsessed with ghosts from his childhood after he had encountered his father’s ghost.
Ever since he had been researching in a lab with every detail he could grab from the internet about any paranormal activity. He had documented every account of any person who had declared any encounter with ghosts. Gla wanted to know everything about ghosts and what triggered them to become visible. Accordingly, Wee agreed to help Gla prove that ghosts do exist in his research work. Then they investigated the hospital’s storeroom, where few wheelchairs started moving by themselves, while the files started falling from the shelves by themselves.
The two friends were terrified as well as excited and spent the entire night in their research work. Eventually, Wee’s mother, who was in coma for many years, died, and Wee saw his mother’s ghost trying to tell him something which he couldn’t understand. We then decided to kill himself, thinking that his ghost would help Gla to complete his research. But Wee was not able to kill himself, and it was Gla who committed suicide. Will Gla’s ghost co-operate with Wee to complete the research?
The movie deviated from the stereotypical ghost movie plot, trying to develop something new, but sometimes the story slackens and loses its depth. The performance of the actors was outstanding, while the film relied on the plot rather than visual effects.
Whispering Corridors 6: The Humming (2021 – South Korea)
This film is the sixth film in the “Whispering Corridors” franchise though there is no continuity among the films. The film is directed by Mi Young Lee and follows Eun-hee, who was appointed as the vice-principal and the counselor in her own school but was haunted by strange noises coming from the abandoned restroom.
The movie commenced in a school corridor where a girl was seen committing suicide in the storeroom. The next scene introduced Noh Eun-hee, who had decided to join her old school, Gwangju High School, as the vice-principal. She was also considered as the counselor for the girls. One of the students, Ha-Yeon, accidentally discovers a door behind the locker, taking her to the basement where she saw strange artifacts and a name written in the mirror.
The audience was able to see a pair of hanging feet behind Ha-Yeon, but when she turned back, it disappeared. Eun-hee appeared outside, and through the hole of the broken doorknob, she saw a pair of ghostly eyes. Eun-hee kept hallucinating about a school girl, while the teachers of the school were surprised that Eun-hee was more interested in befriending the students rather than the teachers.
The principal was sure that she had met Eun-hee before, but she didn’t remember anything else about her. On the one hand, Eun-hee was frustrated with the strange noises and her hallucination and on the other hand, she became involved in the case where Ha-Yeon complained that a powerful teacher of the school sexually abused and blackmailed some of the students. Can Eun-hee manage to handle all the problems surrounding her?
In spite of keeping the ghost story in the background, the plot revolves around a lot of issues like sexual abuse, childhood trauma, military exploitation, and many others. The film generates some genuinely creepy moments and scares when least expected.
Lamb: (2021 – Poland)
Last but not least, we have the Icelandic horror drama “Lamb” directed and co-written by Valdimar Johannsson. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
An unknown creature entered the barn breathing heavily while the entity spooked the horses and the sheep. Sometimes later, farmer Ingvar and his wife Maria were shocked to find that one of the sheep in their farm had given birth to a human-sheep hybrid. Maria and Ingvar became extremely attached to the hybrid lamb and treated it like their own child, naming it Ada, after Maria’s deceased child. But Ada’s biological mother would not let her child be taken away so easily and constantly tried to approach Ada and take her away from the couple. Maria and Ingvar had found happiness after a long time.
They were blessed with a child, no matter that it had the head of a sheep and it didn’t belong to them. In order to make Ada completely their own child, Maria shot Ada’s biological mother and buried her secretly. To make things worse, Ingvar’s brother Peter, who arrived at their house, witnessed the entire episode.
At first, Peter started to ridicule the couple for making such a weird decision, but Ingver tried to convince him about the happiness they were relishing after such a long time. At one time, Peter tried to take Ada away and shoot her, but eventually, he, too, started loving Ada and became an uncle-like figure towards her. But their happiness was short-lived due to the return of the creature whose presence was felt in the first scene. Who was he? How was he related to Ada?
The movie belongs to the category where the audience is left with the” use your own interpretation” option. It generated primarily positive reviews praising the incredible direction of Johannson, which perfectly complemented the fantastic performance of the leading stars.
Let the world of cinema break all the boundaries and barriers of foreign countries and languages and generate only one language__ the language of entertainment. So, relax, enjoy the movies, and above all, stay safe.