From creepy folklore to gory boat-rides, K-horror cinema had a few stellar highlights in 2022. But what lies ahead for Korean genre cinema and the Korean movie industry itself? We discuss all this with K-drama and film critic Pierce Conran.
Guest: Pierce Conran, Drama Critic for South China Morning Post
Fear Has a New Face: Five Korean Horror Movies to Watch in 2022
Join our Patreon to get more stuff
https://patreon.com/darksideofseoul
Book a tour of The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk at https://darksideofseoul.com
Listener Mail! Send us a message (Instagram, Facebook, email) and we might read it on air.
Credits
Produced by Joe McPherson, Shawn Morrissey, and Mia Roncati
Music by Soraksan
Top tier Patrons
Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Shaaron Cullen
Devon Hiphner
Minseok Lee
Alix Radilla
Ryan Berkebile
Gabi Palomino
Steve Marsh
Chad Struhs
Mitchy Brewer
Sarah Ford
Toni A
Sean 진헌 Braun
Ashley Rigby
MOVIES
- Urban Myth – Hong Won-ki
- A horror anthology of 10 short stories featuring real k-pop and k-movie stars
- Modern representation of classic ghost stories (lady in red, tooth worms, necromancy)
- Mainly focuses on culture of Korea and just abject terror
- The Witch: Part 2 (aka The Other One)- Park Hoo-jung
- Action, sci-fi horror- a gifted girl escapes and hides from a research facility
- Fourth highest grossing korean film of 2022
- Seire- Park Kang
- Based on the 21 day superstition that a newborn shouldn’t go outside except the death of an ex-girlfriend causes bizarre events
- Debuted at Busan International Film Festival in 2021
- It seems to take a cliche horror genre and subverts through the breaking of cultural taboos and the blurring of real and unreal
- Umma- Iris K. Shim (American Production)
- A mix of Korean and English
- Wanting to live away from electronics, a korean immigrant and her daughter, yet their life is turned around when the woman receives the ashes of her mother
- Following the trend of intergenerational trauma turned to horror?
- Carter- Jung Byung-gil
- A seemingly new mix of horror and action
- A zombie movie with crazy stunts and athletic prowess by the main actor, extremely violent
- New Normal- Jung Bum- shik
- A record 4 days in Seoul, 2022 of chaos that has never been recorded in mankind before
- It shows the “every day fears” and anxieties of both gen-z and millennials hidden in common spaces
- Might be more of a “black comedy” than “true” horror
