The season of eternal darkness is around the corner, making it the perfect time to pick your favorite horror K-dramas from the red streaming site. Albeit being famous for emotional plots and fantastical romances, Korean entertainment also has a reputation for serving gory sequences and haunting plot lines. The catalog of Netflix for this year’s Halloween is particularly spine-chilling with flesh-hungry zombies and vengeful ghosts. However, which are the best ones to begin your scream binge? Let’s explore.
Best Horror K-dramas to Stream on Netflix this Halloween 2023
Beyond the world of jumpscares and dumb protagonists lies the world of twisted characters and cruel monsters. This section of horror has attracted global fans and garnered an impressive following. Starting from the historical zombie apocalypse series Kingdom, Netflix has recorded over 500 million hours of viewership for horror K-dramas. So, if you are looking for nightmarish content for Halloween 2023, then Netflix has got you covered, and we can help you pick the best of the monsters.
5) Hellbound
- Release date: November 19, 2021
- Episodes: 6
- Rating: 3.7
- Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-a
Hellbound is a notoriously short horror K-drama that will provide a harrowing experience only to leave you anxious and shivering for more. The series opens up with the divine prediction of the death angel and the unearthing of monsters slaughtering and dragging people to hell.
Soon, a new religion named Saejinrihwe took birth with its notions of righteousness. This Netflix K-drama combines divine horrors and clouds audiences’ judgment with darkness and gore. Albeit the low rating, it is one of the best horror K-dramas on the streaming site. Some fans have criticized the series for not diving into the reasoning.
However, in my opinion, this blindfolding provides a closer experience of terror. When set definitions of sins and ills of human nature are broken, the viewers join the characters in redefining the terms. Hellbound is an interesting and thought-provoking watch for Halloween.
4) The Guest
- Release date: November 01, 2018
- Episodes: 16
- Rating: 4.9
- Cast: Kim Dong-wook, Kim Jae-uk, Jung Eun-chae, An Nae-sang
For every evil in this world, there is a power that will bring an end to its terror. However, this power is divided among three people from different walks of life: a priest, a psychic, and a detective, connecting them with a cursed fate. When the sinister crimes threaten the goodness of the world, these three people come together to unite their powers.
Among the popular horror, Netflix K-drama The Guest is one of the underrated gems. It doesn’t only include the standard spine-chilling sequences, but as it is instead a fleshed-out K-drama, it also provides a continuous foreboding feeling to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Amid the short dramas that brush up on the details of the evils, this K-drama dives deeper into the reasoning. It thoroughly explores all the subplots and characters’ stories without compromising with the central theme. We recommend this gem for this spooky season.
3) Sweet Home
- Release date: December 10, 2020
- Episodes: 10
- Rating: 4.8
- Cast: Song Kang, Lee Jin-uk, Park Gyu-young
The K-drama that gave us Song Kang in a new spotlight also left us with grit, thrill, and terror. Sweet Home follows the residents of the Green Home Complex amid an outbreak of monsters. As the neighbors fight for their lives, they also explore the definition of humanity that makes them different than the evils.
This Netflix series is adapted from a web novel of the same title by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan that garnered over 2.1 billion reads on Naver’s Website in 2017. Its adaption remains faithful to the webtoon while taking it to another level with visual fantasy.
The characters are well-portrayed, and the screenplay remains gripping. Although Sweet Home dapples into the setting of a neighborhood, it strictly remains loyal to its genre without reaching to sub-plots of romance to lean onto. It is a horror treat and one of our best picks on the list.
2) Kingdom
- Release date: January 25, 2019
- Seasons: 2
- Rating: 4.9
- Cast: Ju Ji Hoon, Jun Ji Hyun, Bae Doona
Kingdom debatably placed the horror K-dramas on a global platform with its intriguing tale of a zombie apocalypse set in the Joseon dynasty. The K-drama follows the story of an empire grappling with the unknown plague that makes humans desire the flesh of others.
To stop this terror from taking over all the kingdom’s citizens, the crown prince must face the evil and discover a solution. Meanwhile, the court politics and human desires continue to grow, clash, and erode the line between humans and the devils born from sickness.
This Netflix K-drama is still among the list of horror shows that are a must-watch for fans because of its excellent portrayal of a familiar concept. The show mixes the details of historical writing and world-building with the horror sequences of zombie cinema, creating a series that works on logic and provides realistic challenges in a fantasy setting.
If you haven’t watched Kingdom, then you are lucky to experience it this season. But, if you have completed both seasons, consider this a persuasion to rewatch it.
1) All Of Us Are Dead
- Release date: January 28, 2022
- Episodes: 12
- Rating: 4.7
- Cast: Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, Cho Yi-hyun, and Lomon
This haunted tale of youth and gore begins after a student of Hyosan High School returns to the classroom with a strange infection. Soon, the infection starts to spread, and bloodthirsty zombies take over the city. Amid this, a group of teenagers are trying to survive another school day.
This Netflix show is based on the 2009 webcomic Now At Our School by Joo Dong-Geun, and it attracted over 400 million hours of viewership within the first month of its release. The K-drama is particularly special as it has not only managed to satisfy the fans of horror but also for the viewers who are generally shy of the gore.
Its fleshed-out tale that doesn’t compromise with the individual stories of the characters and the setting while also exploring the known world of zombies makes it special. Its popularity has also given space for season two, which is in preparation. Hence, All Of Us Are Dead is our first pick for Halloween 2023.
