Terrifying in translation

Fear doesn’t need subtitles. These 10 horror films aren’t in English, but you'll know exactly when to scream

- Akshita Singh

Raw (2016). Before there was Substance, there was this French gem. Justine, a vegetarian, tries rabbit kidneys for the first time at veterinary school. Uh oh! Soon, she’s developed a craving for human flesh.

Everyone looks delicious. As she navigates classes, the peer pressure and hazing rituals throw life into chaos. Dance parties turn savage, dorm rooms are awash in blood. And amid it all, her sister has dark secrets of her own. The horse scene will NOT remind you of The Godfather.

Exhuma (2024).

Korean horror is its own special hell. What does a rich family do when their newborn son falls mysteriously ill? They heed a shaman and (it’s right there in the title) open up an ancestor's grave. Big mistake. It unleashes a malevolent entity and suddenly the baby is the least of anyone's problems. Cue bloody rituals, balls of fire, ominous rain, secrets buried under secrets and ghouls that must be vanquished.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018).

Based on a real-life psychiatric institution that South Koreans have long believed to be haunted. It’s also a movie about a movie: A web crew goes looking where they shouldn't, when two boys go missing in the abandoned wards. What starts as an attention-seeking stunt soon turns eerie. There are whispers in the dark, doors slam shut. Can they hold on to their sanity? And to their cameras?