Mr. Harrigan's Phone and Smile are out to spice up Halloween season a bit with their terrifying stories about evil entities and the dead returning to the realm of the living. However, sometimes all viewers want is a good traditional horror story that goes well with the autumn season.
When Halloween rolls around, it might feel like people just talk about watching the same movies, over and over again. While this is fun, a good way to find out about new films is to forget about what's local and look at what the rest of the world has to offer. When looking abroad, there are creepier ghost stories one could ever imagine.
Kôrei (Séance) (2000) - Japan
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Even with its short running time, Séance doesn't rush at all, and instead meticulously crafts its supernatural elements as an effective vehicle to reach the climax of the film's haunting family drama. It's an odd choice for a horror film, but it works surprisingly well, especially when the movie reaches its peak.
In the film, a psychic and her husband don't know what to do when a kidnaped girl seeks shelter in their home. When their reluctance to act results in the girl's death, the girl returns as a vengeful ghost to turn the life of the couple upside down.
A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) - South Korea
Stream On Shudder
A Tale Of Two Sisters is unanimously considered one of the best Korean movies ever made, which is no easy feat when it comes to a divisive genre such as horror. The film follows a vulnerable young woman who returns home with her sister after some time in a psychiatric facility, only to uncover disturbing secrets about her stepmother and the ghosts of her family's tragic past.
Like every good Korean movie, A Tale Of Two Sisters knows how to develop an interesting dynamic between characters by initially only revealing the tip of the iceberg of each one's intentions, only to uncover it all in a terrifying climax once the film reaches its peak of horror.
Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966) - Italy
Stream On AMC+ & Shudder
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Mario Brava is one of those masters of horror who should be talked about more within the film community. He contributed several terrifying masterpieces in the '60s, with Kill, Baby... Kill! standing out as an entrancing ghost story. And if the assignment is scary horror movie children, this movie understood the assignment very well.
The movie is set in a 20th-century European village tormented by the ghost of a murderous little girl, where a coroner and a medical student must race against time to uncover the ghost's frightening secrets before they're all doomed.
November (2018) - Estonia
Stream On Kanopy
November truly has a little bit of everything, making it one of the most multifaceted horror movies out there with bewitched objects, werewolves, curses, Satan himself, and of course, ghosts.
In a poor Estonian village, peasants resort to dark magic and disturbing remedies in order to survive the harsh winter that approaches. Meanwhile, a young woman puts into practice a wicked plan to get a young man to fall in love with her, unaware of the deadly consequences. November is a precious folk horror with sequences that will haunt viewers for a long time, set in a place forgotten in time, where the dead never really leave and the living struggle to keep their souls pure.
Goodnight, Mommy (2014) - Austria
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Horror fans should at least forget the recent American remake for now and first check the original movie out. Goodnight Mommy (or Ich Seh, Ich Seh) came out only eight years ago and the effective atmosphere of terror and distrust compensates for the simple language barrier. The film also comes with an unforgettable plot twist in the end.
The movie follows two inseparable brothers who spend their summer waiting for their mother, who's away for medical reasons. When she returns with her face covered in bandages and mysterious behavior, the two begin to suspect that woman is not really who she claims to be.
Terrified (2017) - Argentina
Stream On AMC+
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Terrified deals with horror in the most traditional way: never diving too deep into it and keeping any specifics in the fog, taking advantage of the unknown to maintain a thrilling narrative filled with clever scares and one chilling mystery, revolving mostly around individuals presumed dead suddenly returning to where the places they used to live.
Terrified makes sure to keep viewers guessing its purpose until the very end, making use of effective jumpscares and an often self-contained tension that causes discomfort due to how atmospheric it is, as if viewers themselves were witnessing something they weren't supposed to.
The Devil's Backbone (2001) - Mexico
Stream On HBO Max
One of the most rewatchable Del Toro movies, The Devil's Backbone is the best ghost story for those looking for something more lighthearted and somehow down-to-Earth, leaning more on the fantastical drama side than straight-up horror, even though it features a handful of creepy sequences involving the tormented ghost of a little boy.
The film, set in the days of the Spanish Civil War, follows a young boy who just arrived in an orphanage and stumbles upon a haunting presence eager for revenge. While not as polished as Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone is a tender tale about friendship and also deals with how the menace of the war influence the diverse set of characters.
Viy (1967) - Russia
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Viy is an ancient oddity, released back during Soviet Union times and offering a brand new style of creative and scary mythology. The movie masterfully blends horror and fantasy after a young priest is assigned to spend three nights in the abandoned church of a remote village, with only the corpse of a witch as a company. It doesn't take long before strange events begin to unfold and the priest questions whether his faith will be enough to protect him.
Few movies managed to mix witchcraft themes with such a good ghost story as Viy did, and the groundbreaking production design is a huge highlight, a production that clearly was ahead of its time.
Shutter (2004) - Thailand
Stream On Vudu
Shutter is an essential lesser-known horror film from Thailand, offering a creative ghost story around the torments of guilt and demons from the past. In the film, a young photographer and his girlfriend discover mysterious shadows in their photographs, unleashing bruises from their past connected with a tragic accident.
Shutter is very subtle with its scares, gradually increasing their intensity. At the start, the haunting is merely a suggestion that comes from the eerie photographs, but as things get creepier, the film begins to quickly develop tension and ultimately deliver an ending that will send a shiver down the spine of every horror fan.
The Orphanage (2007) - Spain
Stream On Kanopy
The Orphanage opts for telling a story about love in the most unsettling way possible, delivering an eerie location and one specific ghost that has the potential to show up in anyone's nightmares. Sometimes all a good ghost story needs is a creepy-looking kid turning the lives of the main characters into actual hell.
The imaginary friend trope was something overly used back in the 2000s, but The Orphanage might arguably represent its quality peak. Laura moves with her family to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage. When her son starts to communicate with an invisible friend, Laura is forced to come to terms with a past she thought she left behind.