Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Korean horror films unleash everyday fears this summer
Actor Lee Sun-bin in a scene from movie “Noise” / Courtesy of BY4M Studio
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korean cinema is set to deliver a chilling summer with a new wave of horror films that turn everyday anxieties into terrifying experiences.
Moving beyond ghosts and monsters, these movies tap into the real-life fears of daily life by dealing everything from inter-floor noise in apartments — Korea's most popular housing type — to subway stations, the convenient transportation method millions of people use daily.
One of the most prominent themes explored in these films is inter-floor noise, a pervasive issue in densely populated apartment complexes.
Released Wednesday, "Noise" looks at how constant sounds from neighbors can psychologically affect people. The story follows Joo-young (Lee Sun-bin) as she searches for her missing sister in an apartment building that's full of loud noises. During her search, she experiences strange and scary moments.
The movie works hard to scare audiences using realistic sounds like chairs scraping, heavy footsteps and loud raps on doors. The movie’s sound director Park Yong-gi said he wanted the noise to feel just as real in the movie theater as it would in your own apartment.
"We actively utilized multi-channel direction and distance to make the inter-floor noise — which anyone who has lived in an apartment has experienced — feel as real in the theater as it does in one's own home,” Park said.
Actor Kang Ha-neul in a scene from the upcoming Netflix movie “Wall to Wall” / Courtesy of Netflix
Netflix is also joining the trend with "Wall to Wall," a film that similarly explores the anxieties surrounding apartment living and inter-floor disputes.
Set to be released July 18, the movie centers on Woo-sung (Kang Ha-neul), an office worker, who, after finally purchasing his own 84-square-meter apartment, finds himself tormented by an unidentified inter-floor noise.
"Wall to Wall" uses the familiar setting of an apartment building to explore how different individuals, in a space designed for community, become suspicious and wary of each other. The film aims to explore these escalating conflicts.
Beyond apartment complexes, "Ghost Train" takes audiences into the subway station, another familiar urban space.
This thriller, set to premiere July 9, follows Da-gyung (Joo Hyun-young), a YouTuber desperate for more viewers, as she investigates mysterious disappearances at a subway station. Her pursuit of the truth leads her to encounter a series of horrific events.
"Ghost Train" has already garnered international attention, having been officially invited to last year’s Busan International Film Festival. This marks Joo’s first leading role in a thriller, following her comedic performances in TV dramas such as "Extraordinary Attorney Woo” (2022), "Behind Every Star” (2022) and "The Story of Park's Marriage Contract” (2023).
Reflecting social anxieties
Actor Joo Hyun-young in a poster for “Ghost Train” / Courtesy of NEW
The shift towards reality-based thrillers reflects a growing trend in cinema here, where societal issues and common anxieties become the main backdrops for narratives.
The recent mystery-comedy film, "The Noisy Mansion," exemplifies this trend. The movie looks at how extreme inter-floor noise from upstairs or downstairs neighbors can ruin someone's life.
The movie follows Geo-ul (Gyeong Su-jin), who is unemployed but acts like a detective. She tries to find out where the inter-floor noise, which echoes through her apartment every morning at 4 a.m., is coming from.
Director Lee Ru-da said she used her own experiences with the issue to make the film.
"I experienced extreme inter-floor noise and I realized how much quality of life improves when that noise is gone,” she told reporters in February.
The trend of real-life thrillers also includes movies about the darker side of the digital world. "Streaming," a thriller released last March, explores the wild world of making online content.
The film follows Woo-sang (Kang Ha-neul), a top crime channel streamer, as he live-streams his pursuit of a serial killer. In this world, the top streamer monopolizes profits from sponsorships and advertisements, creating a dangerous incentive for sensationalism.
Woo-sang's increasingly provocative choices eventually provoke the killer he's tracking, leading to a terrifying cat-and-mouse game.
Director Cho Jang-ho explained his inspiration, saying he started conceptualizing the script after watching a slew of streamers were trying to chase after hot issues regardless of the issues’ sensitivity or social impact.
“When there are major social issues or phenomena, I often consider them as material for crime and thriller films. It was a natural progression to make a film out of this subject,” Cho said.