Looking for some thrilling and spine-chilling series? K-dramas have a lot to offer in this genre to suit every taste. Browse through this selection of titles if you’re up for a good scare!
Master’s Sun (2013)
After an accident, Tae Gong Shil (Ging Hyo Jin) gained the ability to see the dead. This turned her into a reluctant liaison between ghosts and their unfinished business on earth. Because of this ability, she could no longer get any rest and relief tossing her life into the dumps.
That is until she met the cold and rude CEO of a shopping mall, Joo Joong Won (So Ji Sub). She hailed him for a ride one rainy night after helping out a ghost. He finds her crazy and ditches her. However, Gong Shil seeks him out after realizing that the ghosts disappear when she touches him.
For the first time in years, Gong Shil has hope. The two come together to fight off evil spirits that wreak havoc on their life. The more time they spend together, Joong Won finds himself drawn further into her.
Nightmare Teacher (2016)
In this story, Han Bong Gu (Uhm Jim Joon) becomes a temporary homeroom teacher at Yosan High after the previous one was hospitalized. Thereafter, all sorts of spooky things start happening. One by one, the students find themselves in a mysterious seduction in which their dreams happen as soon as they dreamt it. It turns out that the peculiar teacher can see through their thoughts and grant their desires only to turn it back on them.
He invites students to a private consultation room for supposed advice on how to handle their problems. When he lets them believe that they can get what they want, he ropes them into agreeing to contracts which they have to sign in blood.
When these desires have been met, or their problems supposedly fixed, it leads to each students’ disappearance into a magical mystery mirror while the rest of the class forgets their existence. However, not everyone bought into this trap, the class president realized that he must get to the bottom of this mysterious turn of events before it’s too late.
The Village: Achiara’s Secret (2015)
Achiara is an idyllic village that is small and peaceful with nearly zero crime rate. One day, Han So Yoon (Moon Geun Young) receives a mysterious letter inviting her to teach at the local school. On her first day at work, she, unfortunately, finds an unidentifiable corpse.
Together with the rookie cop Park Woo Jae (Yook Sung Jae), they try to solve the murder, but as they get closer to the truth, they unwittingly uncover twisted secrets that the townspeople have been hiding. What was once a calm and peaceful village soon turned into a frightening community once ugliness and secrets of the townsfolk start to surface.
White Christmas (2011)
In the mountains of Gangwando stands a prestigious private high school where the scions of South Korea’s 0.1% get their education. Located in an isolated area, the students and staff have to be housed in dormitories.
During the Christmas break, a few students got stuck on campus after a big snowstorm. They begin receiving threatening letters, and after one of them gets killed, they realize that the murderer is among them. Trust within the group quickly dwindles as everyone finds themselves fighting for their lives.
This psychological thriller leads one to question that when faced with a life or death situation, what lengths would you go to in order to survive?
Save Me (2017)
This chronicles the story of Sang Mi (Seo Ye Ji) who moves to the suburb town of Muji after her family fell into financial difficulties back in Seoul. They unknowingly got sucked into a pseudo-religious cult with a powerful leader.
Within just a few years, the whole family has been brainwashed, except for Sang Mi who sees through the wickedness of the religious organization. Fortunately, she finds two young men who will desperately try to help her, but will they really succeed in doing so?
A Korean Odyssey (2017)
Seon Mi (Oh Yeon-seo) is no ordinary human but a gifted Sam Jang, which means that she can see ghosts and demons, and is also armed with the ability to exorcise them. This has been her gift and curse since she was a little girl with only her grandma and a yellow umbrella to protect her. However, this did not deter powerful demons to come after her because doing so strengthens their powers. She then met Son Oh Gong (Lee Seung-gi), the monkey king who made a deal with Seon Mi to protect her as long as she calls on him in exchange for her help in getting him free. When she did her part, Oh Gong defrauded her and made her forget his name and went on his way. Little did he know what they were to meet several years later.
Seon Mi is also prophesied to save the world, and a gold bracelet given by the bull demon king will make the immortal Son Oh Gong fall in love with her and serve as her protector. The two will go on to several demon-catching missions.
All the while, Seon Mi catches feelings for Oh Gong, but she is aware that what he feels for her is only influenced by the magical bracelet. She now worries that once their mission to save the world is completed, so will the effect of the bracelet. But more than that, Seon Mi also has to worry that she survives the deluge of supernatural threats.
Lovely Horribly (2018)
Yoo Philip (Park Si Hoo) and Eul Soon (Song Ji Hyo) are born on the same day and the same time, which binds them to an unusual fate. One of them hoards good luck while the other has all the misfortune. For as long as one is happy, the other is bound to be miserable.
Unfortunately, the latter was the case for Eul Soon, but things start to look up when her script for a horror story gets approved for production. However, the twist is that Eul Soon is guided by a ghost to write the script, and what she had written starts happening in real life.
Seeing how life imitates art, Eul Soon was scared of moving forward with the story. Philip, on the other hand, is quite the lucky chap. He became one of South Korea’s top actors and was soon cast for Eul Soon’s screenplay. When their paths crossed, a series of events unfold causing them to realize how their lives are actually intertwined which eventually led them to decide to write the script together.
The Ghost Detective (2018)
Creepy, thrilling, and mysterious the story follows the life of a private investigator turned ghost detective, Lee Da Il (Choi Daniel) who solves paranormal cases with the help of his assistant, Jung Yeo Wool (Park Eun-bin). The pair is also hot on the trail to solve the apparent suicide of Yeo Wool’s sister.
However, along the way, they kept running into a mysterious woman named Seon Woo Hye (Lee Ji Ah) in every crime scene. They later found out that the woman is actually a vengeful spirit out to cause harm.
Bride of the Century (2014)
This tells the story of a family who owns Taeyon Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea. However, the family who owns it has been under a curse for a century. Story has it that the first wife of the eldest son of the family always dies.
But when chaebol Jang Yi Kyung (Yang Jin-sung) disappears right before her wedding to Choi Kang Joo (Lee Hong-gi), a look-a-like impostor is brought in to take her place. But, unlike the distant and aloof Yi Kyung, Doo Rim (Yang Jin-sung) is sweet and funny, which made it easy for her to charm her way to Kang Joo’s heart. As the wedding plans progress, both of the couple’s mothers scheme behind the scenes.
Oh My Ghost (2015)
Na Bong Sun (Park Bo Young) is a timid assistant chef with the ability to see ghosts, taking after her grandmother’s shamanic powers. She is also secretly crushing on her boss who is the star chef in the restaurant, Kang Sun Woo (Cho Jung Seok). However, Bong Sun shies away from people as she is socially awkward. One day, she becomes possessed by a seductive but resentful ghost, Shin Soon Ae (Kim Seul Gi).
To settle her grudge, Soon Ae must sleep with a man before she can crossover to the afterlife. But the catch is that she can’t do so with just any man and that she must be able to fulfill her goal before her third death anniversary. Otherwise, she will turn into a vengeful spirit and wander in the world forever.
The Guest (2018)
Yoon Hwa Pyung (Kim Dong Wook) is a psychic born into a shaman family who learns about “Sohn” (Guest), a powerful demon with the ability to control other demons and make them possess weak individuals. While under his control, people would go mad, kill their families, and stab themselves in the eye.
Unfortunately, Hwa Pyung’s family is one of those who fell victim to the sinister spell of this malevolent entity. He then teamed up with Choi Yoon (Kim Jaw Wook), a Catholic priest, and Kang Kil Young (Jeng Eun Chae), a detective who’s skeptical about ghosts. The other two shared the same traumatic experience as Hwa Pyung since their families are also victims of the same evil.
While they met in childhood due to these horrific tragedies, the trio reconnected 20 years later when the attacks started happening again. To avenge their families, they worked together to stop the terror and gore Sohn unleashes.
Hey Ghost, Let’s Fight (2016)
Park Bong Pal (Ok Taec-yeon) grew up with the ability to see ghosts. He uses it to earn money by working as an exorcist, but usually with just a fifty percent chance at success. Called to a haunted school, he encounters Kim Hyun Ji (Kim So Hyun), a feisty 19-year-old student who died in a car accident and turned into a wandering spirit for half a decade.
However, upon their first meeting, the two accidentally kiss and sparks fly. Hyun Ji soon realized that Bong Pal holds the key to her past and why she remains to be a ghost in this world. To help her move forward to the next life, she convinces Bong Pal to allow her to live with him. Together, they became ghost-fighting partners who also help other ghosts cross over.
Anything here suits your fancy? We hope that you enjoy the thrill and scare that Korean drama series offer in this genre.
