10 Best Foreign Movies on Shudder Right Now

10 Best Foreign Movies on Shudder Right Now

March 23, 2025

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While there are great horror films in other streaming sites, there’s no comparison to the horror collection Shudder has in their library, being the largest selection that is uncut and ad-free. It won’t be a surprise to hear that the site has some of the best horror classics and the best Halloween movies coming from Hollywood, but viewers might be surprised at their collection of horror movies around the world. So if you’re looking for some chills, some thrills that you’ve never seen before, here are some of the best foreign films on Shudder, the home of horror.

1. Audition (1999)

7.8

Genres

Drama, Horror

Director

Takashi Miike

Actors

Eihi Shiina, Fumiyo Kohinata, Jun Kunimura, Kanji Tsuda

Audition is not for the faint of heart. It’s shockingly violent and deeply unsettling, filled with sights and sounds that will haunt you for days on end. But there is grace to its terror; it’s profound and artistic in ways that elevate it from generic horror fare.

On a deeper level, Audition is about the destructive power of abuse, trauma, and loneliness, about how a society that neglects to recognize this eventually suffers from it. The revenge plot isn’t merely individual, as well, but a representation of the female subconscious: tired of objectification, eager for redress. And everything about the way the film is made, from the shaky camera and titled frames to the dramatic shadows and eerie lighting, reflects that imbalance. 

Audition may be chilling and gruesome, but it’s also smart and important, a psychosexual thriller that captures female anger well before it became the rage. 

2. Poison for the Fairies (1986)

7.8

Genres

Fantasy, Horror

Director

Carlos Enrique Taboada

Actors

Ana Patricia Rojo, Anna Silvetti, Arturo Beristáin, Carmela Stein

Moods

Dark, Depressing, Intense

For better or worse, friendship can be the most important relationship a child can have, especially when they move into a new school. Poison for the Fairies takes a look at an unusual friendship, one that’s forged not by regular schoolgirl hobbies, but by witchcraft, spells, and superstition. It’s incredibly unnerving how Flavia and Veronica’s dynamic gets, as each morbid claim gets questioned but is never fully explained, as each unanswered question slowly adds to the terror, and as each boundary gets pushed because of those few moments of calm. But it’s also incredibly tragic, considering the ways Flavia and Veronica are characterized. Writer-director Carlos Enrique Taboada makes it all the more creepy by centering the camera through their eyes, by capturing the uncertainty of this terrible friendship.

3. Huesera: The Bone Woman (2023)

7.6

Genres

Drama, Horror, Mystery

Director

Female director, Michelle Garza Cervera

Actors

Aida López, Alfonso Dosal, Emilram Cossío, Enoc Leaño

Moods

Dark, Discussion-sparking, Original

Huesera: The Bone Woman might not be the scariest film horror fans would see, but it does strike at the heart of the scary experience of motherhood. Through eerie sounds of breaking bones and weirdly contorted hands at the edge of beds, the film depicts new mother Valeria being haunted by the titular spirit, despite her prayer to the Virgin Mary. Valeria pleads for her husband and family to listen, though each time she does becomes proof of her faults as a mother. The terror in newcomer Natalia Solián’s face makes it all feel believable, but it’s the folk-inspired imagery of first-time feature director Michelle Garza Cervera that turns this film into a feminist masterpiece.

4. Ringu (1998)

7.5

Genres

Drama, Horror, Thriller

Director

Hideo Nakata

Actors

Daisuke Ban, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Hitomi Satô

Moods

Dark, Gripping, Slow

Despite being remade, parodied, and absorbed into pop culture over the years, the original Ring defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum. Focused entirely on building a slow-burn mystery instead of dispensing scares, the film provides ample space for a number of interpretations: on the spread of technology, the erasure of traditional beliefs, or even motherhood. It’s all relentlessly quiet and extremely creepy, the tension building with the same energy as ghost stories told around a campfire. And while famous for its eerie images and the rules surrounding its cursed videotape, Ringu also serves as a reminder that great horror should compel the audience to keep on watching, even if they already know exactly what awaits them if they do.

5. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

7.5

Genres

Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Director

Ariane Louis-Seize, Female director

Actors

Arnaud Vachon, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Madeleine Péloquin, Marc Beaupré

Moods

Funny, Grown-up Comedy, Quirky

When vampires choose not to kill a human, it’s usually played up with so much drama, angst, and maybe a bit of romance. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person on the other hand takes this choice as a comedic one. It may be a tad ludicrous for a vampire to refuse to drink blood on ethical grounds and trauma, but writer-director Ariane Louis-Seize takes this silly situation with a compelling sweetness, depicting Sasha with a familiar teen uncertainty made much more captivating with Sara Montpetit’s gothic ingénue charisma. Humanist Vampire does take a more quirky YA romance approach than expected from the title, but it’s funny, charming, and totally something new.

6. The Blood of Wolves (2018)

7.2

Genres

Crime, Drama, Horror

Director

Kazuya Shiraishi

Actors

Abe Junko, Eiji Takigawa, Gorō Ibuki, Hajime Inoue

Moods

Gripping, Intense, Thrilling

Borrowing heavily from yakuza films of the past, The Blood of Wolves feels like a movie plucked straight out of the 1970s and given a slick coat of 2010s neo-noir shine. The film never tries to reinvent the recipe it’s working with, but it doesn’t have to when its violence is still satisfyingly brutal, its plot endlessly twisty, and its morality grey. At the center is a brash and sleazy performance from the great Koji Yakusho, whom you can never really clock as being in control or out of his depth. It might only hold special value for hardcore fans of the genre, but it provides enough solid thrills for the more casual viewer.

7. When Evil Lurks (2023)

7.2

Genres

Horror, Thriller

Director

Demián Rugna

Actors

Demián Salomón, Diego Sampayo, Emilio Vodanovich, Ezequiel Rodríguez

Moods

Dark, Gripping, Intense

Many films that deal with the advent of some sort of apocalypse usually hit the ground running, but When Evil Lurks also keeps its sense of panic and paranoia right up to its bitter end. Even during moments of downtime—as this small group of “survivors” tries to keep moving—there is an overwhelming sense that they’re only delaying their inevitable suffering, or that evil has existed long before  any of them. There are passing mentions of this demonic presence having originated in the city, and how it manages to infiltrate the lives of those on the outskirts through modern things like electricity and gunfire. It’s an intriguing angle that gives possession a new texture: these demons aren’t just randomly manifesting, but invading and occupying.

And when the violence kicks in, When Evil Lurks really doesn’t spare its characters, as shown by some pretty gnarly practical effects and vicious sound design. The constant escalation of the demonic threat can feel contrived at times—as the rules of how things operate in this world keep on being added or modified, at a rate that can be hard to process—but the anguish it leaves its characters in is suffocating all the same. There may not appear to be a moral at the end of all this, but it evokes a sense of hopelessness better than many other films.

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