After years of The Walking Dead and countless zombie movies and TV shows, it can be tricky to find a truly gripping entry in the genre. But Netflix just released one of the best zombie movies ever made, and it’s worth a watch even if you’re burnt out on undead horror.
Train To Busan is a South Korean thriller that mixes terrifying zombies, cowardly betrayal and some genuinely great characters with something a lot of these types of movies are sorely lacking: A lot of heart.
The film first released back in 2016, but it remains one of my favorite zombie films of all time. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the film stars Gong Yoo as Seok-woo, a workaholic father and fund manager. His daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an) wants to spend her birthday with her mother in Busan. Feeling guilty over missing his daughter’s singing recital, Seok-woo grants her wish and they board a train at Seoul Station.
Things very rapidly start to spiral when a sick woman boards the train and attacks a train attendant. The woman was already infected and had turned into a zombie, and the train attendant turns as well. Soon, more passengers are turning and things are just as bad in the city.
Other passengers on the train include blue-collar worker Sang-hwa (Ma Dong-seok) and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong (Jung Yu-mi), a high-school baseball team, and the conniving businessman, Yon-suk (Kim Eui-sung) whose selfishness leads to all sorts of terrible twists down the line.
Train To Busan follows these and other passengers as they hurtle through a rapidly devolving civilization overrun by the dead. Most of the action takes place aboard the train itself, leading to claustrophobic tension and mayhem, as passengers fight to survive, battling not only the zombies but other passengers to make their way to safety.
What really makes the film work, however, is the strength of these characters. Seok-woo, in particular, has a really fantastic arc, as he finally learns what’s really important in life, even if that realization comes a little too late. The zombies are terrifying, and every situation our heroes find themselves in is a horrific, life-or-death struggle. Once this movie takes off, it never relents, but even with all the action, each character is so well-drawn that it’s impossible not to care about their fates.
If you haven’t seen this one yet, do yourself a favor and add it to your watchlist this weekend. South Koreans do zombies better than just about anybody.
Also Watch: Kingdom
For perhaps the best zombie TV show I’ve ever seen, check out Kingdom on Netflix. It’s another South Korean series, but this time set during 17th century three years after the end of the Imjin War. The show blends a zombie plague with feudal politics worthy of Game Of Thrones. It’s harrowing and brilliant and filled with intense action and a phenomenal cast.
The story is set during the Joseon Dynasty, three years after a massive invasion fromt he Japanese. Not only is the kingdom still recovering from the war, a strange sickness has befallen the king. The series follows Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) as he tries to find out what’s happened to his father, stymied at every turn by the Queen Consort Cho Beom-il (Kim Hye-jun) and her father, Cho Hak-ju, the leader of the Haewon Cho clan and de facto ruler.
Lord Cho and his daughter, who is pregnant, have pushed Yi Chang aside, hoping that she gives birth to a son who would become heir, since Lee Chang is the son of a concubine, making him illegitimate. When a surgeon, Lee Seung-hui, is summoned to treat the king’s maladies, his cures go terribly wrong, and the surgeon’s assistant, Dan-i, is killed.
Elsewhere, physician Seo-bi (Bae Doona) treats patients at Lee Seung-hui’s Jiyulheon clinic outside Dongnae, who are starving. When the surgeon returns with his assistant’s body, he refuses to tell anyone what happened. While Seo-bi is away, one of the patients, a tiger hunter named Yeong-sin (Kim Sung-kyu) boils Dan-i’s body and feeds it to the starving patients, reasoning that human meat is better than no meat at all. This leads to unforeseen calamity.
The zombies in this show are unlike any I’ve seen. They’re not only fast and terrifying, they have mysterious behavior patterns that I won’t spoil here. Lee Chang, Seo-bi and the rest of the cast must navigate not only the zombie plague, but also the conspiracy of the Haewon Cho clan and the mystery of the zombie outbreak, with its roots in the war from three years earlier. It’s really tremendous television, filled with betrayal, action, horror and heroism. I’d rank it among the top 10 best shows on Netflix.
This post was updated on 05/03/25.
