10 New International Horror Films To Keep You Up At Night – Fangoria

If Sinners left you with a taste for blood, you might be interested to learn that Vietnam is sinking its fangs into the bloodsucker game. One of the first-ever vampire films to emerge from the country, director Timothy Linh Bui’s Daydreamers arrived in theaters on May 2 ahead of its digital release on June 3. 

Daydreamers centers around a secluded vampire community in Ho Chi Minh City as they attempt to stick to a strictly vegan diet in hopes of regaining their lost humanity. (No word yet on whether they sparkle.) Tran Ngoc Vang plays Nhật, a young vampire who accidentally reveals his secret to a rebellious schoolgirl (Trinh Thao) and is forced to break vampire law to protect her. Vietnamese superstar Chi Pu also stars.

No new release list is complete without a shark movie. The deadly creature capital of the world has us covered this month with Fear Below, which swam into select theaters and digital platforms on May 2. 

Written and directed by Matthew Holmes and Gregory Moss, Fear Below sees a gang of ruthless criminals losing their stolen gold in a river. The butterfingers rope some down-on-their-luck divers into recovering the goods, but a vicious bull shark has other ideas.

When your city is under siege from devil-worshipping criminals, who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters can’t help you now—but the Holy Night: Demon Hunters just might!

In director Lim Dae-Hee’s occult action-horror film, the titular “Holy Night” trio are armed with supernatural powers that allow them to kick some serious demon ass. Led by Ba Woo (played by Train to Busan star Don Lee, aka Ma Dong-Seok), the demon hunters are on a mission to save a psychiatrist’s possessed sister—and all of Seoul. You can catch the film during its limited theatrical run, which began on May 2. 

It Follows taught us that stalkerish supernatural entities can be passed on via sex, but it turns out that lycanthropy can be, too (all the more reasons to stay safe out there, kids!). One young waitress finds this out the hard way in writer-director Peter McLeod’s First Moon.

Lauren Esposito (The Conjuring 2) stars as Jessica, who is abducted by a religious cult promising to “cure” her of the werewolf virus she’s contracted. That cure is going to hurt. A lot. Find out how much by checking out First Moon, available on VOD platforms as of May 6.

Renting can be a nightmare. But for the sisters are the heart of The Haunted Apartment: Miss K, rising rent prices and dodgy landlords are the least of their worries. They’ve stepped inside Apartment 601—and no one who does so survives beyond four days.

The Haunted Apartment: Miss K was directed by Guntur Soeharjanto, who also directed its predecessor, The Haunted Hotel. The film takes up residence on Netflix on May 8, so get your keys (or just your parents’ account password) at the ready. 

If you need a getaway from your haunted apartment, why not visit a beautiful Swedish island famed for the ancient witch said to live in its lake? Director Johannes Persson’s Feed has just the destination for you. 

Inspired by the true story of the first woman in Sweden to be killed for practicing witchcraft, Feed follows a young medical student joining her influencer boyfriend on a job. He’s been hired to help market an old family business by promoting it to the murder tourism crowd. Fortunately, the location is totally Instagram-ready. Unfortunately, the witch in the lake is a little too real for comfort. Put on your bathing suit and wade out to meet her when Feed gets its VOD and DVD release on May 9.

After becoming Vietnam’s highest grossing spiritual film, director Huynh Lap’s horror-comedy The Ancestral Home comes to US theaters on May 9.

The film sees a Gen Z content creator returning to her ancestral home in the hopes of capturing some supernatural footage. Instead, she encounters the ghost of her brother, who died tragically. Joining forces, they try to uncover the truth behind his untimely death, all while safeguarding their family’s home and fortune from avaricious relatives.

A young couple are plagued by a child-stealing spirit in writer-director Jon Bell’s The Moogai, creeping into theaters on May 9.

With a predominantly Indigenous cast, The Moogai taps into the generational trauma resulting from the Australian government’s racist attempts to “breed the color” out of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by forcibly removing them from their families and placing them in white foster homes. (This went on well into the 1970s—look it up if you want to ruin your day.)

Shari Sebbens stars as new mother Sarah, who must reconnect with her roots if she wants to protect her baby from the creature that stole her birth mom’s sister so many years ago. 

May Day might have passed, but there’s never a bad time to watch a little folk horror. Based loosely on his 2018 short film The Sermon, writer-director Dean Puckett’s feature debut, The Severed Sun comes to theaters and VOD platforms on May 16.

Set in a small, isolated religious community, The Severed Sun explores the mania and paranoia that grips the village after the pastor’s daughter, Magpie (Emma Appleton), murders her abusive husband, triggering whispers about a “Beast” in the woods. The film also stars Toby Stephens (Die Another Day) and Lewis Gribben (recently seen in the latest series of Black Mirror). 

Filmmaking duo Danny and Michael Philippou’s 2023 feature debut Talk to Me became A24’s highest grossing horror movie ever in North America, raking in over $48 million at the domestic box office against a $4.5 million budget. Can the Philippous go two for two with their sophomore film Bring Her Back?

Starring two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins, Bring Her Back follows a brother and sister who are introduced to their new sibling by their foster mother, only to learn that he has a terrifying secret. I damn near cried when I was turned away from an advanced screening mere hours before writing this, which should tell you how excited I am for the film. Luckily, I don’t have to wait too long to see it, and neither do you: Bring Her Back opens in theaters on May 30. 

Those are my top international picks for May. For more great options hailing from all around the world, check out these 30 new horror movies joining the Shudder catalog this month, including notorious Italian exploitation flicks, Finnish folk horror, a Canadian cult classic, and much more.