Korean thriller dramas to watch
Vicious mother-in-laws who mastered the art of glass-of-water face splashing, the amnesia-causing Truck of Doom, and main leads in a tug-o-war between two insanely handsome love interests were once common predicaments in K-dramas. But the game has changed with first-class Korean thriller dramas set in dystopian worlds, ironically addressing extremely real-world problems that hit close to home, that have dominated streaming platforms in the past decade.
This is most evident with Squid Game. The Netflix series is intense, gripping, emotional, and even comedic at times, all while retaining a thought-provoking narrative and vulnerable characters that make the drama so compelling – we couldn’t get enough. The second season of the thriller K-drama is back with its sadistic competition. And chances are that by now, you’ve binged the entire drama.
So, if you’re still all keyed up from the dramatic tension between the ‘X’s and ‘O’s in Squid Game 2 – iykyk – we’ve compiled for you a list of Korean thriller dramas with survival-themed stories that are just as enthralling. They’ll have your heart pounding – just not in an amorous way, perhaps.
Table of Contents
- Korean thriller dramas to watch
- 1. The 8 Show (2024)
- 2. Liar Game (2014)
- 3. Night Has Come (2023)
- 4. Pyramid Game (2024)
- 5. Kingdom (2019-2020)
- 6. Nightmare Teacher (2016)
- 7. Duty After School (2023)
- 8. Happiness (2021)
- 9. Sweet Home (2020-2024)
- 10. Strangers From Hell (2019)
- 11. Memories of the Alhambra (2018)
- 12. Save Me (2017)
- 13. All Of Us Are Dead (2022)
- 14. White Christmas (2011)
- 15. Hellbound (2021-2024)
1. The 8 Show (2024)
Image credit: Rotten Mangoes via website
Survival show fanatics would argue that The 8 Show is a masterpiece – think Squid Game and Alice in Borderland, but ten times more psychologically messed-up. The dark comedy drama follows eight debt-ridden individuals thrown in a reality game show where they simply have to live alongside one another in a peculiar complex. It seems painless enough to survive – with every passing minute they spend there, they earn money.
But when hidden rules are discovered, tension arises among the participants and the competition quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and disturbing power struggle, with glimpses of the true depravity of humanity.
Where to watch: Netflix
2. Liar Game (2014)
Image credit: Just Watch via website
The next to fill that dystopian thriller-shaped hole in your heart is Liar Game. The Korean adaptation of the Japanese manga series of the same name is riddled with manipulation, deception, trust, and of course, moments of sizzling romance.
Much like Squid Game, the series evolves about financially-burdened individuals in a cutthroat tournament designed so participants are encouraged to cheat and deceive one another to snatch up their share of money.
Don’t bother trying to predict the fate of the characters. Just when you think you know what’s about to go down, there’ll be a twist…and then another, and another. You’ll feel outwitted and outsmarted, and that’s exactly what makes the drama so alluring.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, iQIYI
3. Night Has Come (2023)
Image credit: Series Reminder via website
We’ve seen our beloved K-pop idols and celebrities playing the Mafia game which, more often than not, has both the participants and audiences in stitches of laughter. But Night Has Come – which revolves around an isolated group of students forced into playing a deadly game of Mafia – will have you cowering in suspense and fear.
A class of high school students are off on a field trip at a retreat centre when they are forced into playing a real-life Mafia game with deceptively simple rules: the civilians and the mafias must eliminate the other side to win the game. The execution and consequences aren’t as painless – the students are either killed off by the mafias, or voted off by their own classmates, who have to watch them succumb to their demise.
Where to watch: Viu, Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV
4. Pyramid Game (2024)
Image credit: Just Watch via website
Just when you thought bullying in Korean dramas could not get any worse and blatant, it does. Pyramid Game is as brutal of a watch as it is a monthly game for the girls of Baekyeon Girls’ High School in Seoul, where students cast their votes in a popularity poll that determines the school’s social hierarchy.
New transfer student Sung Soo Ji receives the brunt of the cruel game when she gets votes to become the punching bag of the month. But strong-willed Soo Ji will take in none of the nonsense quietly. With her mind set on freeing herself of the social pariah title and abolishing the game entirely, she faces the school’s queen bee Baek Harin – who makes the antagonist lead bully in The Glory look like a docile puppy – in a cutthroat psychological battle.
Where to watch: Viu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
5. Kingdom (2019-2020)
Image credit: Netflix via website
OGs would know that Kingdom paved the way, so that Squid Game could soar. Arguably the K-drama that kickstarted the survival show trend amongst Korean dramas, this series has everything that makes a stellar thriller – swords, conniving royalty, and, of course, flesh-eating zombies.
The Netflix original series has two seasons of the zombie apocalypse subplot shrouded with more of the mystique being set in the historically-rich Joseon era. The King is ill and Crown Prince Lee Chang grows suspicious of the illness afflicting his father. Determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious ailment, he discovers that his kingdom is in the midst of a deadly plague that brings the dead back to life – or in the words of the 21st century, a zombie apocalypse.
Where to watch: Netflix
6. Nightmare Teacher (2016)
Image credit: Rakutan Viki via website
Short but spooky, Nightmare Teacher is that Korean thriller drama to binge when you’re up for something that’ll send shivers up your spine, but also, still lets you have your sleep.
When a new teacher arrives at Yosan High School, each student’s deepest desires start coming true, before it begins to backfire on them all. One by one, the struggling students are pegged by a creepy teacher who invites them to his private consultation room where they mysteriously vanish, their existence erased even from the knowledge of their classmates.
Where to watch: Rakuten Viki
7. Duty After School (2023)
Image credit: Rakutan Viki via website
If you’re one to cry when it’s time for your favourite oppa to serve his time in the Korean military, you may need to toughen up a little before diving into this miniseries. Duty After School is not for the weak-hearted for many reasons – apart from lethal alien creatures that go feral in the presence of human beings, the bond forged between the students as they work together to ensure their survival will have you in a sobbing mess when fatalities do inevitably happen.
Odd spheres are scattered about the skies, leaving citizens perplexed, but when they eventually fall onto the ground to unleash deadly alienated creatures, students are forced to put down their books and pencils, and get armed with rifles and grenades to defend themselves and the country.
Where to watch: Viu, Rakuten Viki, Disney+ Hotstar
8. Happiness (2021)
Image credit: IMDb via website
A contract marriage in a zombie-esque disease-afflicted world – that’s K-drama for you. Happiness explores the aftermath of an infectious disease outbreak that causes the infected to exhibit zombie-like symptoms like bloodlust and aggression, all within a posh apartment complex.
The drama feels somewhat a reflection of society’s conduct and behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic days, with a mix of rule-abiding residents and insufferable ones with their own agenda who escalate most of the havoc that could have been prevented. Protagonists Yoon Sae Bom and Jung Yi Hyun make the apocalyptic drama a worthy watch as two strong-headed individuals who started out as high school friends and enters a marriage contract to secure a unit in the newly-constructed apartment complex.
Where to watch: Netflix, Rakuten Viki, iQIYI
9. Sweet Home (2020-2024)
Image credit: Netflix via website
One thing you should know by now is that the K-drama with the fluffiest title may very well be the scariest and goriest thriller out there. South Korean apocalyptic horror Sweet Home is just that. It isn’t the kind of light-hearted watch that feels like a warm hug at the end of the day. In fact, the Netflix hit series exposes humanity’s monstrous nature, by having humans slowly turn into monsters themselves.
Based on a Korean web comic of the same name, the three-part series focuses on a troubled teenager Cha Hyun Su who moves into a dilapidated apartment and encounters horrifying monstrous creatures. As he fights with other human residents for survival, Hyun Su starts experiencing monster symptoms himself.
Where to watch: Netflix
10. Strangers From Hell (2019)
Image credit: MyDramaList via website
If you tuned in to Strangers From Hell solely to swoon at actors Im Siwan and Lee Dong Wook’s pretty faces, you’re out of luck. Cute faces there will be, but you’re also in for a spine-chillingly disturbing watch about a young man named Yoon Jong Woo who moves into a cheap dormitory in Seoul, only to find out that he is living among deranged and creepy neighbours – definitely in a way that’s worse than your typical Karen.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Apple TV
11. Memories of the Alhambra (2018)
Image credit: Netflix via website
Memories of the Alhambra stands out in this blood-splattering and apocalypse-fraud list of Korean survival thriller dramas, because there is a heavy dollop of romance in this one. But it definitely still fits the survival premise.
An investment company CEO Yoo Jin Woo is in desperate search of the seemingly missing young creator of a phenomenal AR game, of which he had been playing before things started to go eerily wrong.
Where to watch: Netflix
12. Save Me (2017)
Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes via website
Cults may just be as scary as an alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse, and K-drama Save Me is proof of that. A religious cult Goseonwon has most of its followers deep within its clutches, and this includes the financially-burdened parents of a young girl called Im Sang Mi. When she bumps into four male classmates and pleads with them to save her, the group makes it their life mission to expose the cult and wrongdoings to the county.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
13. All Of Us Are Dead (2022)
Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes via website
South Koreans are definitely hungry for zombie outbreak stories, and now they’re taking it out on these poor high schoolers in the Netflix hit series All Of Us Are Dead. Nevertheless, we all chomped up every bit of the addictive K-drama, which ingeniously infuses emotions, friendship bonds, and societal hierarchy issues alongside gore and hair-pulling cliffhangers. You’ll be screaming your throat hoarse one moment, and crying your tears dry the next.
Where to watch: Netflix
14. White Christmas (2011)
Image credit: IMDb via website
Aired in 2011 – when romance was rampant in K-dramas – White Christmas is an absurdly underrated psychological K-drama thriller with only 8 disturbingly dark yet starkly beautiful episodes. Over the winter break, seven students remain in their elite high school, which is bizarrely isolated in the snowy mountains and away from civilization, after receiving a bewildering anonymous letter that hinted at someone’s death during Christmas. Odd events start to unfold, which splinter the trust within the bunch.
Think Lord of the Flies, with spectacularly stunning cinematography and masterful acting by a promising young cast.
Where to watch: Kocowa+
15. Hellbound (2021-2024)
Image credit: Netflix via website
Hellbound, where the world turns into literal Hell, has a higher being appearing in the bustling streets of South Korea to deliver prophecies and condemn individuals to Hell. The individual’s body is then incinerated by three gnarly supernatural monsters in a “demonstration”, which, naturally, causes mayhem on Earth. As fear of the society grows, religious groups and cults use that to their advantage to gain power.
Where to watch: Netflix
Korean thriller dramas that’ll bring on the suspense
If you’re someone who still associates Korean dramas with sappy television and drop-dead gorgeous CEO oppas, there’s a whole lot of wild but good stuff for you to catch up on, my friend. Pick one off this list for a gripping start and continue on that Squid Game 2 high with more of these engrossing Korean survival thriller dramas.
For more dramas and movies, read:
- OG K-dramas that blew up in Malaysia to rewatch
- New movies to catch on the big screen in 2025
- Malaysian horror movies to catch
Cover image adapted from: Netflix via website & Viki via website