20 Movies To Watch If You Loved Train to Busan

(Photo by Well GO USA/ courtesy Everett Collection)

If you’re looking for more movies like Train to Busan, the South Korean zombie classic that sunk its teeth into savvy filmgoers and hasn’t let go since its 2016 release, why not first punch your ticket for something in the shared universe? Check out Seoul Station, an animated prequel to Busan, directed by the same guy, Yeon Sang-ho. He was primarily an animation director before Busan (that was his live-action debut), and he followed that up with 2018’s Psychokinesis, his take on the superhero genre which also had a father-and-daughter relationship driving the plot. Yeon will be back in 2020 with Peninsula, another story set in the world of Train to Busan.

For more from South Korean, consider checking out Rampant, a period piece action epic about – true to history, we’re sure – a zombie outbreak. Deranged and The Wailing are also about illness and outbreak in contemporary SK. (For more quality choices from the region, see our list of 30 Certified Fresh South Korean movies.)

If you’re really into the whole train setting, seek out Snowpiercer, directed by Parasite‘s Bong Joon-ho, The Cassandra Crossing, about a biological weapon that may have been set loose in the caboose, and Howl, wherein a passenger train and its riders have to deal with an outbreak…of werewolves.

Zombie godfather George A. Romero spent his career exploring the different stages of undead chaos: from infection, to pandemic, to normalization. His last great film, Land of the Dead, explored the latter, depicting society that had tenuously adapted to a new, dark way of living. Carriers, The Road, and The Crazies (a remake of a Romero movie) are further entertaining, credible looks at society-destroying diseases in America.

Of course, if you consider yourself a Train to Busan fan, you might also think of yourself an adventurous movie-watcher, ready for pandemic and outbreak movies beyond the borders of America. To that, we’ve assembled suggestions from the UK (28 Weeks Later, Children of Men, The Girl With All The Gifts), Japan (I Am a Hero), France (Ravenous, The Night Eats the World), Germany (Rammbock: Berlin Undead), and Spain ([REC]).

#20

Adjusted Score: 30.141%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: When a group of terrorists attack a train with a deadly disease, military officials plan the destruction of the locomotive… [More]

#19

Adjusted Score: 12.206%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Just before dawn, gruesomely skeletal bodies surface on the Han River. The cause of death is determined to be a… [More]

#18

Adjusted Score: 37.868%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A darkness looms over ancient Korea: murderous creatures known as Night Demons have overrun the country. Returning from a long… [More]

#17

Adjusted Score: 37.691%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Young ambitious ticket collector Joe is overseeing the last train out of London on a dark and stormy night -… [More]

#16

Adjusted Score: 67.301%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: An apocalyptic tale of a viral pandemic that sweeps across the United States, and four fleeing friends who discover that… [More]

#15

Adjusted Score: 75.207%

Critics Consensus: Tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent, The Crazies is a horror remake that, unusually, works.

Synopsis: David Dutten is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American. But one night, one of them comes to a school… [More]

#14

Adjusted Score: 77.393%

Critics Consensus: While 28 Weeks Later lacks the humanism that made 28 Days Later a classic, it’s made up with fantastic atmosphere and punchy direction.

Synopsis: The devastating rage virus that annihilated the British Isles mysteriously resurfaces in Goya Award-winning director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s sequel to… [More]

#13

Adjusted Score: 79.696%

Critics Consensus: The Road’s commitment to Cormac McCarthy’s dark vision may prove too unyielding for some, but the film benefits from hauntingly powerful performances from Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.

Synopsis: «The Road» is a post-apocalyptic dramatic thriller about a father and his son walking alone through burned America. Nothing moves… [More]

#12

Adjusted Score: 79.792%

Critics Consensus: George A. Romero’s latest entry in his much-vaunted Dead series is not as fresh as his genre-inventing original, Night of the Living Dead. But Land of the Dead does deliver on the gore and zombies-feasting-on-flesh action.

Synopsis: It has been two decades since master filmmaker GEORGE A. ROMERO’s zombies have stalked the screens of motion picture theaters…. [More]

#11

Adjusted Score: 37.586%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Suddenly possessed with supernatural powers, a father sets out to help his estranged daughter, who’s at risk of losing everything… [More]

#10

Adjusted Score: 84.785%

Critics Consensus: The Night Eats the World finds a few unexplored corners in the crowded zombie genre, with a refreshing emphasis on atmosphere and character development.

Synopsis: After waking up in an apartment the night after a raging party, Sam comes face to face with his new… [More]

Adjusted Score: 89.693%

Critics Consensus: The Girl with All the Gifts grapples with thought-provoking questions without skimping on the scares — and finds a few fresh wrinkles in the well-worn zombie horror genre along the way.

Synopsis: The near future humanity has been all but destroyed by a mutated fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns… [More]

Adjusted Score: 87.456%

Critics Consensus: Uncommonly restrained for a movie about a flesh-eating menace, Ravenous offers a satisfyingly nuanced entry in the crowded zombie apocalypse subgenre.

Synopsis: A group of people transform into zombies in a small Canadian town. Labeled the «hungry,» they feast upon their loved… [More]

Adjusted Score: 89.403%

Critics Consensus: Plunging viewers into the nightmarish hellscape of an apartment complex under siege, [Rec] proves that found footage can still be used as an effective delivery mechanism for sparse, economic horror.

Synopsis: After teaming up in 2002 for the dramatic music documentary OT: The Movie, Spanish horror specialists Jaume Balagueró (Darkness) and… [More]

Adjusted Score: 27.935%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Just when Michael arrives in Berlin to visit his ex-girlfriend Gabi, a terrible virus starts spreading across the city at… [More]

Adjusted Score: 37.86%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A manga artist tries to flee Tokyo when a mysterious virus turns people into carnivorous maniacs creating chaos in the… [More]

Adjusted Score: 100.632%

Critics Consensus: Children of Men works on every level: as a violent chase thriller, a fantastical cautionary tale, and a sophisticated human drama about societies struggling to live.

Synopsis: A futuristic society faces extinction when the human race loses the ability to reproduce. England has descended into chaos, until… [More]

Adjusted Score: 104.587%

Critics Consensus: Snowpiercer offers an audaciously ambitious action spectacular for filmgoers numb to effects-driven blockbusters.

Synopsis: In this sci-fi epic from director Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Mother), a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life… [More]

Adjusted Score: 101.458%

Critics Consensus: The Wailing delivers an atmospheric, cleverly constructed mystery whose supernatural thrills more than justify its imposing length.

Synopsis: The arrival of a mysterious stranger in a quiet rural village causes suspicion amongst the villagers- but as they begin… [More]