When it comes to horror, there are a lot of great subgenres. Psychological horror, body horror, slasher, found footage, sci-fi horror, and especially giallo are unique and terrifying in their own ways and the movies that fall into those catalogs more than deliver the scares. But maybe one of the most popular horror genres is monster horror, particularly zombie horror. There is just something about the undead that offers up scares on an existential level like no other and in just a few short days, one of the best zombie movies ever made will be leaving Netflix.
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Exiting Netflix on May 2nd is Train to Busan. The Korean film directed by Yeon Sang-ho and written by Park Joo-suk, Train to Busan was released in 2016 and follows the work-obsessed single father Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) who is taking his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) on a train trip to see her mother after he messes up her birthday. There’s just one problem: a zombie outbreak occurs while they’re travelling and what should be a family trip turns into a fight for survival. It’s an intense and brilliant movie that was a major hit.
Train to Busan Is More About Humanity Than it Is a Zombie Outbreak
Part of what makes Train to Busan such an incredible film is that it is so much more than just a zombie horror movie. Yes, the film has zombies and it is gory and bloody and terrifying, but at its core this is a movie about humanity and its priorities. Seok-woo is a man whose priorities are very wrong, with him focused on work and, in being so focused on work, not only messes up his young daughter’s birthday present but also misses an important recital. However, when faced with the zombie apocalypse, Seok-woo’s priorities shift to his child and survival, which becomes all the more challenging as human beings do what human beings do: turn on each other in the name of not being the next person to be turned.
Because of the duality of the story—a father trying to survive with his daughter and humanity basically eating itself alive—you get a story that feels even more chilling because of how real it seems. Sure, zombies aren’t exactly something you’re likely to face on your next train ride, but it’s not hard to mentally substitute any catastrophe and try to ask yourself some big questions about what you would do when faced with the unthinkable—and what your priorities actually are. It’s a brilliant movie and you have just a few more days to stream it.
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