Netflix Is Streaming A Zombie Movie Masterpiece With A 95% Rotten Tomatoes Score

One of the amazing things about the streaming era is that audiences can find truly incredible films that they might not have been able to discover elsewhere. Back when I was a teenage movie fan in the early aughts, watching Korean horror films meant I had to go searching through video stores and begging the folks who worked there to special order certain titles. These days, however, there are whole libraries of streaming movies and television shows from around the world available at the press of a button.

Netflix, specifically, is no slouch in the international movie and TV series department. Indeed, the streamer is currently home to original films like Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-winning "Roma," the obscenely popular dystopian South Korean series "Squid Game," and, well, more K-dramas than you can shake a stick at. The service is also currently streaming the absolutely brilliant and heart-wrenching 2016 South Korean zombie film "Train to Busan," which is honestly a must-watch even for folks who aren't really fans of horror. That's probably why it has a 95% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and even an 89% audience score.

"Squid Game" actor Gong Yoo stars in "Train to Busan" as Seok-woo, a work-obsessed divorced father who bungles his young daughter Su-an's (Kim Su-an) birthday and agrees to take her on a train trip to Busan to see her mom by way of apology. Unfortunately, there's a zombie outbreak while the pair are on the train, turning their would-be father-daughter time together into a fight for survival. That, in a nutshell, is what makes "Train to Busan" one of the best zombie movies ever: It's telling a story about more than just the terror of the undead.

Like the 1968 George Romero zombie film that started it all, "Night of the Living Dead," "Train to Busan" uses its zombie setting to tell a story about humanity. As people trapped on the train realize they're now in a life-or-death situation, everything begins to break down. Instead of coming together to contend with the walking dead, people turn on one another, and their various prejudices and beliefs come to light. "Train to Busan" is also one of the most speedily-paced films full of existential dread you'll find this side of something like "Uncut Gems." By the time the movie's truly terrifying and, appropriately, heartbreaking ending rolls around, you'll be amazed at how quickly everything flew by. 

Moreover, like "Night of the Living Dead" and its own near-perfect bummer of an ending, "Train to Busan" doesn't front-load the horror and start to peter out. Instead, it builds to a real crescendo of terror, ultimately serving up its scariest scene closer to its conclusion. And while there seem to be more and more surprisingly smart zombie flicks coming out by the day (be they franchise titles like "28 Years Later" or indie gems such as "Fido"), "Train to Busan" remains an all-timer roughly a decade after its original release.