Cover Need top-notch thrills? Watch serial killer K-dramas like ‘Bloody Flower’ (Photo: IMDB)
Need top-notch thrills? Watch serial killer K-dramas like ‘Bloody Flower’ (Photo: IMDB)
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From glamorous sociopaths to morally grey vigilantes, these serial killer K-dramas prove that Korean thrillers are just as good as their rom-com counterparts
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who fall asleep to rain sounds and those who fall asleep to documentaries about cult leaders, unsolved murders and women calmly explaining why they would have absolutely caught the killer by episode three.
Some research suggests women may be particularly drawn to serial killer stories. One explanation is that true crime can function as a way of informally learning about risk—spotting red flags, understanding manipulation and mentally rehearsing responses to dangerous situations. Add in the emotional complexity, the psychological cat-and-mouse games and the oddly soothing certainty that the killer will usually get caught by the finale, and suddenly serial killer dramas start to feel less stressful and more like a very dark form of self-care.
In case you missed it: 13 must-watch detective K-dramas if you love a little mystery
K-dramas, of course, have elevated the serial killer genre into something more stylish. In Korean thrillers, the murderer is rarely just a murderer. Often, they are a metaphor, a trauma response, a cautionary tale or (in some truly twisted cases) the romantic lead.
If your comfort watch somehow involves blood spatter, morally compromised detectives and beautiful people unravelling in exquisitely lit interrogation rooms, these are the serial killer K-dramas worth your time.
1. ‘Bloody Flower’ (2026)
Above ‘Bloody Flower’ turns the serial killer drama into a morally murky debate about whether saving lives can ever justify taking them
The serial killer in Bloody Flower is not a masked psychopath lurking in dark alleys but Lee Woo-gyeom (Ryeoun), a medical genius who believes each murder is simply a “trade” in pursuit of a universal cure. That alone is enough to make the drama feel deliciously unhinged, but what makes it compelling is its unwillingness to give the audience easy answers.
The series frames Woo-gyeom as both monster and miracle worker, creating a morally queasy triangle between a desperate father (Sung Dong-il), who needs his daughter saved, and a prosecutor (Keum Sae-rok), who refuses to believe that saving lives excuses taking them. In lesser hands, this could have become melodrama. Instead, Bloody Flower feels like the current gold standard for “would you kill one person to save thousands?” television. Niche but fascinating. It is grisly, elegant and constantly forces viewers to question whether they are rooting for the wrong person.
2. ‘Dear X’ (2025)
Above ‘Dear X’ follows a glamorous actress whose climb to fame is built on manipulation, sociopathy and a bit of murder
Most serial killer K-dramas make the murderer the shadow lurking at the edge of the frame. Dear X does the opposite. Here, the killer is the protagonist.
Baek Ah-jin (Kim You-jung) is a beautiful, polished actress whose rise to stardom is built on lies, manipulation and a chilling willingness to “recycle” anyone who threatens her carefully curated life. Dear X is especially unnerving because Ah-jin is not a chaotic killer. She is methodical, strategic and terrifyingly good at performing innocence.
The series has all the glossy appeal of a celebrity melodrama. It has designer clothes, expensive apartments and immaculate public images. However, underneath, it is a study of narcissism and sociopathy. Watching Ah-jin talk her way out of suspicion is almost more frightening than the murders themselves. It is the rare female-led serial killer story that allows its antihero to be fully monstrous without ever becoming less fascinating.
See more: The rise of the antihero: 10 K-drama characters who played by their own rules
3. ‘Beyond Evil’ (2021)
Above ‘Beyond Evil’ uses a small-town murder case to explore grief, suspicion and the way communities create their own monsters.
Beyond Evil is what happens when a serial killer drama decides that atmosphere matters just as much as plot.
Set in a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else’s secrets, the series follows two detectives: one erratic and emotionally scarred, the other cold, ambitious and hiding motives of his own. Somewhere between them is the truth about a series of murders that has haunted the town for decades.
The show won Best Drama at the Baeksang Arts Awards for good reason. Rather than racing from one murder to the next, Beyond Evil slows everything down. Its technique forces viewers to sit with suspicion, grief and the ugly reality that sometimes entire communities help create monsters. Shin Ha-kyun and Yeo Jin-goo are phenomenal together, turning every conversation into a power struggle. It is less about who the killer is and more about what the search does to the people left behind.
4. ‘The Art of Sarah’ (2026)
Above This relatively new show follows a killer who steals the identities of wealthy women and disappears into their lives
If you like your serial killer K-dramas with couture, champagne and existential identity crises, The Art of Sarah may be your new obsession.
The drama centres on a detective investigating Sarah Kim, only to realise that “Sarah Kim” may not exist at all. Instead, the woman he is chasing appears to assume the identities of wealthy women after murdering them, slipping seamlessly into their lives like some terrifying high-society shapeshifter.
Part thriller, part social satire, The Art of Sarah is as interested in class performance as it is in murder. Every episode peels back another glossy layer of luxury to reveal something rotten underneath. It has the visual polish of a fashion campaign but the soul of a nightmare, which is often the sweet spot for a great K-thriller.
Don’t miss: Death is optional: 10 K-drama characters who came back to life
5. ‘The Killing Vote’ (2023)
Above ‘The Killing Vote’ imagines a world where the public decides which criminals deserve to die
The killer in The Killing Vote is not hiding in plain sight. He is hiding in your phone.
Known only as “Gaetal”, the masked vigilante in the middle of the drama sends text messages asking the public whether criminals who escaped legal punishment deserve to die. If the majority votes yes, Gaetal carries out the execution.
What makes the show so addictive is that it coaxes viewers into an uncomfortable position: you may not agree with vigilante justice, but the people Gaetal targets are often undeniably awful. The series becomes less about whether murder is wrong and more about whether a broken legal system creates monsters of its own. It is part serial killer thriller, part social commentary and part thought experiment about what happens when justice becomes entertainment.
6. ‘Blind’ (2022)
Above ‘Blind’ is a dark whodunit about murdered jurors, family trauma and suspects who all seem guilty
Blind begins with a murder trial and quickly spirals into something much darker.
The victims are jurors connected to a case from the past, which means almost everyone becomes a suspect. At its core are three siblings—played by Ok Taec-yeon, Ha Seok-jin and Jung Eun-ji—each carrying enough trauma and secrets to make them plausible killers.
The drama is heavy, brutal and absolutely packed with twists. Childhood abuse, corrupt institutions, revenge fantasies and a body count that seems to rise every episode all make Blind feel emotionally exhausting in the best possible way. It is the kind of series where you will spend half the runtime changing your mind about who the killer is.
7. ‘Voice’ (2017–2021)
Above ‘Voice’ reinvents the detective genre through a voice profiler who hunts some of the scariest killers in K-drama history
Voice is arguably one of the most influential serial killer K-dramas Korea has ever produced.
Instead of focusing on a traditional detective, the show focuses on a voice profiler with almost supernatural hearing abilities. It is a skill that allows her to identify clues others miss. That gimmick alone makes the series stand out, but the real reason Voice became such a phenomenon is its villains.
Season one’s Mo Tae-gu remains one of the most frightening antagonists in K-drama history: rich, sadistic, charming and utterly devoid of empathy. Played with terrifying charisma by Kim Jae-wook, he is the kind of villain who lingers in your mind long after the credits roll. Across multiple seasons, Voice built a reputation for delivering some of the most intense chase scenes, emergency call sequences and nightmare-inducing killers in the genre.
8. ‘Somebody’ (2022)
Above This stylish, disturbing thriller centres on the dangerous attraction between a serial killer and the woman who may understand him best
Somebody is what happens when a serial killer drama is filtered through the aesthetics of an indie art film and the emotional logic of a doomed romance. Sung Yun-oh (Kim Young-kwang) is an architect who uses a social networking app to find victims, while Kim Sum (Kang Hae-lim), the socially awkward developer behind the app, becomes drawn to him despite sensing that something is deeply wrong. Their connection is more a collision between two lonely, damaged people who recognise something unsettling in one another.
Somebody cares little about behaving like a conventional crime drama. Rather than focusing on the investigation, it leans into obsession, loneliness and the strange attraction between predator and witness. Sung Yun-oh is terrifying because he is so calm, and the series treats him almost like a dark object of desire instead of simply a monster to be caught. The result is one of the most seductive yet most unsettling Korean thrillers in recent memory.
9. ‘Mouse’ (2021)
Above ‘Mouse’ is a twist-heavy psychological thriller that asks the age-old question of whether evil can be predicted before it happens
Mouse is the kind of drama people recommend with the warning: “Do not Google anything before you watch.”
Set in a world gripped by fear over a serial murderer, the drama asks one of the darkest questions imaginable: what if science could identify psychopathy before someone commits a crime? The show takes the idea of a so-called “psychopath gene” and spins it into one of the most twist-heavy, emotionally devastating thrillers in K-drama history.
Lee Seung-gi’s performance is essential to why Mouse works so well. He begins as an almost aggressively lovable rookie police officer, only for the series to pull the rug out from under both him and the audience in increasingly horrifying ways. Few dramas commit so fully to making viewers question every assumption they have made. By the time the truth is revealed, you may genuinely need to sit in silence for a while.
Sasha Lim-Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila, she also covers entertainment and dining, as well as a broad range of topics. She was the former digital editor at Esquire Philippines and was the digital managing editor at Spot.ph, and now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
