LOS ANGELES, June 11 — When locals warn you to stay out of the woods, stay out of the woods.
That’s just the kind of gloomy advice dropped on Adam Hitchens in The Hallow, after he uproots his family and moves into an old Irish mill house in the sticks. The conservationist quickly discovers that more than just squirrels and yellow-bellied sapsuckers surround him. Lurking in the wilderness are ancient forces of evil, including black zombie fungus (an actual thing) and baby-snatching banshees.
At first fright, genre buffs may yawn at The Hallow’s familiar premise — relocation, dark woods, something wicked this way comes. Yet the film’s well-trodden setup is quickly trumped by the nightmarish imagery courtesy of its director, Corin Hardy.
Hardy, who’s attached to The Crow remake, was a visual artist before he sat down in the director’s chair. It’s his fine attention to detail, a Guillermo del Toro-like love for monsters, and some clever mixing of animatronics and puppetry that brings the freaky forest to life.
We’ve got nine more scary movies set in the woods for you to trample through. Enjoy, and watch your step.
1. The Evil Dead
A campy horror that eventually branched out into parody territory, Sam Raimi’s 1980 classic trails a group of college friends who spend their spring break severing, impaling, and dismembering demons. The creatures are unleashed from the wicked thicket surrounding their isolated cabin, which just so happens to house the Book of the Dead. Beach. Go to the beach next time, guys.
2. Deliverance
Sick of city life, four businessmen hit the trail and explore the unspoiled wilderness of northern Georgia. Yet they soon end up squealing like pigs as a gang of inbred mountain men wreak havoc on their rafting adventure. It’s enough to make you think twice before booking that river trip next spring.
3. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Mistaken for forest-dwelling body hackers by a group of popped-collar college kids, bumpkins Tucker and Dale have to fight to stay alive, and it makes for the sweetest cinemassacres you’ll ever see. Worthy of cult status, Eli Craig’s silly shocker may have a soft underbelly, but there’s also enough goo to make Eli Roth gag.
4. Antichrist
Though the woods aren’t cursed and there’s no madman on the loose in Lars von Trier’s troublesome art-house horror, there’s still no shortage of shock and awe. About a mourning couple who head to a reclusive cabin then start doing abominable things to themselves and each other — with scissors(!), this one may require a full-body rinsing in holy water after viewing.
5. High Tension
Tensions run mega high as Alexandre Aja’s slasher flick goes from a straight-razor attack in a secluded French country home to a grisly finale in the woods that includes a butcher knife, a concrete saw, and a fence post covered in barbwire. No wonder its alternate title is Switchblade Romance.
6. Cabin Fever
Arguably Eli Roth’s best genre venture, Cabin Fever is every outdoorsy type’s nightmare. When friends head to — you guessed it — a remote cabin in the woods for spring break, their drunken follies are put on hold once a vile virus makes meat out of their flesh.
7. Eden Lake
Michael Fassbender literally beats them back with a stick in this indie horror about a couple terrorised by a clan of local delinquents. What begins as obnoxious provocation during a romantic getaway turns into a merciless thrill ride through the once-idyllic woods that crashes into a brutal conclusion.
8. Friday the 13th
No horny teenager is safe in this 1980s classic, which launched a massive franchise and turned the everyday hockey mask into a pucking nightmare. Some things are just better left alone — as the doomed crew of camp counsellors reopening the cursed Camp Crystal Lake quickly learns.
9. Backcountry
Never mind that a menacing Irish drifter has turned your romantic backpacking weekend into an unwelcome threesome, or that your lack of Cub Scout know-how has you lost and desperate for a compass. What matters most is the massive black bear ready to rip you apart. Scarier still? The creators behind this festival hit say it’s based on a true story. No more camping. — The Line-Up/Reuters
* This story was originally featured on The-Line-Up.com. The Lineup is the premier digital destination for fans of true crime, horror, the mysterious, and the paranormal.
