20 Of The Best, Scariest Horror Movies Set In The Woods

There is no place more fundamental or primordial in terms of horror movies set than the desolate wilderness. Since the start of time, when people first began to live in villages, there have likely always been tales of the perils and terrors that lurked in remote areas, far from aid or rescue.

These seemingly empty expanses outside civilization have been a mainstay of terror fiction. Our very DNA is ingrained with this fear. Poor Golden Age slashers, including Don’t Go in the Woods, were filmed. Is that what constantly scares us about such great outdoors in the 21st?

It might be a covert admission that we’re giving up any pretense of civilization’s security by venturing into the wild. We fear those who travel to or choose to reside in these places because we fear what an individual will do if they live without the need for “society,” aside from the fact that there are no police, hospitals, or Denny’s to be found.

Best Woods Horror Movies

There is also no assurance of what one might call “the social contract.” In contrast, we both fear the idea of vast expanses being empty because that would leave us abandoned with only ourselves, as well as the possibility that they are not open and are instead home to monsters or other undiscovered species of animals.

But to understand wilderness horror films, one must first determine what constitutes “wilderness.” After all, most Friday the 13th films are set at summer camps, which are technically located in wooded areas, but does it feel like the wild to anyone?

We’re not referring to the orderly, populated summer camps featured in films like Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, nor are we referring to the “vacation homes” of Tucker & Dale vs. the World.

The Cabin in the Woods or Evil Before the term “wilderness” feels right, you need to reach at least the genuinely remote feeling of, say, Evil Dead. The movies on this list pay homage to the sensation of wandering entirely off the edge of the map and knowing that nobody will ever find you.

Look through this list of the finest horror films set in the woods if you enjoy the added creepy components that a wooded setting provides to uncover a new favorite scary cinema.

Here are 20 of our top scary movies set in the woods.

20. Backcountry

Director: Adam MacDonald
Writer: Adam MacDonald
Cast: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Roop, Eric Balfour, Nicholas Campbell, Chester, Charlie.
IMDB: 6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Platforms: Prime Video and Apple TV.

A year prior, the little-known Canadian wilderness horror Backcountry presented an even more gory-streaked depiction of a similar tragedy involving two individuals instead of one. Alejandro Iárritu’s The Revenant’s bear attack sequence was praised for its brutality and naturalism in 2015.

The film Backcountry describes the tale of Alex and Jen, two lovers who encounter a particularly tenacious black bear after entering a national park woodland with more unwarranted confidence than common sense.

Backcountry, unrepentant in its brutality and authenticity, details the foolish expedition into the dense forest and the excruciating struggle to return to civilization.

Backcountry cleverly twists the conventional Deliverance or Straw Dogs-style scenario into a true story of a relationship enduring an impossibly tough test, with sequences of horrific violence and agonizingly realistic injuries and suffering interspersed throughout. Although this isn’t a light-hearted, enjoyable nightly viewing, it demonstrates the woods’ unbridled force.

19. Anaconda

Director: Luis Llosa
Writer: Jim Cash, Hans Baurer, Jack Epps Jr.
Cast: Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Eric Stoltz, Kari Wuhrer.
IMDB: 4.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 38%
Platforms: Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Anaconda is the ultimate “late 1990s” creature picture, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Jon Voight. The movie, directed by Peruvian Luis Llosa, is a sweltering voyage into the heart of the Amazon. It seems like one of the last of its kind—pulpy, FX-driven creature pictures with enormous budgets in general release.

People, the funding for this project was $45 million! It was not an insufficient budget, especially in 1997; it was more significant than in 2017.

Even while waxy CGI does emerge occasionally, the money ends up on the screen in the shape of some pretty darn good makeup and animatronic FX. Anaconda is a cheesy joy in its peculiar way because there is no nuance to be observed here, just pure serpent sight.

How can you detest a movie featuring Jon Voight being regurgitated after being devoured whole by a giant snake and covered in viscous anaconda saliva? The attraction of watching anything portrayed on TV speaks for itself.

18. Honeymoon

Director: Leigh Janiak
Writer: Phil Graziadei and Leigh Janiak
Cast: Rose Leslie, Hanna Brown, Henry Lawrence, Peter Leo, Bob Harrison, John Lauterbach.
IMDB: 5.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Platforms: Amazon Instant Video

The fantastic thing regarding horror is that you can create something such as a Honeymoon with only an abandoned cabin and several weeks of free time with just the right image. The two young stars, Rose Leslie & Harry Treadway, are the sole actors in the movie, and two of them scarcely appear.

This is the appropriate choice: If you have a few good, youthful performers, why not just let the movie showcase their abilities? The plot is straightforward: a newlywed couple spends their Honeymoon in a far-flung cabin in the woods.

Bea, the wife, goes for a walk one night and has a frightening experience in the woods. When she returns changed, it starts to impair her memory and sense of self.

The two embark on a slow-burning, well-acted, and suspenseful trip over the following hour as the husband’s suspicions increase and the red flags keep piling up. By the time it’s over, feelings of disgust and fear are strong.

17. The Hills Have Eyes

Director: Alexandre Aja
Writer: Wes Craven
Cast: Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Tom Bower, Billy Drago, Robert Joy, TedLevine, Desmond Askew, Ezra Buzzington, Michael Bailey Smith, Laura Ortiz, Maisie Camilleri Preziosi, Gregory Nicotero, Ivana Turchetto, Judith Jane Vallette, Adam Perrell.
IMDB: 4.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
Platforms: Disney+Hotstar

Wes Craven was creating a grindhouse classic with The Hills Have Eyes seven years before A Nightmare on Elm Street made him famous. It has some similarities to his torturous vengeance movie The Last House on the Left, but overall, it’s a far better movie with a tighter plot. Probably familiar with the fundamentals.

A family on vacation gets into trouble with a group of feral hill people after wandering into a part of the desert where they shouldn’t be, with Michael Berryman’s weathered, inhuman face prominently featured. It was given an X rating upon initial release, which is not entirely unexpected. After all, this is a movie about cannibals stealing babies to eat.

When we walk off the usual route and discover how vulnerable we are away from the conveniences of society, it’s the actual good vs. evil scenario that we all fear in the back of our minds. While mostly preserving Craven’s societal satire, director Alexandre Aja’s 2006 version amps up the graphic violence and gore of the spectacle.

16. The Descent

Director: Neil Marshall
Writer: Neil Marshall
Cast: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, MyAnna Buring, Saskia Mulder, Alex Reid, Nora-Jane Noone, Oliver Milburn, Molly Kayll
IMDB: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Platforms: Amazon Prime

The Descent, ostensibly about a group of women fighting creatures in a cave, still stands out so firmly all these years later. True camaraderie or nuanced relationships between the female cast aren’t so much “unusual” in horror films as they are functionally nonexistent.

But oh, how The Descent goes beyond its summary. The movie’s first half is purposefully written to introduce the characters’ personalities while gradually and almost imperceptibly increasing the tension.

Even before we see any resident troglodytes, the horror fans can feel the claustrophobia and dampness seeping into their bones as the characters descend further into the cave. The performers in Neil Marshall’s screenplay, especially the couple of Sarah & Juno, are given a lot of gray areas to play with.

He doesn’t stop portraying one of the two as resourceful and finally righted. Instead, he exploits several misunderstandings to highlight human failure on a more profound and more pervasive level. Ultimately, The Descent is a character study that is both affecting and horrifying, complete with a fantastic climax.

15. Sleepaway Camp

Director: Robert Hiltzik

Writer: Robert Hiltzik
Cast: Felissa Rose, Paul DeAngelo, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Katherine Kamhi, Mike Kellin, Christopher Collet.
IMDB: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Platforms: Peacock

Even though it was a derivative summer camp slasher film in many respects, Sleepaway Camp made a mark on viewers in 1983 and has continued to do so ever since. In the story, a young girl and her cousin attend a summer camp, and anyone who disobeys them is put to death brutally.

However, when the camera turned to the extended version of “Angela,” Peter Baker was revealed to be the real Angela Baker, and it was also made clear that he was the murderer.

With the release of the second, third, and Return To Sleepaway Camp, “Peter” fully assumed the role of Angela. Although the film has a wicked sense of humor and some inventive death scenes, people seem to remember the ending twist the most. Nevertheless, it produced a series of profitable straight-to-video sequels and continues to be well-liked today.

14. Eden Lake

Director: James Watkins
Writer: James Watkins
Cast: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, James Gandhi, Thomas Turgoose, Shaun Dooley, Finn Atkins.
IMDB: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Platforms: Prime Video

This intensely frightening scary-thriller has a great ensemble as it tells the story of a couple starring Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly, who is tormented by a gang of young children while on a romantic holiday in a remote woodland and how the scenario gradually turns into a nightmare of torture and murder.

By its premise alone, Eden Lake is a film that frequently borders on exploitation cinema, but the combination of outstanding performances and intense violence creates an incredibly potent concoction.

13. The Last House On The Left

Director: Dennis Iliadis
Writer: Adam Alleca, Carl Ellsworth,
Cast: Wes Craven, Sara Paxton, Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Aaron Paul, Martha Macisaac.
IMDB: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%
Platforms: Netflix

The Last House on the Left movie, a horror classic by Wes Craven, is regarded as one of the most terrifying and potent horror films ever created. In the contentious tale, two young girls are abducted by a gang of homicidal maniacs, and their parents seek terrible vengeance.

The film’s overt brutality and excessive violence shocked audiences and did well in drive-in and grindhouse venues. Due to its subject matter, it was outlawed in certain nations, and Wes Craven is rumored to have been astonished when he saw his final cut.

12. The Burning

Director: Tony Maylam
Writer: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein.
Cast: Jason Alexander, Lou David, Carrick Glen, Leah Ayres, Holly Hunter, Brian Backer, Fisher Stevens.
IMDB: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Platforms: Shudder Amazon Channel

The Burning, a killer in the woods classic because of its cast, tempo, and incredible makeup effects by Tom Savini, is another excellent slasher classic.

The plot involved a murderer at a summer camp who used razor-sharp gardening shears to kill his victims. The cast starred Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter in their early careers. The film effectively utilizes its outdoor environment and offers gore-loving audiences an exciting spin on the early 1980s slasher concept.

11. Dead End

Director: Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Writer: Fabrice Canepa
Cast: Lin Shaye, Ray Wise, Mick Cain, Alexandra Holden, Amber Smith, Steve Valentine.
IMDB: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Platforms: Netflix

A family is on their way to a Christmas party when they stumble into a spectral Woman in White holding a baby while driving down a remote forest road. She vanishes before they can seek assistance, and the rest of the night is filled with odd and horrifying experiences.

The darkness of the woods around the people in Dead End plays perfectly into the movie’s emphasis on keeping some of the worst horrors up to the viewer’s imagination. Dead End is a devotedly campfire-like narrative that makes the most of minimum locations.

10. The Ritual

Director: David Bruckner
Writer: Adam Nevill and Joe Barton
Cast: Sam Troughton, Rob James-Collier, Arsher Ali, Andy Serkis, Kerri McLean, Paul Reid, Richard Holmes.
IMDB: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Platforms: Netflix

The Ritual’s characters are a group of lifelong friends joined in mourning a comrade who has already been slain in a terrible liquor store robbery, making it an excellent example of what can be called the “bro horror” subgenre.

Since he was the only one in the store when the incident occurred and was rendered helpless and cowardly as he saw his friend killed, Luke (Rafe Spall) is the group member who carries the most responsibility.

The other group members blame Luke for something like this to varying degrees. It seems as though their desire to travel to Sweden for a wilderness hiking trip is less to remember their friend who has passed away and more to see if their relationship can ever be restored or if the guilt brought on by the death is too great to bear.

Technically, The Ritual shines in both its imagery and sound design.

The forested location shots are uniformly stunning, no matter where they may have been shot. Cinematographer Andrew Shulkind’s sharp images and deep focus are a welcome change from the overly dark, muddy look of many contemporary horror films with similar settings (such as Bryan Bertino’s The Monster).

We are shown just enough over the opening two-thirds of the movie to maintain the mystery real and captivating. Several images of tree clusters recall Celtic knot-like imagery; these dense riddles of vegetation hide terrible truths.

The Ritual Film

With the aid of some outstanding sound design that highlights every rustling leaf and creaking tree branch, director David Bruckner—best known for helming well-regarded pieces of horror anthologies like V/H/S, The Signal, and Southbound—displays a gift for suggestion and subtlety in this film.

Unfortunately, the characters are a little underdeveloped for a horror movie that is supposed to be character-driven, and the great payoff doesn’t fully capture the mood of the first two acts.

Nevertheless, The Ritual is a gorgeous movie with one of the more memorable “WTF! Contemporary designs of monstrous creatures and murderous locals. For that reason alone, it merits a look.

9. The Cabin In The Woods

Director: Drew Goddard
Writer: Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Amy Acker.
IMDB: 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Platforms: Netflix

The Cabin in the Woods can be seen as a parody or satire of the genre, but it works just as a pure investigation of its most common themes. It is a rare horror comedy that puts as much effort into the scares as it does into the chuckles.

The crazy plot is a series of tributes to some of the most well-known and creative monsters and subgenres in horror movie history, with the setting of the woods developing into something far more expansive and rewarding than the standard slasher spoof setup.

Although the set of The Cabin in the Woods was unmistakably in the woods, did you know that Ash Williams spends the entire Evil Dead series imprisoned in the wilderness

8. Lake Of The Dead

Director: Kare Bergstrom
Writer: Kare Bergstrom
Cast: Henny Moan, Andre Bjerke, Henki Kolstad, Erling Lindahl, Georg Richter.
IMDB: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
Platforms: Amazon Video

Lake of the Dead is an intriguing ghost story set deep in an attractive yet eerie woodland with a spooky lodge. It is a little-known curiosity outside of its native Norway. Although it has a terrible backstory, the film utilizes it more as an occasion to critique the narrative than as a setting for murder and monsters.

The film has a persistently spooky mood, thanks mainly to its natural surroundings, filled with a certain air of mystery and a sense of comedy. Although it’s challenging to locate on streaming sites, a more widely circulated, albeit less well-received, version of the film was released in 2019.

7. It Comes At Night

Director: Trey Edward Shults
Writer: Trey Edward Shults
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, David Pendleton, Joey Cabrera, Griffin Faulkner.
IMDB: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Platforms: Amazon Instant Video

It Comes at Night is a distinctive and intensely emotional take on the post-apocalyptic survival horror premise, following a family hiding out in the woods to survive the collapse of civilization when another family accidentally across their home while looking for safety themselves.

The two groups attempt to coexist in a world full of deadly peril that can arise at any time, and the quiet of their surroundings makes the agony and misery of their ordeal scream out almost all the louder. The dynamics of trust and suspicion are played out to their most horrifying ends.

6. Bone Tomahawk

Director: S. Craig Zahler
Writer: S. Craig Zahler
Cast: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Sid Haig.
IMDB: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Platforms: Netflix

In contemporary independent horror, the grim, bone-crunching horror Western style is still alive and well, and Bone Tomahawk is probably its mascot. In addition to stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, and Matthew Fox, Bone Tomahawk also boasts supporting solid performances from actors like Richard Jenkins, Sid Haig, and Fred Melamed.

This gives the movie an uncommon sense of gravity for a story that eventually explores some of the most gruesome scenes of dismemberment to be depicted on screen in recent memory.

The Hills Have Eyes-style story pits lawman Russell and his posse against a group of cannibalistic, wild locals known as “Troglodytes,” despised even by other native tribes. Its villains are particularly notable instances of human depravity, sometimes linked with nature horror. They are unrelentingly brutal.

5. Friday The 13th

Director: Tom McLoughlin
Writer: Victor Miller
Cast: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears.
IMDB: 5.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 26%
Platforms: Netflix

The slasher craze of the 1980s was formally launched with the low-budget Friday the 13th, one of the highest-grossing surprises in history. Another good plot in 80s horror movies involves Mrs. Voorhees exacting her vengeance on the camp counselors.

A group of adolescents is stalked and killed while attempting to reopen a summer camp in Crystal Lake on “Friday the 13th.” The movie is based on the real-life killings of three teens at Lake Bodom, Finland, which is a startling fact.

Even though his mother murders the first picture, makeup artist Tom Savini makes the campers’ massacre even more memorable, ushering in Jason Voorhees and the start of an enduring and endless horror franchise.

4. The Evil Dead

Director: Sam Raimi and Fede Alvarez
Writer: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Ellen Sandweiss, Robert Tapert.
IMDB: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Platforms: Netflix

The Evil Dead, infamously put together for $350,000 and a remarkable amount of goodwill, appears to have produced a unique form of dread when viewed retrospectively. Of course, Sam Raimi’s directorial debut is notable for much more than that, such as how Joel Coen edited it or how Stephen King’s sincere interest grabbed the eye of a major studio.

Allowing Raimi and close friend Bruce Campbell to pour everything they knew into Evil Dead II, a kind of sequel/reboot hybrid, using everything those who knew about slashers, slapstick, Camp, pulp, and fantasy.

The fact that the 2013 remake of The Evil Dead was a bit of a disgusting feast for gore-hounds, however, may be the finest example of the film’s true spirit. The fact that the first horror movie was more of a conventional genre affair feels wrong to those who have seen Evil Dead II or the even sillier Army of Darkness; this is cognitive dissonance.

This simple tale of five Michigan State students accidentally unleashing ancient creatures in a cabin in the woods manages to be startlingly, ruthlessly skin-crawling despite its simplicity.

Sam Raimi is the only one who can stretch a dollar so far that the sound of it snapping gives us the same stomach-churning feeling as a traditional bump in the dark.

3. The Blair Witch Project

Director: Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick
Writer: Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick
Cast: Rei Hance, Joshua Leonard, Kim Director,
IMDB: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Platforms: Netflix

The Blair Witch Project took a distinct approach by creating a new form of presentation and, in particular, promotion. In contrast, Scream reinvented a genre by drawing back the shades to show the inner workings of horror.

I found footage movies had already been made; look at The Last Broadcast from a year earlier. However, this was the first to receive wide theatrical distribution, and its distributor Artisan Entertainment skillfully seized the opportunity to use the lack of accessible information about the movie to carry out an enigmatic Internet advertising campaign during the early days of the Internet era.

All the Blair Witches use the woods by lurking behind trees and isolated Cabin as their prey (often a group of friends), tripping over roots, and crying out for aid that never materializes.

The Blair Witch Project’s grainy, home movie aesthetic captured an inherent fear of reality and “real people” that had never been seen prior in the horror genre.

Otherwise, reasonable people believed what they saw was creepy might be true. It also proves the possibility of a successful micro-budget independent film becoming a huge box office hit. Thus, The Blair Witch Project simultaneously reinvented two different genres.

2. Evil Dead 2

Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Ellen Sandweiss, Robert Tapert.
IMDB: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Platforms: Prime Video

Sam Raimi’s sequel to The Evil Dead built on the comedy of the first film and increased the gore and inventiveness to create one of the most celebrated sequels in film history, not only in the horror genre.

Evil Dead II, which serves as both a prequel and a partial remake of The Evil Dead, takes place in the same iconic eerie Cabin in the woods as the Deadtimes unleashed by the potent Necronomicon grow even more significant, stranger, and scarier than they did in the original picture.

Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy’s third film would go even further toward genre and solidify Campbell’s hero. This episode marks the debut of Ash, whose trademark look has been honed and is as essential to the genre as any of the most well-known slasher movie killers.

1. The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers
Writer: Robert Eggers
Cast: Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Kate Dickie.
IMDB: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Platforms: Hulu

The Witch places us in a hazardous environment right away. We watch as Puritan patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) takes revenge obstinately with a local council forest, leading to his family’s expulsion from their “New England” neighborhood (since that’s all we can do, hopelessly).

We watch, and writer/director Robert Eggers retains our attention as a score of strings. Various scratchy debris rises to a climax that never materializes, much like the dialogue-free opening of There Will Be Blood.

The wagon lurches ever-onward into the wilderness, heaping the boundary of this New World onto the actual frontier of an uncharted forest. It’s a long shot, and I am breathing dread. William declared in 1620, “We will conquer this wilderness.” Eggers’s horror movie “New England Folk Tale” is filled with the fascination of the undiscovered.

Film All About

It would be an understatement to contrast it to the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred 70 years after the events in the movie; The unavoidable repercussions of such historic hysteria heavily influenced the Witches. Eggers rarely uses jump scares or gore, instead building suspense with great editing.

All his shots have a subliminal ability to create tension inside each scene. The result is a fever dream in which primal energies like lust, rebellion, hunger, and greed simmer on the outskirts of experience, avoided but never entirely subdued.

The film’s pervasive puritanical religiosity, a gloom through which every character, particularly teenage Thomasin (Anya Taylor Joy), fights to be an average human, is what is most believable.

Their worship consists entirely of gravitas: prayers, fasting, repentance, and terror. And it is this terror that fuels the terror in the movie, which ultimately leads even viewers to believe that God has undoubtedly abandoned these people on the edge of civilizatio andf the unknown.