As simple as it may appear, a creepy forest is one of the most influential horror movie settings of all time. Creepy movies that take place in the forest come in all sizes and shapes and stretch across a much more extensive scope of movie history than some horror movie enthusiasts may realize.
Of course, a forest works as a wonderful setting for magical fantasy journeys and stories full of childlike wonder as well, but there’s just something so ominous about a blanket of menacingly shaped trees blocking out the sun.
Here are some of the creepiest movies that take place in a forest setting.
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10 The Ritual (2017)
Netflix
A group of five friends looking down the barrel of middle age are preparing for their next vacation when one of them is murdered in a robbery gone wrong. After this incident, the other four, Hutch (Robert James-Collier), Luke (Rafe Spall), Phil (Arsher Ali), and Dom (Sam Troughton), decide to go on a hiking trip on the King’s trail in Sweden. During the hike, Dom gets injured, forcing the tired and irritable group to take a shortcut through the dense forest between the mountains. Slowly, eerie events begin to occur, and the friends realize that they are getting more than they bargained for. Soon their minds get tested as an ancient monstrous being stalks them.
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The Ritual depicts enormous creativity as the realistically normal characters have their greatest fears come to life. The movie’s sinister setting remains the show’s real star, and the film does not waiver from the forest setting.
9 It Comes At Night (2017)
A24
After an unexpected apocalypse, Paul (Joel Edgerton), along with his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and son Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), are holed up in an isolated cabin in the gloomy and dangerous forest. Due to the sudden outbreak of a communicative disease, interaction with the outside world was done only when necessary and hastily when at it. One night an invader breaks into Paul’s house and explains that his family is in distress and that he is looking for food and water. Paul and Sarah invite the family to live with them. The two families share a home in an uneasy alliance to protect each other. As the uneasy alliance between the two families continues, mistrust and paranoia build up, affecting the lives of the two families.
It Comes At Night is a low-key yet suspenseful movie. The dynamics of trust and paranoia are played out to their most creepy ends as the two families attempt to coexist in a world full of fatal dangers that can crop up at any time.
8 The Witch (2015)
Rooks Nest Entertainment
In the Seventeenth Century, in New England, William (Ralph Ineson) and his family are exiled from the Puritan plantation controlled by the church due to different religious principles. William leaves with his family and settles at the edge of a vast, remote forest. Mysterious forces then start to haunt them. Deep in the forest lives a witch who carries out the devil’s commands, tearing the family apart. When Katherine (Kate Dickie) delivers a baby boy, Samuel, he vanishes while playing near the forest. Their crops fail, and the family begins to blame each other.
The Witch is a terrifying representation of a family unraveling within their sins, becoming prey for an unimaginable evil. The movie ignites a lot of terror in its audience, and the forest surrounding the family’s farm offers no comfort.
7 Antichrist (2009)
Zentropa Entertainments
This eerie and terrifying tale begins when a married couple’s infant son tragically dies. Their infant son died from falling out of a widow while the couple was intimate in the next room. The mother becomes distressed and is hospitalized. Her husband, a psychiatrist, tries to treat her, deciding that his wife must face her fears to heal her mind and their marriage. They retreat to a cabin in the forest where she had spent the previous summer with her son. Once there, the woods become a twisted limbo of the soul, and the wife becomes more irrational and begins to perpetrate sexual violence on herself and her husband. Antichrist is one of the all time creepiest movies set in the woods.
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6 Eden Lake (2008)
Rollercoaster Films
The plot of Eden Lake follows the ordeals of nursery school teacher Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and her boyfriend Steve (Michael Fassbender) during a romantic getaway in a secluded woodland. Along the way, the couple meets a young boy who hesitates to talk to them. They soon arrive at the beach with plans to have a calming day. However, a group of teenage crooks and their dog appear, and the couple’s peace is ruined. Nevertheless, Steve stubbornly decides to stay put rather than be “bullied” by them into leaving. They stay the night but find their food contaminated and their car tire flat the next day. The couple confronts the delinquent teenagers in the woods and faces terrifyingly brutal consequences. As harmless as this movie begins, it soon becomes extremely violent and sadistic.
The setting itself, a beautiful forest with an idyllic lake, would imply no sense of creepiness, as seen in several movies. Still, the film makes the events more creepy.
5 Dead End (2003)
Sagittaire Films
Driving on Christmas Eve to a Christmas gathering with his family, Frank Harrington (Ray Wise) decides to take a shortcut through an isolated forest road. Soon, he begins to fall asleep at the wheel and is awoken by the yells of his family, cautioning him of an oncoming car. After nearly colliding with the oncoming vehicle, he inspects the car and continues to drive. Frank then stops the car abruptly after seeing a woman holding a baby in the forest. Frank picks the ghostly woman (Amber Smith) and her baby. The route becomes darker and treacherous with their new passengers’ abrupt appearance. The family members also start getting killed one by one.
Dead End makes the most use of the forest’s darkness around the characters, playing excellently into the film’s objective and leaving the worst of the creepy encounters to horror movie fans.
4 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Haxan Films
Found video footage tells the story of three student filmmakers (Joshua Leonard, Heather Donahue, and Michael C. Williams) who trek into the black hills near a small town in 1994 to collect documentary footage about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. In the video footage, the students interview several townsfolk and collect clues to support the myth’s legitimacy. However, things take an unexpected turn when the students get lost in the forest and begin hearing ominous noises.
Most horror enthusiasts and critics find The Blair Witch Project movie one of the most influential movies in the horror genre despite having a low budget. It was grainy and realistic, making it famous in the mainstream.
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3 The Evil Dead (1981)
Renaissance Pictures
In this movie, five friends, including Ashley “Ash” Williams (Bruce Campbell), the lead role, take a vacation to a cabin deep in the forest. There they find the book of the dead called the Necronomicon. The friends read the texts aloud and accidentally release demonic forces that flood a waking hell for the group. The friends are forced to fight for their lives or else become one of the evil dead. Ash helplessly watches his friends become possessed by the demonic forces and is forced to make a difficult choice before dawn to save his own life.
The Evil Dead is a terrifying horror classic infused with dark humor. The movie introduced the character “Ash,” who would become one of the most iconic horror movie characters of all time.
2 The Burning (1981)
Cropsy Venture
The plot follows a summer camp caretaker Cropsy (Lou David), who was involved in a horrible accident and returns to camp Blackfoot years later to seek vengeance. During summer camp, teenagers decided to pull a malicious prank on the unsuspecting camp caretaker in the middle of the night. The prank went terribly wrong, and the campers left the caretaker for dead after setting him on fire. However, the caretaker did not die, and a few years later, Cropsy, now disfigured, returns to the camp armed with his shears, hell-bent on killing the new group of teens at the summer camp.
The Burning is a killer-in-the-woods classic movie that uses its forest setting well. The film offers plenty of entertainment and carnage to horror movie fans.
1 The Last House on the Left (1972)
Sean S. Cunningham Films
The Last House on the Left tells the story of two teenage suburban girls, Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) and Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham), who head to the city for a rock concert. While trying to score some drugs in the town, the two teenage girls are kidnapped and brutalized by a group of psychotic escaped convicts. The girls are then killed in the woods near Mari’s house. The gang then poses as salesmen and are welcomed by Mari’s mother (Cynthia Carr) and father (Gaylord St. James). Soon the parents discover the killers’ identities and plot a bloody revenge. Infuriated, the father takes on the gang single-handedly and kills them.
The Last House on the Left has gone down in history as one of the most troubling and compelling creepy films ever produced. Some countries even banned the film for its sadistic and violent scenes. More so, director Wes Craven was said to have been taken aback after seeing his final product.
