Plenty of people love to go camping in order to get in touch with nature, and the rustic side of life. That should be encouraged, but it’s important that would-be campers head out with the right mindset, and that involves avoiding scary movies with subject matter that might hit a bit too close to home.
When the lights go out, and there’s nobody else around, the last thing campers want is to feel uneasy. If they’ve recently watched a movie featuring hostile wildlife, brutal environmental conditions, or some supernatural horror stalking the woodlands, things can become quite frightening, indeed.
10 Friday The 13th, Part 2 (1981)
Long before Jason Vorhees took center stage as a hockey mask-wearing serial killer, he was content to slaughter his victims with a bag over his head. It doesn’t have quite the same iconography, but Friday the 13th, Part 2 managed to segue from a slasher film with a twist, into an actual, fully embodied franchise.
For the first time, the teenagers unfortunate to camp out at Crystal Lake were dispatched by the hulking frame of a nightmarish killer who could not be reasoned with. The film is notable for having one of the most gruesome and memorable kills of the Friday the 13th franchise. It went far beyond the simple concept of a mother’s revenge and touched on the primordial – a character driven by a single instinct to kill, almost without reason.
9 Deliverance (1972)
Deliverance continues to freak out even the most ardent outdoors enthusiasts, particularly those living in the south. It’s a story about an outdoor survivalist who invites his friends to witness the Cahulawassee River, which is set to be dammed and converted into a lake.
What begins as a simple outdoors excursion soon turns into a nightmare fight for survival when they stumble upon a group of hostile inhabitants. Renowned for its excellent cinematography and gripping terror, Deliverance still holds up today and is practically part of the cultural lexicon at this point. The film’s evocative use of its outdoor setting was key to its success as it effectively portrayed scenes of torture and terror in a filming location known for its natural beauty.
8 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Camping movies don’t get much worse than The Blair Witch Project, and that’s because of the formula used to shoot the movie. It was a pioneer of the”found footage” horror genre, made up entirely of low-grade cameras being used by youngsters in pursuit of a documentary.
The clever use of natural video and audio recording technology makes the film feel authentic, which is especially important when the scariest scenes occur. By today’s standards, the film isn’t very scary and has been lampooned to death, but first-time viewers will undoubtedly get the chills watching this simple, highly effective film do its thing.
7 The Evil Dead (1981)
While Sam Raimi’s later Evil Dead installments mixed slapstick comedy in with the blood and gore, the first film in the franchise was essentially a straight-up horror film. It was also one of the scariest and most unsettling of the decade, with Raimi relying heavily on slow, agonizing tension building to create the scares.
It’s a frightening movie about a satanic evil force that ensnares a group of cabin dwellers in the remote wilderness. The blood and gore were heavy and unapologetic, and certain scenes are so agonizingly unsettling that it’s a wonder why Raimi bothered to inject comedy into the films at all.
6 Misery (1990)
The concept of totaling a vehicle on the road and being nursed back to health by an eccentric nurse in a remote farmhouse sounds nice enough, but Misery is anything but. Those making long drives across isolated territory to reach a camping spot may wish to take precautions before going on.
Misery tells the story of a famous writer who enrages his “number one fan,” the loud and extremely opinionated Annie Wilkes, after killing off one of his fictional characters. He’s held hostage in her house and forced to write a new novel which retcons his creative decisions, under threat of death. Along the way, he tries to escape, with horrifying consequences. With the beautiful mountain scenery essentially trapping him, Paul is forced to face a human monster he only wrote about in his books.
5 Alive (1993)
Camping isn’t always done in the summer, and some like to do it year-round, even in snowy conditions. For those who like the thought of pitching a tent in frigid arctic temperatures, they might wish to avoid watching the movie Alive, which was loosely based on a grisly true story.
After their plane crashes in the Andes mountains, an Uruguayan rugby team is forced to contend with numerous hazards, including starvation. Presumed dead, and forced to come up with a plan to survive long enough to trek out on foot, they eat the bodies of the dead for sustenance. Surely, no camper would want to find themselves trapped in that situation. The film doesn’t hold back in showing the effects of frostbite and starvation, which forces the survivors to do the impossible. Watching Alive is such a harrowing experience that it might be better for viewers to watch a few uplifting and awe-inspiring outside documentaries to restore their faith in nature.
4 The Grey (2011)
Liam Neeson starred in this thriller about a group of oil workers who suffer a plane crash in Alaska, and are subsequently stalked by a pack of ravenous wolves. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. The men must learn to come to grips with their situation, or fall into despair and succumb to the harsh wilderness.
Though campers might fund the subject matter quite frightening, The Grey tells audiences to always fight in the face of adversity, which is a strong message. Even when the main character, played by Neeson, has lost everything, he’s still willing to arm up and go to battle in defiance of his plight.
3 The Revenant (2015)
This instant classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio has caught plenty of flack for its cinematic false revisionist bunk history surrounding the life of frontiersman Hugh Glass, but it’s nonetheless a gripping and extremely gritty thriller set in the wilderness of 1823. As such, it should be a draw for anyone who claims to be a nature buff.
Unfortunately, it also features one of the most brutal and explicit depictions of a Grizzly bear attack ever put on film, which is bad news for those who are uncomfortable when the lights go out in a tent. The tradeoff, of course, is some of the most beautiful cinematography ever filmed.
2 The Descent (2005)
Some campers like to go on hikes, and some hikes lead to explorable caves, which is why The Descent should be avoided before taking a trip. Caves are still rather ominous and spooky things, and fear of the unknown prevents many from gathering the courage to go inside.
The Descent tells the story of a group of spelunkers who decide to explore a huge cave system in the Appalachian Mountains. Once inside, they are set upon by a group of terrifying humanoid creatures who are blind and rely on sound to locate their prey. It’s a viciously nail-biting horror/thriller with an uncomfortably plausible premise. The tense situation creates a dynamic that forces the spelunkers to forge bonds of trust with each other or, in some instances, sacrifice one another in a futile attempt to survive the grueling ordeal.
1 The Edge (1997)
Few wilderness survival movies are as harrowing or as well shot as The Edge. The story revolves around a low-key billionaire named Charles, an arrogant photographer and an assistant whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. With no supplies and no way of reaching out for help, they must rely on Charles’ knowledge-saturated brain to survive.
The film is notable for the inclusion of Bart the Bear, who plays a ferocious and bloodthirsty Grizzly bear who stalks the trio through the forest. It’s a harrowing, nail-biting story of psychological terror, all set against the backdrop of one of the loveliest places on Earth.
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