30 Best Horror Movies Set In The Woods

Woodlands and forests are one of the most effective backdrops for horror stories, and the best horror movies in the woods use the unique close-to-nature scares only a forest or jungle can bring. They also tend to be more provocative, shocking, and experimental with their ideas. Some of the most well-known horror movies set in forests span various distinct sub-genres of horror and can boast some of the most notorious horror movies ever, thanks to movies like The Blair Witch Project, Deliverance, and many more.

From cult slasher favorites to critically acclaimed modern classics, the best horror movies set in the woods demonstrate how a single location can be used in a limitless number of ways, all within the same genre. Whether searching for gore, ghosts, monsters, psychological horror, or even post-apocalyptic survival horror, there’s a horror movie set in a forest featuring almost every kind of threat imaginable. In day or night, the forests and woodlands prove to be perfect settings for some of the best horror movies to date.

30 Cabin Fever (2002)

A Group Of Teens Contract A Flesh-Eating Virus In A Woodland Cabin

2002’s Cabin Fever (and, to a lesser extent, the sequels and the 2016 remake) are fantastic horror movies set in the woods for viewers who enjoy a healthy dose of body shocks. The forest in Cabin Fever serves as a juxtaposition almost to the harrowing and grotesque events taking place within it. However, the isolation of the woodlands also serves to ensure the sense of isolation felt by the characters is unrelenting.

Cabin Fever takes the common premise of a group of teens taking a vacation in a cabin in the woods. However, once there, they succumb to a flesh-eating disease that causes their skin to rot away in incredibly gross and wince-inducing ways. Written and directed by Eli Roth, Cabin Feature is inarguably among the most visceral forest-set horror movies, and relies more on gore than it does on jump-scares. However, it remains incredibly tense throughout, and seeing the group of teens succumb to paranoia and the flesh-eating virus is just as impactful in the 2020s as it was when the movie first released in 2002.

29 Cocaine Bear (2023)

A Bear On Cocaine Turns A Peaceful Forest Into A Bloodbath

The 2023 horror-comedy Cocaine Bear may not be the most terrifying horror movie set in the woods, but it’s inarguably one of the most memorable. Directed by Elizabeth Banks (who also stars), the title and premise of Cocaine Bear alone ensure the movie had a healthy dose of notoriety before it even released — especially since it was based on a true story. The movie does exactly what the title would suggest, as Cocaine Bear is literally about a bear ingesting a vast quantity of cocaine and going on a rampage through its forest home.

The entirety of Cocaine Bear is set in the Chatthoochee-Oconee National Forest, which plays into both the horror aspects of the movie and the comedic ones. While there are sequences of various characters climbing trees to try and avoid the bear, there’s also many funny moments involving park rangers, hikers, and all manner of typical characters one would expect to find in a movie set in the woods.

28 The Forest (2016)

An American Travels To Japan’s Most Haunted Forest

2016’s The Forest stars Game of Thrones cast member Natalie Dormer as Sara, and is — as the title would suggest — an incredibly forest-centric horror movie. There are many horror movies set in the woods that simply use the trees and foliage as a set-piece to create tension, but in The Forest they’re the source of the fear. What’s more, the titular woodlands in The Forest are infamous, as the story takes place in Aokigahara in Japan, a wooded region at the base of Mount Fuji that’s renowned as a popular location for suicides.

The story of The Forest sees Dormer’s Sara travel to Aokigahara to find her twin sister, Jess, who the Japanese police believe has taken her own life. Sara travels into the Aokighara forest to try and find Jess, but quickly becomes lost. While trying to find her way out she encounters all manner of supernatural entities and strange goings-on, and The Forest definitely pulls no punches when it comes to disturbing and memorable visuals — and the twist ending is definitely one viewers will mull over long after the credits have rolled.

27 Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey (2023)

The Hundred Acre Woods Becomes Pooh’s Hunting Ground

When it comes to fictional forests, few names are as widely recognized as the Hundred Acre Wood from A.A. Milne’s beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories. While Winnie and his friends like Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore were then popularized by Disney, the original books have since entered the public domain, a headline-grabbing fact that director Rhy Frake-Waterfield took as the impetus to create the horror-movie Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

While Blood and Honey isn’t the most solid horror movie set in the woods, it is one that definitely uses its forest setting incredibly well, as the entirety of the movie takes place in the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh’s home in the wholesome novels becomes his hunting ground in Blood and Honey, and the movie features many incredibly gory deaths at the hands of Pooh and Piglet — both of whom have been grotesquely reinterpreted as murderous animal-hybrids.

26 A Quiet Place (2018)

The Woodlands Provide Audio Camoflague From Monsters That Hunt With Sound

2018’s A Quiet Place, along with 2020 sequel A Quiet Place Part II, come from The Officer star John Krasinski, who wrote and directed. While the forest features heavily in A Quiet Place there are other locales used (such as a cornfield), but the movie’s most harrowing and shocking scenes take place in dense woodlands. Of all the scary films set in forests, A Quiet Place is possibly the tensest, and stands out for making use of the natural soundscape just as much as its visual elements. What’s more, few horror films manage to make the woods just as scary even during the day.

A Quiet Place is a post-apocalyptic horror that focuses on the Abbott family as they head into the dense forests of upstate New York to escape alien invaders who hunt using sound. There are many sequences that involve the Abbott’s trying to remain as silent as possible while the horrific monsters are hunting them, leading to many incredibly heart-pounding moments. There’s also one particularly tragic death in the earliest moments of the movie, and it’s a film that’s sure to play on viewers’ minds long after watching.

25 Trollhunter (2010)

Trollhunter is a Norwegian found-footage movie about a man hired to hunt trolls in the countryside by the government. In this world, the government knows trolls exist, and the main job is to keep them out of the public eye and in a part of the country where they can’t hurt anyone. However, this is foiled when a group of student filmmakers set out to make a documentary about Hans, a suspected bear poacher. What they don’t know is that Han is a troll hunter.

This is a found-footage movie, but since the kids are making a documentary, the movie shows some nice footage of the troll hunter in action, although the movie still utilizes a lot of the trappings of the genre, including shaky cam and quickly moving the camera away from the actual trolls.

24 The Ruins (2008)

A Movie About Killer Vines At A Mayan Temple

The Ruins, based on the novel by Scott B. Smith, is a movie that takes place at a Mayan Temple in Mexico. While technically in a jungle – and not the woods – the genre remains familiar. A group of travelers go into a strange, exotic land and not everyone makes it out alive. Nothing starts right for these travelers, as villagers show up with guns, knives, and other weapons and kill one of them when they try to leave. Forced back up the temple, the survivors realize the vines are the real threat.

The Ruins is a single-location horror movie, one that is both gruesome and bleak. It also resides in the body horror genre, as the vines attack and get into the skin of the travelers, forcing them to cut themselves open to get them out and, in some cases, undergo amputations to try to save their lives. This is a horror movie that fans won’t watch for the characters, as none deserve much sympathy, but the gross-out moments and the horror in the temple are enough to make most viewers squirm.

23 Hatchet (2006)

Adam Green’s Slasher Horror Calling Card

Adam Green made his name with the franchise Hatchet, the original movie coming out in 2006. This movie used the horror in the woods concept by adding the dangers of the swamps and bayous in Louisiana.Hatchet introduces a new horror villain named Victor Crowley. The legend says that Victor’s father accidentally killed him when he hit him with an axe while trying to save him from a burning house. Since his father’s death, Victor is said to roam the swamps killing anyone who enters.

What results is a new Jason Voorhees-styled slasher killer, with Victor a terrifying man wearing a mask and killing with a hatchet, chainsaw, and anything else he can get his hands on. What really makes this a movie for horror lovers is the supporting cast. Candyman actor Tony Todd plays a tour guide named Rev. Zombie, Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund as a victim named Samson, and Jason Voorhees actor Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley.

22 Wolf Creek (2005)

Based On The Real-Life Outback Backpack Murders

In the same vein as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wolf Creek is a horror movie that claims to be based on a true story. Also, like TCM, it is not entirely true. Both movies are based on the stories of real-life serial killers, but they are mostly fictional retellings of these killers. While TCM was based partially on John Wayne Gacy, Wolf Creek was based on the murderers, Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001. What results is similar, although Wolf Creek is bloodier and more violent than TCM.

This Australian horror movie received mixed reviews, although that is expected from something as violent and harrowing as this slasher movie. The movie does play things fair, as it doesn’t rely on gimmicks or twists and just presents a terror-filled movie that shows a remorseless and seemingly unstoppable man murdering people for sport. It is excessive in its violence and very brutal when it comes to the kills, but it makes no apologies and is a movie that should please hardcore horror fans.

21 Knock at The Cabin (2023)

M. Night Shyamalan’s Apocalyptic Thriller

M. Night Shyamalan had attempted a horror movie in the woods before with The Village, and it ended up as one of his worst critically-reviewed movies at that time in his career. The biggest problem was the twists that had become commonplace in his films, and many fans and critics didn’t buy that specific twist. Shyamalan has enjoyed a career resurgence recently and Knock at the Cabin shows that he might have learned from his lessons. This movie is an apocalyptic thriller set in a secluded cabin in the woods.

Based on The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin tells the story of a little girl named Wen who is staying on vacation at a cabin with her dads, Eric and Andrew. However, when a group of four people arrive and say someone must sacrifice themselves or the world will end in an apocalypse, they have to find a way out and determine whether they would sacrifice the world for their family. The movie earned positive reviews and was a minor box office success.

20 Annihilation (2018)

A Scientific Anomaly Turns A Forest Into A Nightmare

Annihilation was an interesting mix of science fiction and horror. Directed by sci-fi auteur Alex Garland, Annihilation sets up its story by introducing The Shimmer, a quarantined zone where nature has started to transform and morph. In Annihilation the woods don’t just conceal a threat, they are the threat. When one team of scientists goes in investigating and never returns, a second team of all women is sent in to figure out what happened to the first team and what is going on.

Natalie Portman leads a cast full of powerful female characters, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez. What these women find in the woods when they venture into The Shimmer is deeply disturbing. This is almost more sci-fi than horror when the final twist comes, but what leads to that moment is very scary.

19 The Ritual (2017)

Four Friends Are Stalked Through A Scandinavian Forest

Released in 2017 as a British horror movie that received a Netflix international release, The Ritual is one of the best horror movies in the woods released in the last decade. In The Ritual, four friends are on a hiking trip in Sweden in honor of a close friend who was murdered. However, the four friends end up lost and realize that something in the woods might be tracking them.

This is a tense horror survival story with some very scary moments that make full use of the remoteness of the forest, which also feels somewhat unique to The Ritual thanks to the incredible Scandinavian setting. At the end of the day, this is a movie about friendship, loss, and trauma, and the monsters that are hunting these hikers are all just a way to describe and show the sense of loss they are all experiencing as they head into this story.

18 Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2009)

Two Hillbillies Living In The Woods Watch Prejudiced Young Adults Destroy Themselves

One of the more comedic horror movies in the woods is Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, which uses the forest setting both for scares and laughs. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil takes the basic setup from movies like The Hills Have Eyes and then subverts the genre tropes. A group of stereotypical young adults found in almost any horror movie encounter Tucker and Dale, two locals who live in a cabin in the woods.

The group believes Tucker and Dale are killers, but the pair are harmless. The bewildered Tucker and Dale are unable to stop the scared “victims” dying due to their own stupidity as they set up traps for their own “protection.” While this is almost a satire of the horror genre, it takes its kills seriously enough to make it a fun horror movie in its own right. It is just told from the point of view of two hapless friends trying to figure out why all these kids keep dying.

17 Deliverance (1972)

John Boorman’s Genre-Defining Classic Taught Audiences To Fear The Forest

One of the earliest horror movies in the woods that turned the forest setting into the source of fear is the 1972 movie Deliverance. Directed by John Boorman, the movie stars Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ronny Cox, and New Beatty as four friends who set out to canoe down a remote Georgia river. However, after making fun of the locals (with an iconic Dueling Banjos moment), someone starts hunting them down with nefarious plans for the four of them.

Disturbance is never really classified with other horror movies in the woods, as it is more of an adventure thriller, but it fits the trappings of the genre perfectly, with the friends willing to go to any level to survive this scary experience. The movie won three Oscars and remains iconic, added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2008. This remains one of Burt Reynolds’s most iconic roles, as well as one that goes completely against type for his career.

16 Wrong Turn (2003)

The Cult Early 00’s Gem Starring Eliza Dushku And Jeremy Sisto

Released in 2003, Wrong Turn featured a familiar story as a group of college students end up trapped in the woods after some cannibalistic mountain men flatten their tires and then start to hunt them. The movie featured Eliza Dushku at the height of her Buffy the Vampire fame, and Jeremy Sisto during his time on Six Feet Under. Between the West Virginia setting and the fear of getting lost in the woods, this was a movie that caused stress for many road-weary travelers.

While it wasn’t groundbreaking, Wrong Turn found a home in the hearts of horror fans and ended up spawning a franchise with five sequels between 2007 and 2014 and then a Wrong Turn reboot in 2021. The following movies had their moments of horror, but none of them really matched up with the original, which remains a nasty horror movie with some gruesome kills and a young, fresh cast. If anything, the original was a throwback movie to classic horror movies in the woods.

15 Dog Soldiers (2002)

The Low-Budget British Werewolf Movie That Helped Revive A Subgenre

Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers was a movie that came out two years after Ginger Snaps, and the two movies really helped revitalize the werewolf subgenre with very different experiences. While Ginger Snaps was more about an allegory of a young woman reaching puberty, Dog Soldiers was a movie about werewolves hunting people in the woods at night. 2002’s Dog Soldiers followed a group of six British soldiers dropped into the Scottish Highlands for a training exercise.

However, soon the werewolves attack, and when the heroes flee and find shelter, they quickly realize they’ve wandered right into the werewolves’ lair. What really makes this movie standout as one of the best werewolf movies of all time was the practical effects for the wolves. Their awkward transformations and movements made them some of the most memorable lycans in movie history.

14 Eden Lake (2008)

Local Kids Turn A Couple’s Woodland Vacation Into A Truly Disturbing Movie

A talented cast drives this deeply disturbing horror-thriller about a couple (Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender) who are harassed by a group of young kids while on a secluded woodland getaway. One of the most extreme horror movies set in the woods or anywhere else, and one without supernatural elements, the situation quickly descends into a nightmarish ordeal of torture and murder. Eden Lake features extreme violence and is an unforgettable and unflinching movie.

However, it is also hard to watch at times since it features violence from and towards children. The movie received overwhelming critical praise, but it is also one that remains controversial when it comes to the fear of youth in Britain in what became known as the fear of “hoodies.” This movie joined others like Harry Brown and Cherry Tree Lane in a series of movies that showed how the older generation should fear the youth movement.

13 Sleepaway Camp (1983)

The Cult 1980s Hit About Two Cousins Who Turn Summer Camp Into A Slaughter-Fest

Sleepaway Camp is a cult hit that, despite being a derivative summer camp slasher in many ways, left an impression on audiences in 1983 and has been doing so ever since. The story sees a young girl (Felissa Rose) and her cousin (Jonathan Tiersten) go to a summer camp, and any who disrespect them end up meeting a bloody end. What really makes this movie stand apart is the reveal of the killer in the final moments of the run time.

Sleepaway Camp has a wry sense of humor and some creative kill scenes, but many remember most about Sleepaway Camp is the movie’s final twist. The film spawned a successful straight-to-video series of sequels and its popular legacy lives on even today. While this is a movie that has a twist ending that remains problematic in today’s society, it remains a cult classic for horror movie fans.

12 The Burning (1981)

1980s Slasher About A Killer Wielding Gardening Shears

Another 1980s slasher horror set in the woods is The Burning, a killer-in-the-woods story now considered to be a cult classic due to its cast, pacing, and Tom Savini’s marvelous makeup effects. The cast includes pre-fame Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander as two members of the typically ill-fated summer camp adolescents. They and their friends run afoul of the local legendary murderer, Cropsy, who kills his victims with super-sharp gardening shears.

The Burning makes good use of its outdoor setting and provides genre fans with an entertaining take on the early 80s slasher formula with plenty of gore. When it was released, it did garner complaints that it was too much like Friday the 13th thanks to its setting in the woods with summer campers as well as the addition of Savini for its effects. However, it has since become a cult classic and critics looking back on it seem to appreciate the horror movie as one that stands on its own merits.

11 The Last House On The Left (1972)

Wes Craven’s Grindhouse Classic That The UK Banned

Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left is a disturbing and effective horror movie, and one that makes great use of the remoteness of woodland settings. The story sees two teenage girls kidnapped by a group of sadistic killers, with the parents of one of the girls seeking bloody revenge. A remake of the Ingmar Bergman movie The Virgin Spring​​​​​​, The Last House On The Left gained notoriety in drive-in and Grindhouse theaters thanks to the overt brutality and extreme violence.

The Last House on the Left was controversial upon release and even banned in the UK for decades due to its content, particularly the murder scenes in the woods. To this day, it still remains a polarizing horror movie for viewers. While it is easy to see why Wes Craven became a famed horror director, he took the more nuanced Bergman movie and created something that stands alongside other video nasties of the 70s and 80s thanks to its gratuitous violence and disturbing storyline.