road trip slasher movies

45 Road Trip Horror Movies

What all scary movies about road trips have in common is that they are about the fear of the unknown.

Table of Contents

There are a few different kinds of road trip horror movies. There are films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) that begin with the characters on a road trip, but the bulk of the horror in the film comes from the dark place they have discovered. In other road trip horror movies such as The Hitcher (1986), the horror comes directly from the open road. There are also films such as Hostel (2005) and An American Werewolf In London (1981) that fall into other categories such as travel horror and hotel horror movies . This list will discuss both types of road trip horror movies and where possible will note how much of an impact the road trip setting has on the film as a whole.

What all scary movies about road trips have in common is that they are about the fear of the unknown. This is in contrast to other films horror movie fans love such as The Exorcist (1973), Halloween (1978), and Scream (1996), where a demon or serial killer stalks a familiar suburb. Those movies play on insecurities about danger lurking in “safe” surroundings. We expect to encounter danger when we travel, and many people even plan ahead or take precautions so they aren’t stranded in a sundown town or targeted by predators looking for women traveling alone.

Classic/Old Road Trip Horror Movies

The hitch-hiker (1953).

A crime film noir by the most prominent female filmmaker of the 1950s, Ida Lupino. The Hitch-Hiker follows Roy and Gilbert as they set off from southern California toward a fishing trip in Mexico. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker who then takes out a gun and holds the two friends hostage. The hitchhiker savagely forces one of the friends to shoot a tin can out of the other’s hand and tortures the men, even forcing them to continue with him on foot when their vehicle breaks down.

Psycho (1960)

Psycho begins with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stealing $40,000 from her employer and driving from Phoenix to California. Along the way she stops at a roadside motel called the Bates Motel, where she meets the proprietor Norman Bates. It is at the Bates Motel where Marion is murdered in the famous shower scene.

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Night of the Living Dead starts off with a sibling road trip to a rural cemetery in Evans City, Pennsylvania. Johnny and Barbara plan to visit their father’s grave but instead encounter a zombie that kills Johnny. Barbara flees the cemetery and takes shelter in a nearby farmhouse, where she is joined by other survivors including Ben, who takes the lead in securing the farmhouse against the zombies.

Duel (1971)

This is an action thriller that was Steven Spielberg’s feature debut. It follows David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a salesman driving through the desolation of the Mojave Desert. He encounters a tanker truck that begins to dangerously antagonize him on the open road.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A classic road-trip-gone-wrong horror movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre begins with a group of friends driving their van through Texas to check on the grave of Sally and Franklin Hardesty’s grandfather, which is said to have been vandalized. Along the way they pick up a frightening hitchhiker who leads the group to his “whole family of vampires.” Bookending this road-trip horror movie is the famous final scene of TCM in which Sally becomes a hitchhiker and rides away in the back of a truck, screaming.

Race With the Devil (1975)

Race With the Devil is an action horror movie about two couples traveling from San Antonio, TX to Aspen, CO in an RV for a ski vacation. While camping along the way in Texas, the group witnesses a Satanic sacrifice. The Satanists then chase them down as the group struggles to make it to Amarillo to get help and report the crime.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Written and directed by horror master Wes Craven , The Hills Have Eyes follows the Carter family as they take a road trip to Los Angeles. In Nevada, the family crashes and their dog runs off and is found mutilated. The group learns that there is a family of cannibalistic psychopaths who live in the hills and cannibalize travelers as they pass through the area.

Tourist Trap (1979)

A group of friends traveling through the desert get stranded at a malevolent tourist trap in this supernatural slasher movie. While the proprietor “helps” the gang with one of their vehicles, the group explores a waxwork museum and one of the girls is strangled by an unseen entity and turned into a mannequin. The rest of the group tries to outsmart a masked killer and mannequins that come alive to find their way back to the highway and survive.

Motel Hell (1980)

Motel Hell is a low-budget horror comedy about a sadistic family of cannibals who operate “Motel Hello.” Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida trap motorists to harvest them and sell human meat at their motel. When Farmer Vincent kills a woman’s boyfriend, she recovers at the hotel and eventually agrees to marry him.

Road Games (1981)

Pat Quaid (Stacy Keach) is a truck driver in the Australian outback who is suspicious of a van driver he encounters and believes they may be the serial killer who has been preying on hitchhikers. Quaid picks up a hitchhiker named Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis), and the two discuss the serial killer. When the two are separated, the truck driver isn’t sure if Pamela got another ride willingly or if she is the killer’s latest victim.

Death Valley (1982)

A woman, her new boyfriend, and her son Billy are driving through Death Valley on their way to Arizona. Billy takes a frog pendant when he stumbles across a camper that belongs to cowboy serial killer twins while stretching his legs. The killers then chase the family through the desert.

Children Of The Corn (1984)

Vicky and Burt are driving through Nebraska on their way to Seattle when they hit a child who has run into the road; they seek help in a town called Gatlin. They find that the town has been abandoned for three years and is now run by a cult of creepy children . Led by a boy named Isaac, the children worship a corn god they call He Who Walks Behind the Rows.

The Hitcher (1986)

The Hitcher is a road thriller and a cult classic about a man named Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) who is driving a car from Chicago to San Diego. Bored on the long road trip, he picks up a hitchhiker in West Texas. The hitcher (Rutger Hauer) says his name is John Ryder and pulls out a knife before threatening Jim in a very memorable scene. Jim is able to force the hitcher out of his car, and a cat-and-mouse game ensues. The Hitcher was remade in 2007.

Near Dark (1987)

A young vampire turns a small town-boy named Caleb into a vampire at the end of a steamy date. She belongs to a drifter coven of vampires led by the violent Severin (Bill Paxton). Caleb must prove that he can belong, or the coven will kill him.

Cohen and Tate (1988)

A nine-year-old boy named Travis Knight has to turn his kidnappers (Cohen and Tate, the title characters) against each other as they hold him hostage on a road trip. Travis is in the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a mob hit. His kidnappers murder his parents before driving him from Oklahoma to their boss in Texas.

The Vanishing (1988)

A woman disappears at a gas station during a road trip with her boyfriend. For three years he searches relentlessly for her, even appearing on TV to appeal to her kidnapper. Finally the kidnapper makes contact and says he will reveal the missing woman’s fate, but only if her boyfriend will agree to experience the answer firsthand.

Midnight Ride (1990)

An action thriller about a housewife named Lara (Savina Gersak) who leaves her cop husband, Lawson (Michael Dudikoff). One the road to a friend’s house, Lara takes pity on a hitchhiker named Justin (Mark Hamill) and picks him up. It turns out Justin is a seriously disturbed man in the midst of a murder spree. The misogynistic moral of Midnight Ride is that Lara was safer at home in an unhappy marriage than as an autonomous woman out in the world.

Highway To Hell (1991)

Highway to Hell is a B-movie horror comedy about a young couple, Charlie Sykes (Chad Lowe) and Rachel Clark (Kristy Swanson), who take a road trip to elope in Las Vegas. While taking a back road, Rachel is kidnapped and taken to hell to be the bride of Satan. A gas station attendant gives Charlie a special gun and car so that he can go to hell and rescue his fiancée.

Kalifornia (1993)

A road thriller with an all-star cast of Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, and Michelle Forbes. Duchovny plays a journalist on the road with his girlfriend (Forbes) to research serial killers. The couple pick up a pair of hitchhikers (Pitt and Lewis), who turn out to be pretty demented.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Another cult classic with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino playing fugitive brothers on the run from the law. They kidnap a family traveling in an RV and force them to smuggle the brothers into Mexico. There, they stumble upon a strip club run by vampires led by everyone’s favorite female horror villain , Salma Hayek as Santanico Pandemonium.

Breakdown (1997)

Jeff (Kurt Russell) and Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) are on a cross-country road trip from Boston to San Diego when they almost get in an accident with another driver. Road rage ensues at a nearby gas station and after getting back on the road, their car breaks down. Jeff realizes their vehicle was tampered with, but not before Amy disappears.

New Road Trip Horror Movies

Jeepers creepers (2001).

Inspired by a true story shown on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries , Trish and Darry Jenner are a brother and sister traveling home from college on a road trip when they have a creepy encounter with the driver of a dilapidated old truck. Later, they happen upon the driver and it looks like he is disposing bodies into a pipe. The siblings decide to investigate and learn that they have indeed stumbled upon a supernatural killer. Unfortunately, the killer notices the two poking around and becomes intent on chasing them down.

Joy Ride (2001)

Brothers Lewis (Paul Walker) and Fuller (Steve Zahn) Thomas are driving from Salt Lake City home to their parents. To make the road trip more interesting, Fuller installs a CB radio in the car, and the two play a cruel prank on a trucker who goes by the name “Rusty Nail” before picking up Lewis’s crush, Venna (Leelee Sobieski), in Colorado. The brothers learn that they messed with the wrong trucker when Rusty Nail comes after them and reveals he has kidnapped Venna’s friend Charlotte.

Say Yes (2001)

A South Korean thriller about a married couple who pick up a hitchhiker. When the hitchhiker turns violent, a cat-and-mouse game ensues. Eventually the hitchhiker forces the couple to choose between safety and each other.

Dead End (2003)

A horror movie about a family driving together on Christmas Eve who take a shortcut through the woods. The shortcut takes them on a never-ending road. They meet a woman in white with a baby and attempt to give her a ride to a nearby house. It’s not until the family separates that she reveals the baby she is carrying is actually dead.

High Tension (2003)

Marie and Alex are best friends who take a road trip to visit Alex’s parents at their rural farm. When a mysterious stranger arrives and kills Alex’s family, Marie evades the killer by making it it seem like the guest bedroom was empty. The intruder then kidnaps Alex, and Marie gives chase and tries to rescue her friend.

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

A group of friends take a road trip on Halloween eve hoping to write a book about creepy roadside attractions. The gang is lured to the Firefly residence by Baby Firefly posing as a hitchhiker. They are treated to a Halloween show by the family before the real show begins.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

The main premonition in Final Destination 2 takes place at the beginning of a road trip undertaken by Kimberly Corman and her friends on spring break. When Kimberly is meant to pull onto the highway, she has a premonition of a gruesome multi-car wreck and instead exits her vehicle, blocking those behind her from being involved in the accident. As in the first Final Destination film, Death then comes back around for the survivors of the would-be pileup.

Wrong Turn (2003)

Wrong Turn is a slasher film following two groups of people who were on a road trip and end up stranded on a West Virginia back road. Medical student Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington) and a group of friends including Jessie Burlingame (Eliza Dushku) figure out that they’ve been sabotaged and are being hunted down by a group of inbred mountain people. Together the group tries to outsmart the skilled hunters and make it back to civilization. Wrong Turn is very loosely based on the “true story” Sawney Bean.

Wolf Creek (2005)

Based on a true story, Wolf Creek follows three travelers on a road trip across the Australian Outback. After stopping at the Wolf Creek Crater, the site of an ancient meteorite impact, the trio returns to their car to find the battery dead. A local stranger appears in the darkness to offer his free help, and it turns out he is a sadistic psychopath who drugs and tortures his prey.

Rest Stop (2006)

A direct-to-video horror movie about a couple, Jesse (Joey Mendicino) and Nicole (Jaimie Alexander), on a road trip. When Nicole goes inside a rest stop she comes out to find Jesse has disappeared. Nicole and a truck driver play a game of cat and mouse as he terrorizes Nicole at the rest stop and taunts her with evidence of Jesse being tortured.

Death Proof (2007)

Quentin Tarantino’s exploitation slasher film follows a stunt man who murders women with his “death proof” cars. Kurt Russell stars as the killer and Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Tracie Thoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Zoë Bell are his prey. Death Proof was originally part of the exploitation thriller Grind House (2007) but was released for horror fans as its own film.

The Hitcher (2007)

A remake of the 1986 movie, this version follows a couple of college students, Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush), driving in New Mexico on their way to spring break. They pick up a hitchhiker (Sean Bean) who turns out to be a sadistic murderer who hunts the duo down, even after they are able to literally kick him out of their car. Deciding to continue with their trip, the couple then finds the hitchhiker in a family’s vehicle they pass, knowing he plans for the family to be his next targets.

Vacancy (2007)

A bickering couple, David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox (Kate Beckinsale), on a road trip to a family party experience car trouble and decide to pull into a roadside motel for the night. Once inside, they discover snuff films in the hotel room’s VHS collection that appear to have been made in that very room. When the couple tries to escape, masked men appear outside and the couple realizes that they are trapped in a snuff film of their own.

Windchill (2007)

Two college students (Ashton Holmes and Emily Blunt) share a ride home from school on a holiday break. When car breaks down in a snowy and isolated area, the students worry about their safety. However, the appearance of other spirits who have lost their lives on the road appear and make the situation much more terrifying.

Splinter (2008)

Seth Belzer and Polly Watt are on their way to a romantic camping trip in Oklahoma when they are carjacked by an escaped convict and his girlfriend. At a gas station, the convict’s girlfriend discovers the body of the attendant after an attack from a splinter-covered animal who then appears and attacks her. The girlfriend becomes a reanimated splinter creature herself and attacks her friends.

The Human Centipede (2009)

The Human Centipede is a hellish nightmare about the absolute worst-case scenario of a road trip. Two American tourists in Germany, Lindsay and Jenny, get a flat tire and seek help at a nearby home. The house happens to be owned by a demented German surgeon named Josef Heiter who drugs them. When they wake up, Lindsay and Jenny enter a horrifying waking nightmare where they are transformed, with another victim, into a human centipede.

The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

The Cabin in the Woods begins as a college road trip movie with a group of friends on their way to a remote cabin. When they discover the cabin is in the middle of zombie-infested woods, the friends return to their RV and unsuccessfully attempt to outrun the zombie villains . The climax of the film takes place in an underground office building/warehouse for monsters.

Crowsnest (2012)

A particularly scary found footage film about a group of five friends on a road trip who stumble across an RV filled with nomadic cannibals. When they realize they are in over their heads, the friends try to escape. Unfortunately the RV dwellers seem to be all-knowing and remain one step ahead of the friends as they try to get back to civilization.

Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

A disaster horror movie that follows three Americans traveling through Europe. While visiting a family member in Ukraine, the group is convinced to take a detour to visit Pripyat, a ghost town that was made uninhabitable by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Alone with a tour guide and another couple, the group gets stranded overnight and discover they are not alone in the abandoned village.

The Houses October Built (2014)

Another found-footage horror movie about a group of friends traveling the country in search of the ultimate haunted house attraction, “Blue Skeleton.” When they ask too many questions about underground haunts, the group begins to be stalked. The group isn’t sure if they’ve found what they are looking for or if they are in serious peril.

Road Games (2015)

Road Games is a scary and violent British-French mystery thriller about a British hitchhiker named Jack who meets a French hitchhiker named Véronique. The two decide to travel together for safety as there is a serial killer on the loose in the area. A man named Grizard stops and offers the two a ride and upon learning Jack is English, invites them to dinner to meet his English wife. After dinner, Grizard is reluctant to let the couple go and insists they spend the night.

Southbound (2015)

Southbound is a horror anthology that takes place mostly on the open desert road. The five interwoven stories deal with men on the run from the law (and supernatural monsters), traveling musicians, a brother searching for his missing sister, and a family on vacation. Viewers have compared the anthology to old pulp horror like episodes of Tales from the Crypt .

The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)

The long-awaited sequel to The Strangers (2008) takes place in a mostly empty mobile home park during the off season. This is a fun twist on the home invasion subgenre where the characters don’t have a fortress-like home to retreat to. Instead, the targeted family run through mobile homes, cars, and open parks as they are chased by The Strangers.

Alone (2020)

Jessica is a single woman traveling alone, trying to deal with her husband’s recent death by suicide. On the road, she keeps encountering a strange man whose attention she rebuffs. When Jessica is in a car accident (due to her vehicle being sabotaged), the man abducts her and holds her hostage at his cabin where he reveals she is not the first woman he has abducted.

No Exit (2022)

Darby Thorne runs away from rehab to drive to Salt Lake City and see her mother, who is on her deathbed. While en route, she is warned that a massive winter storm is imminent and she must take cover at a nearby rest stop. Inside, she meets two men and a married couple who are also waiting out the storm. Outside, she finds a kidnapped girl in a van who says her kidnapper is inside the building.

Bones and All (2022)

Bones and All is a romantic horror road film about a young cannibal, Maren (Taylor Russell), who is abandoned by her father. On the road she meets another cannibal, Lee (Timothée Chalamet), and the two fall in love as they cross the country and attempt to figure out what a life together could look like.

Meet The Author

Chrissy Stockton

Chrissy is the co-founder of Creepy Catalog. She has over 10 years of experience writing about horror, a degree in philosophy and Reiki level II certification.

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10 Terrifying Road Trip Horror Movies

Some of the least-appreciated horror movies are those that take place on the road.

The horror genre is one of the most expansive genres in film. Humans are frightened or disturbed by such a wide variety of elements that gives horror filmmakers much to work with. Sure, many horror films set out simply to scare their viewers in the moment, but a horror film has the ability to affect the viewer long after the movie has finished. Horror can be fascinating because it explores what scares us, why something scares us, and the reasons why some people like to incite fear. There are numerous subgenres of horror that explore these themes differently, such as slasher movies or movies about cults.

The horror genre does indeed cover many forms of horror, but one of the lesser-appreciated horror movie types would be those that take place on the road. Road trips perhaps initially do not come across as something that would instill fear or terror in a person. Most of us get in a car almost every day whether it is to travel short or long distances. We may subconsciously think about the risks of getting in the car, but most of us are not actively thinking about getting into an accident.

When traveling long distances, many people will opt to drive to their destination rather than fly because it is typically cheaper or because they have a fear of flying. Most of us can admit, however, it is a bit eerie to be driving through a rural part of the country we're unfamiliar with. The fear of the unknown is something that horror movies feed into and when we're on the road, we don't truly know what we may encounter. Here are ten terrifying road trip horror movies that will make you think twice about getting into a car:

Related: 10 Slasher Horror Movies with Perfect Killer Reveals

10 Road Games (1981)

Set in the open roads of the Australian outback, Road Games follows a laid-back American truck driver named Pat Quid (Stacy Keach) who is driving across southern Australia and suspects that the driver of a green van may be killing young women along his route. Convinced that he is witnessing a serial killer in action after his latest hitchhiker Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis) disappears, Pat embarks on a quest to stop the driver, causing a cat-and-mouse game between the two to ensue. While the movie overall may not be considered scary by seasoned horror fans, the concept of being captured and murdered while traveling on the road is quite terrifying. There is a reason we are all warned about the dangers of hitchhiking, especially while alone, and this movie is sure to make anyone reconsider their hitchhiking plans.

9 Race with the Devil (1975)

Starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates, this '70s action horror film follows two couples vacationing together in an RV on a road trip from Texas to Colorado. During a camping stop in Texas, both couples witness a horrific Satanic ritual that results in murder. After witnessing the brutal act, the Satanists make it their mission to chase down the four friends, and they find themselves terrorized by the cult members. Race with the Devil plays into the idea of not knowing what you may find while on the road. These couples were looking forward to an idyllic ski vacation in the Colorado mountains and wound up in a fight for their lives against a murderous cult bent on hiding any evidence of their crimes.

8 Final Destination 2 (2003)

There are not many films that have traumatized the millennial and Gen Z generations the way the Final Destination franchise has. Tanning beds, roller coasters, laser eye surgery, and elevators are just a few of the things that this franchise has made people terrified of over the years.

In Final Destination 2 , Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) is driving herself and her friends to Daytona Beach for spring break. As she is about to get onto the highway, Kimberly has a premonition about a multi-car pile up that would have taken place if she didn't block traffic. Horrified when the accident happens anyway, she makes a connection with her premonition and the Flight 180 crash that happened exactly one year prior. She discovers that Death's pattern has been disrupted, and now she and the other supposed car crash victims will die in separate freak accidents. This sequel features some of the most horrifically gory deaths in the franchise, including the infamous log truck scene, and plenty of vehicle explosions and malfunctions. It is definitely not a movie anyone would want to watch right before a road trip.

7 Wrong Turn (2003)

Two groups of people on two separate road trips are left stranded deeps in the woods of West Virginia after they crash into each other on a quiet back road. As they venture deeper into the woods, the unlikely group find themselves facing a bloodcurdling fate.

Wrong Turn is a slasher film that is very loosely based on the supposedly "true" story of a Scottish cannibal named Sawney Bean. After the two groups join forces, they realize that each of their road trips have been sabotaged at the hands of sinister inbreds living deep within the mountains. The group tries to outsmart the skilled hunters in order to make it back to civilization after three of the mountain men show up to the cabin they thought was abandoned with the bodies of their friends. Wrong Turn is terrifying simply because the events are plausible. Anyone can become stranded in the woods or on rural back roads without another way of getting out. There really are people out there who live secluded from the rest of us that, to a lesser extent, may behave like this.

6 Children of the Corn (1984)

Based on the book by literary horror master Stephen King , Children of the Corn will leave you a nervous wreck the next time you are around children. Vicky (Linda Hamilton) and Burt Peter Horton) are a young couple on their way to Seattle when they drive through the small town of Gatlin, Nebraska and accidentally hit a child with their car. They seek out help, so they can report the accident, but discover that the town has been abandoned for over three years. Now, it is run by a cult of religious children who believe that anyone over the age of 18 must die. Lead by boy preacher Isaac (John Franklin), the disturbing children worship a corn god they refer to as He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The special effects may be outdated almost 40 years later, but it will make you weary of two things: young children and getting stuck in a small town you have never heard of before.

Related: The 10 Best Horror Movies Based on Short Stories

5 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Nearly 50 years after its release, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the most notable horror franchises in existence and Leatherface has become an iconic slasher villain. The original film begins with a group of friends in the mid-70s traveling through rural Texas in a van to check on the grave of Sally's (Marilyn Burns) grandfather. The friends pick up a rather strange hitchhiker along the way who proves to be sinister. After stopping at a roadside gas station for some food, the teenagers find themselves in the secluded home of a family of ritualistic cannibals who force them into a never-ending nightmare of blood and violence.

TTCSM shows the dark consequences of picking up strangers on the road and what can happen if you stop to rest at a random, seemingly abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. The film's infamous final shot shows Sally, now a hitchhiker herself, in the back of a stranger's pickup truck laughing manically as she's covered in blood after escaping the freakish Leatherface.

4 Near Dark (1987)

Directed by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark is a vampire thriller that features a young drifter who belongs to a coven of nomadic vampires. At the end of a date, Mae (Jenny Wright) turns mid-western farm boy Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) into a bloodsucking vampire who now must prove himself to her coven or be killed. Led by the merciless Severin (Bill Paxton), the group of vampires roam the highways at night in stolen cars and wreak havoc on roadside bars and taverns. The film infuses classic western themes with vampire storytelling to create wild horror film that takes the viewer on an endless nightmare of a road trip.

3 The Hitcher (1986)

Yet another horror movie that should discourage anyone from hitchhiking, The Hitcher stars C. Thomas Howell as Jim Halsey, a young man driving from Chicago to San Diego. Bored during his trip, he picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) in West Texas. Almost immediately after introducing himself, John pulls a knife on Jim and threatens him before Jim is able to forcibly remove him from his car. Jim is then relentlessly pursued by John who frames Jim for a string of murders he committed.

The Hitcher leans more toward a thriller than a straight-up horror movie, but the concept is still horrifying. Being hunted down by an actual serial killer while on the run from law enforcement that believe you are actually the criminal is an awful situation that absolutely no one would want to find themselves in.

Ti West's incredibly popular slasher breakout X pays homage to the slashers and horror films that came before it while also creating something completely unique . The A24 film draws similarities to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with its rural Texas setting and group of young friends on a long road-trip. They even stay at a farm house property that is similar to the property in TTCSM . The similarities start to dissipate as the group starts to interact with their hosts, and it becomes more apparent that this gruesome elderly couple is up to no good. The youngsters are in town to film a rather graphic adult film, and their aging hosts simply can't handle it. Fueled by pure jealousy and envy that they are no longer young and attractive, the couple wages war on the filmmakers. Things would have gone a lot smoother if they perhaps filmed at a hotel rather than a pair of stranger's farm house.

1 The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Possibly the ultimate road trip horror movie, horror icon Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes follows the Carter family on a road trip in an RV on the way to California. The family accidentally passes through an air testing zone that is closed off to the public, resulting in them being stranded out in the Nevada desert. When their dog runs off and doesn't come back, the Carters meet a deranged family of cannibals who live in the deserted desert hills. The Carters are subjected to pain and suffering at the hands of these psychopathic recluses who have not immersed themselves in modern society.

Similar to Wrong Turn , The Hills Have Eyes is frightening because the events that take place in the film, while unlikely, are still plausible. There are few things more nerve-wracking than being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of escaping. Mix in the addition of sinister cannibals and you have a concoction made for nightmares.

The Road Less Traveled: 15 Road Trip Horror Movies You Maybe Haven’t Seen

Unsuspecting drivers and passengers in horror movies can count themselves lucky if they only experience bad food and boredom during road trips. The itineraries or routes may vary, but one thing is for certain: these long, lonely stretches of asphalt and concrete can lead to terrible things.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , The Hitcher , and Wrong Turn have all shown audiences the perils of driving in unfamiliar territory. However, the following less-seen movies do just the same. And, each one will surely drive viewers to an early grave…

Midnight Ride (1990)

Mark Hamill is unforgettable as the deranged villain in this 1990 thriller. His devilish laugh is good practice for his forthcoming role as the Joker. The movie begins with an unhappy wife (Savina Gersak) leaving her cop husband (Michael Dudikoff) after feeling he loves his job more than her. She soon crosses paths with Hamill’s character, a deceptively harmless hitchhiker, while driving towards a new life. In due time, the passenger reveals his true, murderous colors. It’s up to the woman’s husband to save her before they reach a dead end. 

Not a lot of logical choices to be found here, but it’s clear Hamill is having a blast playing a bad guy. Although Dudikoff is best known for his action and martial arts roles, he spends more time here playing the spree killer’s punching bag.

Say Yes (2001)

An unaware couple makes a regretful choice in this bloody South Korean suspenser.

To celebrate Jung-hyun’s (Ju-hyuk Kim) manuscript being published, he and his wife Yoon-hee (Sang-mi Chu) go on a weekend trip together. Along the way, they pick up a strange man, simply named “M” (Joong-hoon Park), in need of a ride. As expected, the traveler means harm to anyone who offers him a lift.

Blood Salvage (1990)

A family traveling by RV falls victim to Jake (Danny Nelson), a backcountry madman who abducts people off the highway so he can harvest their organs for the black market. He almost gets away with it when he takes the Evans family, but the daughter, April (Lori Birdsong), proves she’s more determined to live than Jake ever expected.

Blood Salvage is a straight-to-video nasty that goes by the name of Mad Jake in other territories. The Evans patriarch is played by John Saxon, and boxer Evander Holyfield not only has a part in the movie, he’s also the executive producer.

Reeker (2005)

If there was ever a modern slasher in need of a sensory gimmick, it’s Dave Payne’s Reeker . The first in a duology of movies cleverly remixes well-known tropes while also delivering a game changer of an ending. Don’t be fooled by the simple premise as things are not what they seem.

It all starts out familiarly enough: college students heading for a desert rave are forced to hang back at a motel after experiencing car trouble. There, they’re then attacked by a mysterious killer whose presence is signaled by a foul smell of decay.

The Locals (2003)

Compared to other parts of the Western world, New Zealand isn’t as prolific when it comes to horror movies. What they do make, ends up being rather memorable. Case in point: Greg Page crafts a touching story about the power of friendship and how far one will go to uphold it.

In Page’s director’s debut film, Paul (Dwayne Cameron) helps his friend Grant (Johnny Barker) get over a breakup by taking him on a road trip. As night falls, the pair gets lost in the countryside. It’s there they meet two women and a gang of aggressive locals. Escaping this rural hell will be near impossible.

Criminal Lovers (1999)

Another precursor to the New French Extremity movement, this transgressive film follows two teenagers covering up a vicious crime. After Alice (Natacha Régnier) and Luc (Jérémie Renier) kill a classmate, they travel to the deep woods to get rid of the evidence. They end up being captured by a hunter living nearby; he plans on eating them both. As Alice remains chained up down in the basement, Luc conceives a plan to escape their captor.

François Ozon pens a psychosexual reimagining of “Hansel and Gretel” that often borders on sex-negative, but this skewed coming-of-age story is undeniably compelling.

Evidence (2013)

A group of strangers, traveling by bus to Las Vegas, is stranded at an abandoned gas station. As they wait for help, they are picked off by a killer wearing a welding mask and armed with a cutting torch. All that’s left behind from the massacre is footage recorded by one of the victims. With the culprit still at large, two detectives, Daniel (Stephen Moyer) and Alex (Radha Mitchell), sort through the video.

Evidence was generally panned back when it came out, but it’s a functional thriller that combines multiple horror subgenres — found-footage, procedural drama, slasher — and provides a cunning twist ending.

Black Cadillac (2003)

A pair of brothers and their friend are having one last hurrah on a snowy, Midwestern night before going their separate ways. When C.J. (Josh Hammond) makes trouble at a rural bar, he, Scott (Shane Johnson), and Robby (Jason Dohring) drive away into the night without realizing they’re being followed. They unexpectedly pick up a stranded cop (Randy Quaid) before engaging with the threatening driver who has been tailing them.

Although the three main characters are pursued by the film’s ominous namesake, the more pressing threat appears to be the young men’s inability to be honest with one another.

Midsummer (2003)

A high school graduate, Christian (Kristian Leth), is haunted in more ways than one after his younger sister Sofie (Lykke Sand Michelsen) dies of suicide. Despite how Christian and his friends feel right then, they all agree to fulfill their annual tradition of driving to a Swedish cabin to celebrate midsummer. There, bizarre things happen that lead Christian to believe Sofie is still with them.

The Danish Midsummer is a somber slow burn with a rewarding and cathartic ending. It was remade in English as Solstice in 2008.

Far From Home (1989)

One look at the poster for Far From Home and someone might expect a romantic teen movie. On the contrary, this is a low-key horror movie where young Drew Barrymore is stalked by a trailer park slasher. Not to overlook any valid criticisms there are about fourteen-year-old Barrymore’s scandalous depiction, but the film sports colorful characterization and an ideally creepy setting.

On the eve of her fourteen birthday, Barrymore’s character, Joleen, and her divorced father Charlie (Matt Frewer) are returning from vacation when they’re suddenly stranded in a podunk. As they wait out their car troubles in a trailer park, an unseen murderer lurks nearby.

Detour (2009)

This Norwegian survival-horror, originally titled Snarveien , plays like a faster-paced Vacancy . Couple Lina (Marte Germaine Christensen) and Martin (Sondre Krogtoft Larsen) are driving back to Norway when they’re advised by a cop to take a detour through the dark Swedish forest. By doing so, they become exposed to a family of local voyeurs with a depraved hobby.

With its brisk runtime, Detour cuts right to the chase. Typically bucolic scenery is transformed into one’s greatest nightmare.

Night of Fear (1972)

In the anticipation of Australia’s budding horror renaissance, short film Night of Fear predates similar movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . This fifty-minute movie lacks dialogue or character names, and it actually began as a television pilot.

A nameless woman, driving home from a tennis match, is accidentally run off the road. After her totaled car is detected by a sadistic hermit living in the adjacent woods, she’s taken back to his home and tortured.

Husk (2011)

A solid companion piece for the 1988 hidden gem Scarecrows , Husk features friends driving through Nebraska when their SUV is unexpectedly wrecked. While the party wanders across a nearby cornfield in search of help, they are besieged by sentient scarecrows. 

What the movie lacks in comprehension, it makes up for in pace and eeriness. Husk is based on Brett Simmons’ short of the same name; the director has gone on to make other horrors like The Monkey’s Paw and You Might Be the Killer .

Penny Dreadful (2006)

Named after but otherwise having nothing to do with cheap, serialized 19th-century literature, Penny Dreadful concerns a young woman with a debilitating aversion to cars. As part of her treatment, Penny (Rachel Miner) and her therapist (Mimi Rogers) drive to a resort in the mountains. They come across a hitchhiker who later turns out to be dangerous. With the therapist out looking for help, Penny hides in the car as the hitcher torments her from outside.

Even with a limited cast and location, this is no penniless horror movie. The tension is palpable, and the fear is overwhelming.

Highwaymen (2004)

Rennie (Jim Caviezel) has embarked on a harrowing road trip, but not one of leisure. He is tracking the man (Colm Feore) who wantonly ran down his late wife. In his journey, Rennie comes to the aid of motorphobic Mollie (Rhona Mitra), the killer’s next target.

Director Robert Harmon ( The Hitcher ) hits the road again with Highwaymen , a high-speed thriller. It’s a vengeance tale that never eases up on the brakes.

Paul Lê is a Texas-based, Tomato approved critic at Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central, and Tales from the Paulside.

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The Women of Carrie – Revisiting Stephen King’s Landmark Horror Novel Fifty Years Later

For decades, Stephen King has been known as the Master of Horror. By now the prolific Maine author is a household name, known to genre fans and normies alike. He’s a central pillar of American folk horror and a major contributor to the modernization of genre fiction. But fifty years ago, Stephen King was a struggling writer hoping to sell his latest story to pay grocery bills and keep the lights on. In fact, notification that Doubleday would be publishing his first novel came via telegram because the Kings had recently disconnected the phone. That novel was Carrie , a shocking story of teenage power and adolescent cruelty. Like a cannonball tearing through the status quo, King would follow this impressive debut with the horror classics Salem’s Lot (1975) , The Shining (1977) , and The Stand (1978) followed by more than seventy (and counting) novels, short story collections, and nonfiction works, dominating horror fiction for the next fifty years. But before it all came Carrie . At just shy of 250 pages, this semi-epistolary book sparked a literary fire that has been raging for half a century. 

By now Carrie White’s story has become an integral part of modern American folklore. The titular teen is an outcast, picked on by just about everyone at Thomas Ewen Consolidated High School. Her ultra-religious mother has hidden the concept of menstruation from her daughter and Carrie believes she is bleeding to death when she gets her first period after gym class. Horrified by this breach of unspoken protocol, her classmates hurl sanitary products and demeaning chants while Carrie lies screaming and bleeding on the shower room floor. To atone for her participation, soon-to-be prom queen Sue Snell gives Carrie the chance to attend the spring ball in her place. Unfortunately the vindictive Chris Hargensen refuses to allow her a moment of peace. She organizes a plot to drop pig’s blood on Carrie’s head the moment she’s crowned queen of the dance, completing her ruination for all to see. Humiliated for the last time, Carrie unleashes her righteous fury on the laughing students and causes an electrical fire that demolishes the school. She then destroys half the town on her journey home to reckon with her abusive mother. 

When most people think of Carrie , they see Sissy Spacek covered in blood with wide, terrifying eyes darting towards her victims. Others may remember Piper Laurie dying in a doorway, a variety of kitchen cutlery protruding from her chest. However iconic these moments may be, reading King’s novel is an experience both intimate and immersive. This nuanced story not only details Carrie’s destructive power, but the horrors of conformity, repression, and religious abuse. King demonstrates his trademark characterization right out of the gate with complicated heroes and villains alike. Roving narration bounces from character to character broken up by epistolary writing like news briefs, excerpts from faux scholarly accounts, and interviews with the prom’s few survivors. This format adds emotional impact and intensity, showing the world’s reaction to Carrie’s awesome power while unpacking the hidden sparks that ignite her rage. 

Set in 1979, the novel has a distinctly retro feel. Characters indulge in complexion-busting dime root beers and “worry about the bomb,” references teens of today would likely not understand. But at the time of publication, Carrie felt impossibly fresh. Describing King’s impact on the literary world, author Jeff VanderMeer writes, “ Carrie changed the paradigm by announcing a very American form of horror that broke with the past. That process might’ve been ongoing anyway, but a lot of horror and weird fiction was still in a kind of post-MR James/Lovecraft mode of parchment and shadowy alleys and half-seen horrors, and here was King dropping buckets of blood over everything and making characterisation both more relaxed and more contemporary.” Carrie is a gruesome and violent story that digs into the heart of the American teen, placing life or death stakes on a phase of life usually dismissed as insignificant or frivolous. The students of Ewen High use crude slang, have sex in cars, and torment each other, exposing a slice of American life that feels unpretentious and real. 

This influential novel would precede a boom in teen horror as the slasher craze gathered steam. The year of Carrie ’s publication would also see the release of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre followed in 1978 by John Carpenter’s Halloween – films which also center teenage girls. While neither of these genre titans can be directly traced back to Carrie , King’s novel helped to kick off a new era that would center women and expose the horrors of feminine life. The opening scene of King’s literary career begins with a girl getting her first period and awakening a feral rage in her female classmates. Despite his insecurities about telling this story (King’s wife Tabitha famously offered to help him with the details), the author’s willingness to write about the secret lives of women in such frank and unapologetic terms laid the groundwork for generations of female-centered horror. 

Carrie follows not one, but five complex female characters all vying for the spotlight. King treats each as a fully realized character, expanding our collective understanding of who and what women can be. Margaret White is a religious zealot, the first of many to appear in King’s novels. She tortures Carrie with her distorted brand of Christianity and routinely locks her daughter in a closet to pray for hours and sometimes days at a time. Margaret White abhors femininity and believes sexuality to be the root of all evil. While her treatment of Carrie is horrific, she carries intense guilt for her own sexual past and refuses to tell Carrie about menstruation because she believes it to be a marker of sin. Margaret is a cruel and violent woman, arguably the novel’s true villain. But her extreme fundamentalist beliefs echo modern evangelical teachings about a woman’s limited place in the world. 

Also battling for villain status is Chris Hargensen, possibly the first literary mean girl. Rich, beautiful, and cruel, she lives a charmed life and has grown accustomed to getting whatever she wants. Finally held accountable for her actions, Chris hatches a violent plan to dehumanize Carrie in front of the whole school. We’ve become so accustomed to this iconic moment and the extent of its aftermath that we often miss the severity of the “prank.” Not only does Chris cause the deaths of two hogs, one of the buckets bludgeons Carrie’s date, arguably killing him before the distraught teen remembers she has powers. Chris Hargensen is the story’s most viscous character with no mental illness or history of trauma to explain her actions. Like horror’s many male villains, she is simply a monster, allowed to be bad because that’s just who she is. 

Her boyfriend Billy is equally vile. This shop class greaser comes from a volatile home and cares for nothing but his car and a comb given to him by his long-departed father. King gives us several upsetting scenes with this violent couple, writing about sexual assault, manipulation, degredation, and hate. Billy is the first in a long line of bullies including fan favorites Buddy Repperton ( Christine ), Henry Bowers ( It ), and Ace Merrill ( The Body , Needful Things ). While King’s first masculine monster may be fascinating, this is Chris’s story. Billy is an immovable force that Chris crashes against as she uses all the tools in her female arsenal to prove her dominance. 

This soulless mean girl stands in sharp contrast to the introspective Sue Snell, the story’s most relatable character. Destined to be prom queen, this college-bound beauty participates in the shower room prank, but her intense guilt ignites the destructive conclusion. As high school winds to a close, Sue contemplates her place in the world along with the weight and privilege of her popularity. She finds herself loathsome and dreads a pro-conceived future in which she follows breadcrumbs of conformity to achieve someone else’s definition of success. It’s in these sections where the novel soars well beyond prom night horrors. Sue doesn’t know if she’s a hero or villain and struggles for identity on her own terms. She’s a cautionary tale for young girls trying to find their own paths in life and a challenge to the cultural norms of feminine ambition. 

Serving as a counterpoint to Margaret White is Miss Desjardin, a gym teacher who attempts to help Carrie twelve years too late. She breaks up the shower room incident and becomes the first woman on earth to earnestly help Carrie heal. As a teacher, she has a responsibility to this frightened girl and steps into the role of surrogate mother. However, she remains blind to the breadth of Carrie’s situation and struggles with the same repulsion Sue and Chris feel when confronted by the girl’s helplessness. Miss Desjardin rages at her students on Carrie’s behalf, but where was this passion earlier in the year? Perhaps the young teacher is trying to atone for actions in her own past or alleviate her guilt at not having stepped in sooner. Regardless of motive, the well-meaning gym teacher is one piece of a system that has failed Carrie at every turn. By letting one child slip through the cracks, Miss Desjardin has played an unwitting role in the school’s total destruction. 

The novel may be named for Margaret White’s only daughter, but we meet this shy loner through the eyes of others. We’re introduced to Carrie as an outcast, a freak, and a telekinetic murderer before we get to know the girl inside this downtrodden shell. Despite repeated attempts to fit in, Carrie has been so mercilessly teased and abused that she barely sees herself as a person at all. Remembering the moment of her doomed coronation, a surviving classmate recalls, “It was as if we were watching a person rejoin the human race.” But this outward redemption is immediately stripped away, awakening a bottomless pit of rage that cannot be contained. 

King describes the horror of Carrie’s destruction before allowing us into the mind of this tortured teen. So used to cowering at the hands of her classmates, Carrie first stumbles out of the gym and collapses on the lawn. In a chilling moment, she remembers her recently discovered powers and turns back to make her tormentors pay. It’s a powerful example of a victimized girl taking a stand. Before her mind can catch up, Carrie’s body finds a way to fight back and overrides a deeply entrenched belief that she exists to pay for others’ sins. She reverses a lifetime of abuse and lays waste to a system built on pushing her down. It’s an intensely satisfying sequence and possibly the birth of Good For Her horror. 

King centers these five women in the story, adding occasional moments with male characters. Billy takes center stage for a brief moment, becoming monstrously beautiful in his calculated violence. Sue’s boyfriend Tommy is a loveable martyr always willing to lend a helping hand. Principal Grayle also gets a moment to shine when he goes toe to toe with Chris’s litigious father. Along with Miss Desjardin, he’s one of the only people we see fight for Carrie. This confrontation is simultaneously heartwarming and bittersweet, reminding us that hundreds of lives could have been saved if just one person had stepped in sooner. 

But the heart of King’s story lies with its complex women. While certainly not the first horror novel to take the experience of girlhood seriously, reading Carrie feels like the birth of a revolution. By centering menstruation, female sexuality, patriarchal expectations, and religious gender norms, King is writing about matriarchal horror and the price of feminine power. There are no winners in this story of bloody revenge. Nearly everyone loses their lives in Carrie’s righteous fire. But a cautionary tale is born in the flames. King implies that a world designed to repress and control will eventually fail. At some point, women like Carrie will take a stand and unleash the power of our feminine rage. We may cause untold death and destruction in the process, but perhaps Carrie’s right. Maybe a world built on the repression of girls deserves to burn.  

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Home » Roadside Attractions Blog » Uncategorized » The Best Road Trip Horror Movies

The Best Road Trip Horror Movies

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Road trips are conducive to a scary storyline. You’re often driving at night, driving in unfamiliar territories, or driving in the middle of nowhere. And so much can go wrong in any of those situations. You could make a wrong turn, run out of gas, get a flat tire. And your whole trip can derail from there, in more ways than one. It is no wonder that road trips serve as the basis for many horror films. There are a lot of road trip movies out there. But what are the best road trip horror movies?

What all of these movies have in common is that they start out with a simple vacation. Friends, family, or couples are taking a road trip. What could go wrong? The answer is plenty. Often more than you could ever imagine.

If you love a good road trip and a good scare, check out these road trip horror movies. But maybe wait until you return from your next trip.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977, 2006)

The houses october built (2014), joy ride (2001), southbound (2015), no vacancy (2014), dead end (2003), vacancy (2007), husk (2011), spree (2020), wrong turn (2003), house of 1,000 corpses (2003), kalifornia (1993), uncle peckerhead (2020), breakdown (1997).

• Penny Dreadful (2006)

Final Destination 2

• Midnight Ride (1990)

#Followme (2019)

House of wax (2005), the toybox (2018), death proof (2007).

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Highway to Hell (1991)

The hitcher (2007), duel (1971), pin this list of the the best road trip horror movies to save for later.

A family on their way to California ends up breaking down and stranded. Little do they know, they’ve parked themselves in a closed-off former nuclear-testing area where the only inhabitants are cannibalistic mutant monsters with a taste for human flesh.

This popular Wes Craven movie spawned a sequel in 1984 and a 2006 remake.

This found footage horror movie showing extreme Haunt road trip. A group of five friends hit the road in search of the best haunted houses in America. But they end up finding more scares than they hoped for.

College freshman Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker) buys a car to pick up his friend and crush Venna (Leelee Sobieski) on their way home for summer break. But plans go awry when his brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), convinces him to pull a prank over a car’s CB radio with deadly consequences.

In this anthology of interconnecting tales, different travelers journeys intertwine on the road with each other and demons: both the inner kind and external forces.

Seven friends on a road trip to Las Vegas get two flat tires in the middle of nowhere. On a search for help they come across a lone motel/bar/gas station where the owner and workers offer to help fix the car and put them up for the night. This helpful gesture turns sinister when, in the morning, the stranded road trippers are subjected to a gory game.

I family takes a shortcut on their way to Christmas Eve dinner at their relatives. They come across a strange woman on the side of the road, and thinking she is lost and hurt try to help her. From there they seem stuck in the woods and encounter horror after horror. But is everything really as it seems?

David and Amy Fox, a married couple on the verge of divorce, get lost while taking a shortcut on a drive home. An unexpected swerve to avoid a raccoon causes damage to their car and they end up stranded in the middle of nowhere. They happen upon a beat up old motel and have no choice but to stay the night. They find some videotapes in the room of gory amateur snuff films and quickly realize, these horrors were filmed in the very room they are staying in and, if they don’t act fast, they will be the next victims.

A group of friends on a road trip get stranded in Nebraska farmland after a flock of crows attacks their SUV, causing them to run off the road. The wade through the mysterious cornfields in search of help but instead find something more supernatural and sinister.

So Spree isn’t as much a road trip horror movie as it is a ride share horror movie. But most of the movie takes place in a car (which really you can’t even say about most road trip horror) so I’ll let it slide. Spree takes us on the murderous killing spree of a ride share driver sho is desparate to go viral online.

Jessie (Eliza Dushku) and a group of friends are road tripping through West Virginia. Car a flat tire stalls them on the side of a remote mountain road and they are stalled even more when motorist Chris (Desmond Harrington) crashes into them. On a quest to find help they run into a weird cabin in the middle of nowhere, and a horde of backwoods cannibals who begin to stalk and hunt the friends.

A couple of young couples are traveling the country in search of weird destinations to write about in a guidebook about offbeat roadside attractions. After a stop at Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen they set out to find more about the the local legend of a deranged serial-killer doctor. After getting a flat tire they run into hitchhiker Baby and a torturous night ensues.

Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) and his girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes) are working on a book about serial killers. To cut costs on their road trip to explore murder sites, they set up a ride share with strangers, Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend, Adele Corners (Juliette Lewis). But they soon learn that they didn’t have to travel far to find a killer.

A punk band goes on their first tour, but they need a van to get them around. They meet a strange man names Peckerhead who offers up his vehicle to drive them around. With no other options they accect the ride, but things get even stranger when they find out that the man is actually a man-eating demon

A married couple, Jeff (Kurt Russell) and Amy Taylor (Kathleen Quinlan, run into car trouble on a cross-country road trip. A passing truck driver offers to drive Amy to a nearby cafe to get help. After she leaves, Jeff fixes the car and drives to retrieve Amy, only for her to be nowhere to be found. He begins a frenzied search for Amy and finds lies, a coverup, and a strange hunt ahead.

Penny Dreadful  (2006)

Penny (Rachel Miner)’s therapist (Mimi Rogers) takes her on a road trip to confront her fears that stemmed from a childhood accident. But once up on a desolate mountain road, those fears come to confront her.

The movie that has every millennial changing lanes on the highway, this is still one of the best road trip horror movies ever made. On a road trip with friends, Kimberly (A. J. Cook) has a premonition of a horrible car accident to come. She blocks traffic, saving everyone who was supposed to die in the crash. But their fate catches up to them, one by one.

Midnight Ride  (1990)

A woman takes off on the road after leaving her cop husband. She picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a deranged killer intent on taking her for a ride.

This found footage horror movie follows a British YouTuber and her friends as they travel to America for a road trip and social media meetups. Along the way strange things start happening and all that is left behind is her recordnings.

A group of friends are road tripping to a school football game when they get a flat tire. In search of help they head to the nearest town: a strange ghost town known for its seemingly abandoned wax museum. They soon find out that nothing in the town is as it seems and if they don’t find an escape they will soon become exhibits themselves.

A family takes a summer road trip in a used RV. Along the way they pick up a stranded couple before finding themselves stranded themselves after an accident. Strange things start happening and the family soon realizes that the secrets that lie in the RV itself are ready to be unleashed.

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Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), by profession, can leave almost any situation without a scratch. He’s souped up his car for maximum enjoyment of his favorite hobby: taking women for deadly drives. He meets his match, though, when he encounters a group of tough women who challenge him at every turn.

T he Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A group of friends traveling the backgrounds of Texas pick up a strange hitchhiker. They then find themself being stalked and hunted by a chainsaw wielding freak wearing a mask made from human skin: Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen).

A couple of teenagers, Charlie Sykes (Chad Lowe) and Rachel Clark (Kristy Swanson), make a wrong turn on their way to elope in Las Vegas. There they encounter an undead demon who kidnaps the bride-to-be, forcing her fiance to enter a race in hell to rescue her.

A remake of the 1986 movie, The Hitcher follows a young couple on a spring break road trip who pick up a deadly hitchhiker.

Steven Spielberg directed this movie about a traveling salesman, David Mann (Dennis Weaver), driving cross-country on a two-lane highway. He finds himself in a dangerous chase with an oil tanker that seems set on running him off the road.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

A young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents’ secluded farm. An intense snowstorm serves as the backdrop of this psychological ride.

Photo by James Lee on Unsplash

Plan Your Road Trip

Hackberry General Store in Kingman, Arizona (Route 66)

If you’re driving Route 66 and see this junkyard of a place out of your car’s window, you might assume it’s been long shuttered and …

Valerie Bromann

Founder & road trip expert.

Valerie Bromann is a a website manager, content creator, and writer from Chicago, Illinois (currently living in Dallas, Texas). As an avid road tripper who has visited hundreds of roadside attractions, Val always pull over for a world’s largest thing. Founder of Silly America and author of The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book , she visits, photographs, and writes about all the weird tourist destinations she visits and offers road trip planning advice and inspiration based on her own travels so you can hit the road for yourself.

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Last modified: December 28, 2023 Category: Uncategorized

Route 66 Quotes, Sayings, and Phrases

Barney smith’s toilet seat art museum in the colony, texas, share this post ⤵.

The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book

Everything you need to have and record an epic road trip, by valerie bromann.

Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation.

The road trip you’ve been dreaming of starts here! Journal about your stops and get to know your fellow passengers with activities and exercises designed to pass the time and bring you closer together. Instead of “Are we there yet?” you’ll find yourself asking, “We’re there already?”. Complete with prompts you can turn to while driving between locations, this journal will one day be a memento of your life-changing trip.

Silly America

Silly America is a roadside attractions blog designed to help travelers find unique stops for their next road trip. The website is a tribute to the great American road trip, devoted to all that is odd in America: roadside attractions, tourist traps, peculiar destinations, bizarre events, road food, fun festivals, and more! It’s a travel website and trip planner for those seeking an offbeat road trip.

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The Best Vacation Horror Movies, Ranked By Fans

A road trip can be a blast - that is, until a chainsaw wielding maniac enters the picture. Then, the vacation's over. The best horror movies about travel gone wrong feature characters as tourists that are out of their element and fighting for their lives. This is a list of the top scary vacation horror movies including everything from The Cabin in the Woods to Wolf Creek to Joy Ride . Hopefully none of these horror vacation scenarios happen to you on your next family road trip.

What films will you find on this list of the best horror movies about traveling ? In The Evil Dead, a trip that should have been a fun getaway turns into a living nightmare when a group of friends accidentally resurrect a demon. Sam Raimi wrote and directed this classic horror film starring Bruce Campbell. The Shallows is another frightening film about a horrific vacation, this time involving the real-world threat of a hungry shark. Eli Roth's 2005 film Hostel sent a chill down the spine of anyone who has taken backpacking vacations through Europe. Other good horror films about travelling combine the anxieties of going someplace new with some real dangers.

Which horror movies about travelers deserve the top spots on the list? Vote your favorites towards the top. Be sure to check back for new movies will killer vacation plots based on groups of friends or families travelling as they are released.

While Wrong Turn may seem incredibly cliche for horror audiences today, back in 2003, this folk horror slow burn of cannibals and vacations gone wrong was the blueprint on how to tell a terrifying tale that will make audiences terrified to ever go on a road trip again. Set in the backwoods of West Virginia, after a group of friends has car trouble and panic about being stranded, they realize they are not alone in these woods, and that something terrifying lurks just beyond what they can see. Being hunted in and of itself is scary, but throw in being utterly stranded with mutated cannibal freaks into the mix, and nightmare fuel for every audience is born. 

The Hills Have Eyes

Bloodthirsty mutant cannibals, government atomic zones, and being hunted down to feast on your flesh may not seem like the perfect vacation, but in The Hills Have Eyes , it is a horrifying and vile reality that a poor family must endure. Arguably one of the most graphic, disturbing, and disgusting horror films ever created, The Hills Have Eyes shows what happens when every single thing that could go wrong on a road trip goes wrong. Showcasing some of the most horrifying and vile creatures of the 2000s, the film will leave audiences in a paranoid stance anytime they hear the slightest thing wrong in their cars.

The Descent

Widely regarded as one of the best horror films to ever come out of the UK, The Descent is a wonderfully crafted jump scare bonanza that will ensure audiences never want to go spelunking in their lives. An uber claustrophobic experience that will leave audiences holding their breath whether they realize it or not, this terrifying adventure of cave diving just gets more tense and terrifying as the film goes on. When the group of incredibly strong and powerful female protagonists realizes they aren't in the caves alone, then a second act of utter blood-curdling terror kicks into gear that will unlock an entire new phobia in the minds and hearts of viewers.

Possibly the greatest fear for people on a road trip is being stalked and hunted by a crazed lunatic in a car. Now replace car with massive semi-truck, and a terror unlike any other is realized to perfection in Joy Ride . Most people who have ever been behind the wheel of a car have experienced road rage in one form or another, but it just takes saying one wrong thing to the wrong person to create a living breathing nightmare from which there is no waking. Joy Ride may be a bit campy at times, but the underlying fear of being hunted by a psychopath behind the wheel is something audiences won't ever be able to shake.

The quintessential movie about vacations gone wrong, Hostel makes sure anyone and everyone who watches it will never want to stay in these lovely little hotels ever again. While a group of college graduates travel to Europe for vacation, they soon realize that their home for the summer is not what it seems, and sex, drugs, violence, and pain lay in wait for them. This paranoia-inducing thriller and gore fest is one of the most shocking and vile films ever created, and gave way to the “torture-porn” moniker akin to Saw . Showcasing the gnarly underbelly of Hostels in Europe and how wrong things can go for tourists, this magnificent horror film will leave audiences utterly shaken.

Every couple's worst nightmare comes to life in brutal and spine-chilling light in 2007's cult classic, Vacancy . When a couple gets stranded while traveling, they decide to spend the night at a local motel, only to realize they aren't alone, and if they don't act fast, they will be the stars and victims of a crazed killer's next snuff film. The film takes great pride in making every aspect of this stalking feel incredibly realistic and plausible, which just makes the film all the more terrifying. 

The Cabin in the Woods

On the surface, The Cabin in the Woods seems like every generic would-be slasher film ever created. A group of college kids go to a creepy cabin for a mini-vacation and suddenly bad things begin to happen. However, the film has so many twists and turns it would make a roller coaster jealous. Being stranded isn't nearly as scary as being hunted by forces outside of your control, and the film showcases this fear beautifully. Nothing is as it seems, and the only way to survive is to fight.

A film that will crawl under your skin in more ways than one, The Ruins shows the repercussions of going against the rules, the ignorance of man, and the danger of vacationing in Mexico. A masterclass in body horror and making audiences squirm, The Ruins has managed to become a massive cult classic thanks to incredible acting, realistic depictions of tourists in terror, and a shocking and surprisingly well-crafted story. Sometimes people aren't the most dangerous of creatures, and The Ruins shows that even the smallest beings can be a deadly threat.

As most films on this list prove, Wolf Creek instills the idea that car troubles will indeed be the downfall of all tourists on vacation. When a couple's car breaks down and they are stranded in the Australian outback, a dangerous and deadly hunter decides they are his next prey, and they must fight to survive at any cost. A gritty, dirty, and low-budget film that feels almost too real for comfort that was “based on true events,” Wolf Creek shows the disgusting and vile nature of man, and the struggle to survive in a world you're unfamiliar with. Not for the faint of heart or weak-willed, the film takes great pleasure in making viewers squirm.

A Perfect Getaway

Heading to the tropical island of Hawaii on their honeymoon, A Perfect Getaway shows that even the most wonderful and gorgeous of areas can be home to some of the most dangerous and vile monsters in the world. An utterly terrifying battle for survival, the film showcases that just because someone seems nice, that doesn't mean they don't have a hideous monster on the inside ready to pounce. A Perfect Getaway will undoubtedly have any and all vacationers looking sideways at their guides from here on out.

Train to Busan

A film that helped revolutionize the dying zombie subgenre in horror, Train to Busan was a stomach-churning, pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that pulls no punches in drama, gore, and violence, and will have your palms nice and sweaty by the time the credits roll. As a zombie apocalypse outbreaks in the world, a young man must protect his daughter at any cost as their trip to Busan, South Korea became a living nightmare. Taking place nearly entirely on a train and in a train station, the film feels incredibly claustrophobic as zombies unlike anything mainstream audiences have ever seen rush in to chop on some human flesh.

Chair lifts are a scary enough contraption in and of themselves, two tiny wires holding up dozens of people as they propel hundreds of feet in the air, but in the 2010 hit film Frozen , every skier's worst nightmare comes to life as a group of friends become stranded on the lift for weeks. A film rich in paranoia and dread, Frozen forces audiences into the shoes of the most poor unfortunate souls in the world as they slowly begin to turn on one another. Surivial is key, and when stranded with friends with freezing cold temperatures coming in for the kill, unspeakable acts unfold to make it to the next day.

The Evil Dead

The quintessential cabin in the woods horror film, The Evil Dead helped revolutionize the horror genre by showcasing a brutal, bloody, and utterly terrifying adventure of a group of college kids who are hunted down by a supernatural presence in the middle of the woods. Widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made, the film at its core is indeed a film about a group of tourists who venture to a cabin, and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Director Sam Rami exploded onto the scene with one of the most important and genre-defining films of all time with The Evil Dead .

The Shallows

One of the surprise hit horror films of the 2010s, The Shallows is a perfectly paced and executed venture into terror, paranoia, and sharks! When a woman finds herself stranded in the middle of the ocean with a great white shark looking to take a bite out of her, she must navigate the waters of this strange land and do whatever it takes to survive. Isolation, desperation, an paranoia creep in every crevasse of this spine-chilling movie, and much like Jaws before it, after watching The Shallows , audiences will never want to go in the water again. 

During a romantic getaway in the remote woods, a lovely young couple finds themselves the prey for a vicious and malicious attack of modern youth gone wild. Showcasing the dangers of group gang mentality and the lengths individuals will go to get what they want, Eden Lake is an utterly terrifying and vicious film that shows the world that nothing is scarier than a group of deranged and bitter teenagers.

A breakup film wrapped in a cult film wrapped in a tourist horror movie, Midsommar has quite a few layers to unpack throughout its nearly three-hour runtime, but an epic the likes of which horror rarely receives presents itself beautifully. When traveling to Sweden with her boyfriend and his group of college friends, Dani audiences quickly realize that something far more sinister is afoot here and that no one can be trusted. Nothing is scarier than seemingly everyone out to get you, and in this brilliant paranoid thriller, everyone is. 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

A remake of arguably the greatest film the world has ever seen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is arguably the perfect tourist horror movie. A group of young travelers venture to rural Texas but while driving through, they come across a corrupt police officer who has made it his mission to make their life a living hell. Throw in cannibalism, and everyone's favorite skin-wearing killer Leatherface, and one of the scariest films of all time is born. 

I Spit on Your Grave

Sometimes, isolation doesn't truly mean you are alone, and I Spit on Your Grave showcased this in spine-chilling effect as one of the vilest, most disturbing, and shocking horror films of all time. A hybrid of revenge and tourist horror films, I Spit on Your Grave is not an easy watch, but one that will leave a resounding impact on audiences. The hunted becomes the hunter in this chilling and ultra-violent film of violating the wrong woman.

The stereotypical tourist horror movie has dumb characters that do dumb things that the audience can relish in seeing them get just desserts, and there is no finer example of this than Turristas . A film that relishes in swiftly and vengefully dishing out justice to those who continuously break the rules, Turistas showcases that just because you are guests in a far away land, that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want and is the ultimate warning for those who think they can.

Akin to the massive horror hit The Descent, The Cave also follows a group of individuals who travel into a remote undisturbed underground ecosystem, but instead of seeking thrills, this group is seeking science. On the hunt for a new species that is rumored to be dwelling deep under the world,  this may not be a vacation, but the group of biologists is undoubtedly tourists in this strange new world, and the deeper they explore, the most they realize exactly how far out of there element they are.

Cabin Fever

The Descent Part 2

Black Water

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The best horror movies in every subgenre of horror. Whether it's evil dolls, terrible vacations, or anything in between, we've got a list for it.

12 Road Trip Horror Movies You Can Watch From Home

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For absolutely no reason, I have decided we need a streaming guide about road trip horror movies. While this is not my area of expertise, I knew there was a ton out there. I am also pretty sure most of the people who made the ones on this list are not literal monsters. So again, I have made this list for no reason. However, I hope it helps some people find a different road trip horror movie to love. May it help some people let a franchise that should’ve never existed go swiftly into that silent night.

Black Cadillac (2003)

Where You Can Watch:  Tubi

Three men end up in a deadly car chase with a rando. This is one of the many on this list I have not seen. It sounds like the regular early aughts situation, and Jason Dohring is there for some reason. As a  Veronica Mars  fan, I am going to open a drink and watch it.

Dead End (2003)

Where You Can Watch:  Amazon Prime  and  Tubi

A family takes a shortcut on the way to Christmas Eve with the in-laws. It clearly does not end well. I saw this movie a couple of years ago, and it is so weird and trippy. I have wanted to revisit it because I am not the biggest fan of Christmas horror, but I had fun. Also, Mother of Horror Lin Shaye is there, so go ahead and hit play. 

Death Proof (2007)

Where You Can Watch:  Paramount+  and  Showtime

A stuntman harasses the wrong group of women, and karma is swift. It’s also summed up as Stuntman Mike fucks around and finds out. I LOVED this movie when it came out. I love it even more now that I have had 15 years to fall even harder for the badass cast. Check it out then listen to  Dread Central ’s  Girl, That’s Scary  recent episode.

Husk (2010)

Friends get stranded near a cornfield and stumble across a ritual. I know nothing good happens in cornfields, so this is probably the one I will need to phone a friend for when I check it out. This movie premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, so it’s weird that I have never heard of it before now

Joy Ride (2001)

Where You Can Watch:  Hulu

Two brothers on a road trip trick the wrong mother trucker! Paul Walker and Steve Zahn lead this early aughts rollercoaster. This movie is so 2001 that I can almost hear the TRL crowd cheering as I wrap myself in a hoodie and turn to MuchMusic. I hate how much fun I have with this movie, and I cannot explain it. I will not be taking any questions but will be watching it again.

Midnight Ride (1990)

A woman leaves her husband and picks up a hitchhiker. This sounds like a Lifetime movie, but I am curious to see how Mark Hamil fits in. I am not a  Star Wars  kid, but I know him from stuff found on the other billion pages of his resume. This one has been on my list for a minute, so thanks, Tubi!

Penny Dreadful (2006)

A psychologist takes a patient with a car phobia on a trip to help her overcome that fear. We can all assume this plan is going to backfire, and I want to know how. I never heard of this movie until this Google search, and I need answers. First question, why is the lead character named Penny if we are not making  Inspector Gadget  references? 

Southbound (2015)

Where You Can Watch:  Hulu  and  Tubi

This road trip horror situation is an anthology that unfolds on a desert highway. I will watch any anthology, as these streaming guides have proven. Very much here for one with a road trip wrap-around story. Put me in, Coach! Put me in, now!

Tailgate (2019)

Where You Can Watch:  Shudder  and  Tubi

An angry dad pisses off the wrong driver, and now the whole family is in danger. You would give me family dynamics in a road trip horror? It feels like too much. This dessert could be too rich, and I might have to take breaks before eating it all. However, it is a risk I am willing to take. The movie is also known as  Bumperkleef  for those looking for it from other places.

We Summon the Darkness (2019)

Where You Can Watch:  Amazon Prime ,  Tubi , and  Vudu

Three friends meet three musicians at a concert, and they all go back to one of the girls’ homes for an after-party. Everything about that sentence tells me this could never be me. However, I am going to check it out because metal girls possibly committing murder seems fun. Fingers crossed that it is as good as I want it to be.

Wind Chill (2007)

Where You Can Watch:  The Roku Channel

Two students road trip home together for the holidays, but the car breaks down in an isolated place. An isolated place filled with ghosts, that want to haunt Emily Blunt’s character. That’s right, y’all. We have a Blunt sighting in the genre from way back in 2007! This is going to be a moment, and I hope it is a good one.

Wolf Creek (2005)

Amazon Prime ,  Plex ,  Tubi  and  Vudu

Three travelers stranded in the Outback hitch a ride with the wrong guy, and find themselves getting tortured. I am going to save this one for last because Australian horror is like  Degrassi  in that it goes there. I am a fragile soul right now, and I am not ready. I will be though, and I imagine the chaos will be worth the wait.

Honorable Mentions:

Wrong Turn (2003)

Where You Can Watch: VOD

Wrong Turn  is the first movie that comes to mind when I think of road trip horror, even though I have not seen it since I was a child. Plus Eliza Dushku is there, so it is worth the rental price.

Supernatural (2005-2020) 

Where You Can Watch: Netflix

The first few seasons really get you there, even though the majority of the run is also spent in the Impala. Plus, if you plan to watch  The Winchesters,  you might want to get a feel for the original series.

Hopefully, this list reminds you that we have plenty of road trip horror worth our time and attention. Or, maybe introduces you to one that is a new favorite. Either way, let me know at  @misssharai .

Categorized: Editorials Lists News

This Underseen Road Trip Horror Movie Fuels a Killer Twist

The road trip of life sometimes travels dark roads.

The Big Picture

• The Passenger is a road trip crime film that delves deeper than just a surface-level story of violence and escapism.
• The main characters, Benson and Randy, both carry their own traumas and pasts that control their actions.
• This film blends elements of suspense, horror, and character study, offering a unique and thought-provoking journey.

Over the years, Kyle Gallner has quietly turned himself into one of Hollywood's leading scream kings . You may have first met him in the 2009 double horror wallop of The Haunting in Connecticut and Jennifer's Body . He was one of the stars of the much-maligned A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot in 2010, which is so much better than the hate it gets , and lived to sleep another day. In the past few years, he battled Ghostface ( it didn't go so well ) in 2022's Scream and was one of the heroes in Smile .

In 2023, with The Passenger , Gallner didn't battle a man with knives for fingers, a killer in a mask, or some incomprehensible force. Instead, his character, Benson, battles himself following a mass murder spree. After kidnapping a witness along with a timid young man named Randy, played by an equally impressive Johnny Berchtold ( Dog Gone ), the unlikely pair flee the scene of the crime in a road trip film that never leaves the town they're in . It's not the cops they're ultimately running away from, but themselves. By going nowhere, Benson and Randy go everywhere.

The Passenger (2023)

A man is forced to face his fears and confront his troubled past. He must find a way to survive when his co-worker snaps and goes on a violent killing spree.

'The Passenger' Deceives You By Presenting Itself as a Traditional Road Trip Crime Film

If you watch the trailer for The Passenger , you might think you have it all figured out. It focuses mostly on Benson (Kyle Gallner's) with his chilling voice heard throughout and is immersed in violent shots. Without giving more away than what the trailer shows, Benson commits mass murder at a fast food restaurant where he works with Randy ( Johnny Berchtold ). After letting Randy live, we see several other scenes with Benson pointing a gun, and then punching a man repeatedly in a parking lot. Benson and Randy are then in a car driving along barren fields as cop cars fly by blaring their sirens. When Randy asks Benson why he's doing this, his kidnapper tells Randy that he finds him pathetic and it bugs him. He also finds his victim fixable , telling him, "When you were standing there, watching me, waiting for me to kill you, that was the only thing I believed." Benson wants to help Randy for his own good, but he needs him to stay out of his way.

At first glance, The Passenger looks like something we've seen before. Road trip crime movies are almost their own subgenre. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway perfected it in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde . Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon gave us a more fun, but equally tragic version of this type of story in 1991's Thelma & Louise . Oliver Stone 's Natural Born Killers in 1994 had Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis on the run in a film as bleak as it gets. Just a year before, Lewis was in a similar film with Brad Pitt called Kalifornia .

Kyle Gallner Is Our Modern Scream King

On the surface, The Passenger seems to match its peers : a guy commits a crime, the criminal takes a victim hostage, the criminal flees and commits more crimes. The victim prevails; the end. Sure, some of that is accurate, but The Passenger is so much more than its predecessors. For example, it breaks the mold in a moment of peril when Benson takes Randy hostage and flees. As he's talking about how far away he can get before the cops find the crime scene, the truth is that he never actually leaves the city at all.

Randy Isn't Just a Helpless Passenger to a Madman

One of the trailer taglines for the movie is "Confront your past to survive the present." Read into that, and you'll see that The Passenger goes deeper than a surface-level movie about a violent road trip . Even further to the point, the tagline on the poster is "Ride. Or die." So what does that mean to the audience and the deeper context of the movie?

Berchtold's Randolph "Randy" Bradley is presented as our probable hero , but he's not even the hero of his own life before Benson screws it all up. He is a timid young man, quiet and soft-spoken. He's lived in the same town his entire life, and despite being really smart, has done nothing with his existence . He works in fast food, and while that's fine, we can see that he's capable of so much more. His manager sees it too. He wants Randy to think about being a manager at another location, and although that seems doable enough, for someone like Randy, we can tell that this is nearly impossible for him to comprehend.

Randy is meek because of his past. He did something bad as a child, and unable to move past the guilt that plays the event in his head relentlessly, he lets that trauma consume him . It's not hard to see that The Passenger has a double meaning . When Randy is bullied at work, causing another quiet co-worker, Benson, to snap and shoot everyone dead, he becomes an actual passenger to his hostage taker. However, the deeper context of Randy's character is that he was already a passenger to his mind. If he doesn't learn from the past, take hold of the wheel of his life, and stop being a passenger, he will die.

Benson Isn't Your Typical Killer in Control in 'The Passenger'

That's already clever enough, and though Randy is timid and not a take-charge type, we root for him, especially as we learn what happened in his past. Beneath that pain is a good person struggling to be set free. The Passenger could have just settled for that and made Benson a cookie-cutter bad guy who forces Randy to take charge of his life and save himself , but there is so much more going on than that. Benson has his pain too. He's not a simple stereotype, but another person controlled by his trauma. He's also a passenger but in a different way. Whereas Randy goes inward, Benson lashes out.

The road trip Benson and Randy take isn't what you're used to. It's not about a flight from a scene, being chased down by the police. It's about a flight from the past as it screams toward you, nipping at your heels. That doesn't mean The Passenge r is only a character study where the road trip is in one's mind. There is much violence to be found. Blood is shed. People die. The cinematography is so grim and Benson is so scary in his actions that The Passenger borders on being a horror film .

The Passenger is everything you've come to expect from the genre but blended and served up in a way you've never tasted. The flight from the past can be more chaotic and suspenseful than any of the typical police chases or two characters driving off a cliff. Viewers can certainly go into it with expectations but be prepared to be a passenger for a ride that makes you think as much as it makes you clench your seat.

The Passenger is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

WATCH ON AMAZON PRIME

The 15 Best Slasher Movies of All Time

Michael myers, jason, freddy, chucky, and more. let the bodies hit the floor..

Movies have been scaring the wits out of folks for a century now and one of cinema's most effective terror delivery systems is the "slasher."

Yes, horror movies have dozens of sub-genres and one of horror's most sinister and enduring offshoots involves people scrambling for their lives while being stalked by a cunning, patient maniac. Inventive, gruesome deaths, a brutalized lone survivor, and the effortless promise of seemingly endless sequels, the slasher pits humans against themselves in a nasty fight to live through the night.

Sure, these killers sometimes have a supernatural advantage -- whether they're undead, invading your dreams, or...you know, a pint-size doll -- but for the most part slasher psychos are just deranged murderers out to rack up record body counts. Distinguishable usually only by their weapon and mask of choice.

The early '80s was a boom for slashers, which moved and morphed from pivotal pictures from horror masters to a glut of cheap knockoffs and copycats. By the end of 1984, the slasher “heyday" was kaput, but that didn't mean the slasher fully died off. No, much like the killers in these movies, the slasher never truly dies. It's still one of the most dependable and diabolical branches of horror and below you'll find 15 of the very best slashers ever made, some featuring the biggest horror villains of all time - like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, and more!

The 15 Best Slasher Movies

Halloween (1978)

Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+ , Fubo

Though there are some important slasher heavy-hitters that arrived before John Carpenter's Halloween (and you'll see them on this list, as well), nothing changed the game like Michael Myers' first outing as "The Shape."

Halloween -- with its indie movie low budget, masterful score (also by Carpenter), and direct no-frills story -- launched a thousand slow-moving madmen, turning the six years that followed it into SlasherMania. It even fell victim to its own influence as eventual sequels were mostly cheap cash-grabs, never matching the magic that Carpenter was able to achieve with the original.

Halloween a simple, scary campfire tale about a lunatic who escapes an asylum and returns to his hometown, stalking a teen girl and a young boy simply because they made the mistake of stopping by his childhood porch (sequels would give "meaning" to his target, and even to Michael's "evil"). Star Jamie Lee Curtis became an instant Scream Queen and earned an eternal place on the Final Girl Mount Rushmore. You can check out our explainer of the full Halloween timeline for more info about the other movies.

More Like This (worth seeing): Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween H20 (1998), Halloween (2018)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+ , Peacock , Pluto TV (w/ ads), Roku Channel (w/ ads)

Before Halloween there were a handful of standout slashers. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most aggressively terrifying movies ever made.

Sure, it struggled when it came to sequels (though the 2003 reboot was solid) as the premise itself, of a nasty cannibalistic family, was a tricky one to franchise (it also wouldn't get a single follow-up for 12 years) but like most first movies in a long-running horror franchise, it's the best. And it's complete. There's no actual need for more.

Tobe Hooper's mean, dirty road trip-gone-violently wrong touched on the changes happening to America at the time and the diminished role of farmers all while serving up an unsuspected group of young adults to a crazed, murderous family of outcasts. Leatherface, in particular, remains as a ghastly fixture of horror to this day, as a hulking, skin-wearing brute capable of killing folks with his bare hands...much less the chainsaw he wields with a butcher's precision.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Where to Watch: Paramount+ (via Apple TV)

The idea for Friday the 13th may have come about in a copycat manner, as the creators looked to replicate the success of Halloween by pairing a killer with a "notable day/holiday" but the film is very different from Halloween, playing out more in a "whodunnit?" fashion. Plus, it's massively influential in its own right.

Yes, some could even argue that Friday the 13th's success, while taking cues from Halloween, is the true start of the '80s maniac madness. And it turned the quaint, fun idea of summer camp into a go-to location for horror movies forever. Counselors would never know peace again, constantly placed in mortal peril thanks to the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake at the hands of a murderer out for righteous, misplaced revenge. It's a must-watch horror classic that helped set the template for slasher mysteries and twist killer reveals for years to come.

See our guide to the Friday the 13th movies in order for the full timeline.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Where to Watch: Max

By the mid-'80s, the slasher well was running a bit dry, carving the path for more bigger imaginations, wilder ideas, and new spins "unstoppable" killers. This is where the Nightmare on Elm Street movies began.

Wes Craven, who had already made a name for himself with '70s exploitation horror flicks The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, created an instant-classic maniac in the form of already dead child murderer Freddy Krueger, who now, from beyond the grave, could attack and kill his victims in their dreams (which also had control over). A Nightmare on Elm Street is a legendary film, delivering terror in ways audiences had never seen before. Freddy himself became a pop-culture sensation (and eventually even a wise-cracking anti-hero in his own films) while Heather Langencamp's Nancy helped level up the Final Girl as she purposefully put herself on a collision course with Freddy in her own mind, and kicking his ass.

More Like This (worth seeing): A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Candyman (1992)

Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms

Setting Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden" in Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing project was a master stroke of taking source material and breathing more meaningful life into it. Candyman is a tragedy, a love story, a slice of social commentary, and a movie where a lot of folks meet their end via a gross crusty hook all rolled into one. Tony Todd's seductive, almost Dracula-like killer, who haunts Cabrini–Green as a vengeful boogeyman, is an iconic monster born of America's violent racist past, now serving as a reminder that bigotry is still a solid fixture in our society. Candyman casts a huge, illustrious shadow in the somewhat horror-starved '90s, mixing supernatural chills with urban legend thrills.

More Like This (worth watching): Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019), Candyman (2021),

Child's Play (1988)

Once again, by the back half of the '80s, regular human mass murderers were out and killers with crazy, cool powers were in. Freddy Krueger was ambushing teens in their dreams, Jason Voorhees was now a full-fledged zombie brought back from the dead, Michael Myers was part of some demonic cult, and...Lakeshore Strangler Charles Lee Ray found his soul trapped inside a "I'm your friend to the end" Good Guy doll, allowing him to continue terrify people as toy. Child's Play is miraculous for several reasons. Firstly, it works. Really well. It's an awesome movie. Secondly, Child's Play's decades of sequels, and recent ongoing TV series, are all part of the same timeline and continuity. And all written (and sometimes directed) by creator Don Mancini. That's unheard of in horror. Lastly, the Chucky brand is groundbreaking, over the last 20 years, for LGBTQ+ representation and allyship. And all of this traces back to a tremendously fun and fiendish film about a poor young boy being blamed for the murderous actions of his doll. You can check out the full Child's Play timeline , which actually includes a TV series as well.

More Like This (worth watching): Child's Play 2 (1990), Bride of Chucky (1998), Chucky: The Series (2021- )

Scream (1996)

Where to Watch: Paramount+

Wes Craven's Scream brought the quasi-dormant slasher genre back in a big way thanks to his masterful hand at suspenseful directing, a young charismatic cast, and a crackerjack meta-humor script from Kevin Williamson. It was a horror movie filled with characters raised on horror movies, and a mystery killer psychotically influenced by them. The Scream franchise is still going strong today thanks to the saga's ongoing "whodunnit?" premise, in which anyone could be the stab-happy Ghostface. The story's legacy characters, including Neve Campbell's stalwart surviving Final Girl Sidney Prescott, is another big draw, though the recent hit Scream movies have demonstrated that the bones of the story are strong enough to pass the torch to a new crew of young stars. Scream, despite being rooted in a love for '80s slashers, is timeless in a way. It speaks to the horror fan in all of us.

You can check our guide on where to watch the Scream movies for streaming details.

More Like This (worth watching): I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Urban Legend (1998), and any Scream movie

Tenebrae (1982)

Where to Watch: Shudder, AMC+ , Plex, Kanopy

It's important to note that slashers were not purely an American pop-culture sensation, and that Italian horror master Dario Argento had been serving up spectacular slaughter all through the '70s, including many notable slashers. The best of his catalog, from a slasher standpoint, is Tenebrae, about an American author (Anthony Franciosa) on an international book tour who discovers that a serial killer has been inspired by his murder-mystery novel. Seen as Argento's masterwork of his favorite thriller genre, giallo (psychological/exploitation slasher), Tenebrae explores the nature of voyeurism, dark doubles, trauma, and death.

More Like This (worth watching): Blood and Black Lace (1964), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Deep Red (1075), Opera (1987)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Okay, so why are there TWO Friday the 13th films on the list? Well, it's because of the huge (killer) shift between the first and second movie, with the latter introducing the character of Jason Voorhees. By the fourth Friday the 13th movie, Jason had taken over the series fully as the masked killer in the woods (permanently donning a hockey mask thanks to the third movie). Of the many Jason-filled sequels, Part 4, The Final Chapter , is the crowning achievement as it really was, at the time, designed to be Jason's final romp. Pure and simple, this film is epitome of everything the slasher genre had been built toward for years, complete with a killer who'd been up until now, unbeatable. While on a brand new murder spree, picking off a gaggle of young, horny cabin renters, Jason would ultimately meet his nemesis in young Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), a boy whose quick thinking and savage machete skills would spell the (temporary) end for Mr. Voorhees.

More Like This (worth watching): Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

The Burning (1981)

Where to Watch: Prime Video , Fubo

A cut above most slasher clones, The Burning is summer camp carnage at the hands of a previous caretaker horribly disfigured thanks to a prank gone wrong. Setting aside Friday the 13th similarities, The Burning makes its own distinct mark with suspense, gore, and nastiness. Directed by a Brit whose bread and butter were usually rock documentaries, and scored by prog rock icon Rick Wakeman, The Burning is largely considered one of the best of the era, for an era overflowing with lackluster and derivative horror. It has red in its ledger but its the perfect combination of camp (location), camp (tone), and actual scares.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Where to Watch: Fubo, The Roku Channel (w/ ads), Vudu (w/ ads), Pluto TV (w/ ads)

Another surprising standout amongst the '80s slasher rabble is Slumber Party Massacre, one of the rare teen in terrifying turmoil movies directed by a woman, Amy Holden Jones (who would write Indecent Proposal and create Fox's The Resident...whaaaat?). Here, a madman on the loose, with a giant power drill, targets a suburban sleepover, but this film, even so early in '80s slasher boom, toys with horror conventions. Written as a parody, but filmed like a drama, Slumber Party Massacre flipped gender cliches on their head, giving us a group of proactive female characters who supported one another, and shirking the traditional gory deaths that usually befell women in these movies. Sometimes seen as a precursor to Scream, because of its "straightforward meets satire" sensibilities, this killer flick is definitely one to catch.

Happy Death Day (2017)

Where to Watch: Rentable on Prime and most platforms

You might be asking: are there any more recent slasher offerings worth checking out? Absolutely. Happy Death Day (and it's even more bonkers sequel) provides a much-needed jolt to the aging genre, trapping its shallow narcissistic heroine, Tree (Jessica Rothe), in a time loop where she's killed over and over again on her birthday by the same masked killer. It's a sci-fi slasher-mystery that has Tree growing as a person while dying as a victim, all while trying to solve her own murder and unmask the culprit before she eventually dies too many times to keep looping. Rothe herself shines here in this miraculous combo of rom-com, college caper, and horror mystery. It also works as one of the best time-loop movies .

Black Christmas (1974)

Where to Watch: Peacock , Pluto TV (w/ ads), Freevee (w/ ads), Roku Channel (w/ ads)

One classic slasher that never seems to get enough love is Black Christmas , an absolutely essential horror watch. Directed by Bob Clark -- who would, yes, go on to direct 1983's A Christmas Story -- Black Christmas is heralded by many as the first true North American slasher, in the genre's fullest form (mysterious killer looming, picking off teens/young adults via various methods). Based on an urban legend/campfire story commonly known as “The Babysitter and The Man Upstairs" (which would influence many horror movies, in general), the movie is set in a sorority house during the holidays, as a crazed killer, with no explained backstory, holes up in the house, hidden away, and murders his way through college students. Delivering genuine shock and suspense, Black Christmas is perpetually listed as one of the tip top slashers of all time.

Psycho (1960)

If we're truly looking for the source code for all slashers, including the movie that influenced Halloween the most (just look at Halloween's opening sequence) it's Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which had unsuspecting '60s moviegoers full on fainting in theaters. Which an apex achievement for a horror movie (other winners include The Exorcist, Terrifier 2, etc). Purposefully filmed in black and white, Psycho was "Master of Suspense" Hitchcock's honest, earnest experiment in terror, unleashing a landmark murder scene so intense that it scarred a generation. The story of a woman on the run (Janet Leigh) seeking refuge in a motel run by the biggest "mama's boy" of all time (Anthony Perkins) pushed the horror genre forward by light years, inspiring an entire wave of new horror masters. It's also one of the best thriller movies of all time .

Terrifier (2018)

Where to Watch: Peacock , Fubo, The Roku Channel (w/ ads), Vudu (w/ ads), tubi (w/ ads)

Okay look, Terrifier is unhinged, absurdly gory ugliness. Perhaps made even more unsettling by its ultra-small budget (though the makeup effects do not skimp). We're providing a warning here since it's for strong stomachs only but this bare bones trail of blood and guts, about an insane person in clown gear gleefully doing some of the most unthinkably sadistic things to people, is as raw and nerve-wracking as a slasher film can get. This is the one some viewers may tap out of but sometimes it's good to see just how crazy and, in a way, devolved a slasher movie can get.

You can also watch the sequel, Terrifier 2 , which is just as unhinged as the orginal.

Matt Fowler is a freelance entertainment writer/critic, covering TV news, reviews, interviews and features on IGN for 13+ years.

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Alone is the nasty little thriller you need to watch on Netflix

You know how everyone sucks at driving? What if there was a horror movie about that

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The internet is often accused of annihilating the personhood of other people, encouraging everyone on it to regard only themselves as whole, complex individuals worthy of empathy, and everyone else as pond scum. This is a dire read, but not an inaccurate one. Driving, however, should get some credit for doing the same first.

Behind the wheel, everyone else is a potential aggravation, a metal jellybean waiting to piss you off rather than a person. The anonymity of the road affords us the space to be petty tyrants; it also puts us at risk. Someone else can decide to reflect your perceived tyranny back at you. Annoyance can escalate to conflict. A fellow traveler can become something more sinister.

It’s important that Alone begins on the road. The minimalist 2020 thriller, now streaming on Netflix, leans into the archetypal sorting the brain does behind the wheel, immediately locking the viewer in on a primal level with its inciting incident. A woman is driving on a long trip through remote roads, hauling a trailer behind her sensible car loaded with all her possessions for a move. She tries to drive around a green SUV. The SUV accelerates, refusing to let her pass, and nearly forcing her into an oncoming truck. It’s frightening, and infuriating, but then she shakes it off… until she keeps seeing that same green SUV.

Directed by John Hyams (the low-budget auteur behind Netflix’s best zombie show ), Alone is a wickedly taut two-hander, with its lead, Jessica (Jules Willcox) slowly realizing with horror that Sam (Marc Menchaca) is not merely running into her out of coincidence. Mattias Olsson’s script doesn’t give much in the way of backstory on either character, but it hardly matters. Willcox and Menchaca are both adept performers capable of gripping you with their gaze alone — giving depth to Jessica’s growing desperation and Sam’s initially friendly menace.

As their conflict escalates, Alone — through spare dialogue and careful direction — becomes almost fable-like, less ambitious than, say, Men , but ultimately more successful. Jessica could be any woman. Sam could be any man. That’s why you feel your body tighten more and more as the film’s 97-minute run time races by.

To fans of direct-to-video action movies , John Hyams is a legend best known for 2012’s Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning , arguably one of the most provocative action films of its decade. In that film, Hyams established a visual style of bleak naturalism, a fondness for muted colors, and a distaste for medium shots. This brutally efficient combination makes his films feel hyper-real, uncomfortably so.

Hyams shoots in a way that underlines his characters’ psychological isolation, not just their physical one — dense forests are seen from above and from the characters’ perspective below. Bodies are blocked in a way that heightens their physicality, filling the screen or getting lost in it. Close-ups are reserved for pure reptilian moments of fear or adrenaline. While Hyams can dial aspects of this up or down — the gore and violence in Alone , for example, is minimal — the director is consistently skilled at visually triggering lizard-brain responses in the viewer, making him an excellent, if underappreciated, cinematic purveyor of isolation thrillers. Alone could be considered the middle entry in a loose trilogy of Hyams films about the subject, from Day of Reckoning to his most recent film, 2022’s COVID-themed horror film Sick .

These three films are wildly different, but there’s a similar nasty edge to all of them, about what happens when you allow inertia to blunt your sense of empathy. Alone is easily the most accessible of the bunch, beginning with a nigh-universal experience of road rage, and then slowly dragging its characters into the literal mud until its hero must violently assert her personhood in the face of indifference. It didn’t have to go that far, of course. But that’s John Hyams’ specialty: taking something casually terrible to its awful logical end. Like, for example, the petty tyranny of driving.

Alone is now streaming on Netflix.

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25 Essential Road Trip Movies of the Last 25 Years

We’re looking down the horizon and beyond for some of the best road trip movies that defined the genre over the last 25 years! To rev up this list, we selected American movies movies, journeys that begin in the States (where they actually finish is part of the fun). The movies celebrate the sights and sounds of the country, or at least will inspire you to pull out that camping gear, putting the convertible top down, and hitting the open road. These rides can be cross-county ( Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle ), on the freeway ( Dog , Sideways ), trekking across a few state lines ( Little Miss Sunshine , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), hitting a new time zone ( Road Trip ), or even runnin’ coast-to-coast ( Rat Race , Transamerica ). Even the Academy has felt the need for reasonable speed, awarding Best Picture to both Green Book and Nomadland . Carpool lane? Of course: we’ve got an Oscar strapped in the passenger seat!

So whether you’re looking for a map to a long summer drive or fixing a flat in your life, turn to these essential 25 road trip movies of the last 25 years (in chronological order)!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) 50%

The Straight Story (1999) 94%

Tumbleweeds (1999) 82%

Almost Famous (2000) 91%

Road Trip (2000) 57%

Rat Race (2001) 45%

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) 75%

Sideways (2004) 97%

Transamerica (2005) 77%

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) 91%

Cars (2006) 75%

Zombieland (2009) 89%

Away We Go (2009) 67%

Paul (2011) 70%

We're the Millers (2013) 48%

Chef (2014) 87%

Grandma (2015) 91%

Mississippi Grind (2015) 91%

Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016) 83%

Green Book (2018) 77%

Nomadland (2020) 93%

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) 97%

Bad Trip (2021) 79%

Dog (2022) 77%

Joy Ride (2023) 90%

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The best road trip movies of all time

Posted: February 12, 2024 | Last updated: February 12, 2024

Few things are better than a classic road trip. Sun shining, music blaring, wind in your hair, and some good friends. But since road trips aren’t exactly a thing you can schedule every day, sometimes you have to make do with watching other people go on their own epic journeys. For that, we have 20 of the best road trip movies of all time.

Nomadland (2020)

Any movie that wins three Oscars , including Best Picture and Best Director, is sure to make its way to the top of any best-of list, and that’s exactly the case here. Frances McDormand shows that even two decades after also starring in Almost Famous , she can still make one hell of a road trip movie in this story about packing up your essentials and roaming the country in search of purpose.

Road Trip (2000)

With a title that says all we need to know, Road Trip is a who’s who of stars from the teen sex comedy genre that dominated the early 2000s. The film is raunchy and hilarious, capturing that youthful energy of adventuring with your friends and having everything spiral out of control. Released in 2000, the movie feels like a send-off to the ‘90s, full of countless references and cast members that were part of iconic ‘90s productions ranging from American Pie to Rent .

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Considered by many to be the greatest Saturday Night Live spinoff film of all time, The Blues Brothers stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd road-tripping around the state looking to get their old band back together. The movie was a box-office and cult hit, eventually spawning a sequel that unfortunately failed to live up to the high bar set by the brothers.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Travelling to a secluded beach on the Mexican coast may not sound like the most exciting destination, but it’s times like that where it’s important to remember the journey is always more important. A story of two teenage boys travelling with a woman in her late twenties, the film depicts jealousy and self-discovery against the backdrop of Mexico’s political turmoil. The movie was so popular, it set the record for the highest box-office opening in Mexican cinema history .

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Seen as one of the greatest feminist films of all time , Thelma & Louise is also just one of the greatest films of all time, road trip or otherwise. It portrays two best friends adventuring on the road together and quickly spiralling into crime and running from the police. The controversial film became instantly beloved by audiences everywhere, earning six Oscar nominations and winning Best Original Screenplay . In 2016, it was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry for its cultural significance.

Easy Rider (1969)

If you’ve ever seen a movie or show where Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” blasts as people drive off , you have Easy Rider to thank for that seminal moment. The movie was iconic for its portrayal of rising counterculture movements such as hippie culture, anti-war protests, and recreational drug use. It’s a fun movie about venturing off to New Orleans and leaving social tension behind.

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Widely considered to be one of the greatest comedies of all time , Dumb and Dumber showcases a journey from Rhode Island to Colorado that is full of as many shenanigans as one could possibly pack into 107 minutes. The movie’s popularity has led to two sequels and even an animated television show, as people couldn’t get enough of watching these two goofballs have fun on the road together.

Death Proof (2007)

A road trip movie-turned-brutal slasher flick is about as Quentin Tarantino as anything can get, which is what makes it the perfect twist on the genre. Released in North America as Grindhouse , a double feature alongside Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror , the movie was a box-office failure that taught Tarantino a few lessons . Nevertheless, the movie has since become a cult hit, for viewers who discovered it without having to sit through a second movie.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Travelling from New York City to Chicago and back may not sound like the most thrilling road trip, but the Coen Brothers are capable of turning nothing into something enthralling. In classic Coen fashion , this is a movie that twists the road trip trend, instead offering a look at a down-on-his-luck folk singer trying to make ends meet rather than the hijinks and hilarity the genre usually offers.

Into the Wild (2007)

Who hasn’t found themselves disenchanted with society and debated giving away all their possessions to hitchhike across the country and live in the wilderness? Fortunately, that’s exactly the journey that Into the Wild portrays, telling the biographical story of Christopher McCandless , who met all sorts of people on his journey out to live in the Alaskan wild.

It Happened One Night (1934)

One of the first road trip movies of all time, this 1934 classic starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert is famous for its iconic ankle flaunting scene that has been parodied an endless amount of times. It’s widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever, as the rom-com is filled with endless comedic moments as the pair venture out to New York. It was also one of the last movies released before the Motion Picture Association began stricter enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code , which severely limited what films could show for nearly three decades.

Midnight Run (1988)

Robert De Niro in a New York to Los Angeles buddy comedy , need anyone say more? The film was both a critical and commercial success, spawning three made-for-TV sequels expanding on the story of various characters throughout the film. With De Niro playing a bounty hunter, the movie perfectly blends hysterical comedy with thrilling excitement and a few heavier, dark moments to keep audiences guessing.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

When Steve Martin, John Candy, and John Hughes collaborate on a movie together, the result is sure to be… well, as good as Planes, Trains and Automobiles is. The movie is about a three-day journey to Chicago between two unlikely travel companions—like if The Odd Couple happened in transit. It’s a must-watch performance for both Martin and Candy, with Roger Ebert calling the film “perfectly cast and soundly constructed.”

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

A tiny budget and an all-star cast led this movie, about travelling to a California child beauty pageant, to become one of the greatest surprise hits of all time. Little Miss Sunshine , won two Oscars , including Best Original Screenplay, and made over US$100 million on just an US$8-million budget . It’s the perfect example of how a beat-up van and a cast of weirdos can be just as engaging as a team of superheroes.

The Cannonball Run (1981)

What’s more exciting than a road trip from Connecticut to California? What about if that road trip was all part of an illegal race across the country? That’s exactly the plot of The Cannonball Run , in which an all-star cast that includes Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jackie Chan all race from coast to coast. The Cannonball Run continues to live on in road trip lore with the record having been broken countless times over the years.

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

The National Lampoon’s series has produced some wonderful movies, but Vacation is widely considered to be the best of them all . With John Hughes, Harold Ramis, and Chevy Chase all collaborating on this movie, it’s no surprise that it’s an endless stream of laughs with just the right amount of heartfelt moments sprinkled in.

Rain Man (1988)

Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise each give perhaps the best performance of their careers in this iconic movie. The film was a success in every sense of the word, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1988 , making over US$350 million on just a US$25-million budget , alongside winning four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Hoffman winning Best Actor. It’s a cross-country road trip about self-discovery and never underestimating people—an absolute must-watch.

Smokey and the Bandit

Burt Reynolds’ directorial debut was everything anyone could have hoped for, with his hilarious and exciting film about a bootlegger and runaway bride trying to smuggle 400 cases of beer from Texas to Atlanta. It was a massive hit , with only Star Wars outperforming this iconic 1977 film at the box office. The on-screen chemistry would even blossom into a real relationship between Reynolds and co-star Sally Field .

Almost Famous (2000)

In this semi-autobiographical story , a young Rolling Stone journalist follows around a touring rock band, getting in all sorts of hijinks along the way. Love, sex, partying, and meeting all sorts of new people make this movie a coming-of-age tale as much as a road trip movie. It’s an absolute must-watch for music lovers, and those who dream of hitting the road and partying every night.

True Romance (1993)

As if travelling from Detroit to Los Angeles wasn’t exciting enough, doing so while being chased by the mob is sure to add some excitement to the road trip. This film marks one of the rare instances of Quentin Tarantino writing the screenplay, but not directing as well, which many people credit for its success .

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10 Terrifying and Twisted Horror Movie Road Trips to Hell

October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article about the best horror movie road trips is part of our ongoing series 31 Days of Horror Lists .

Road trips are quite often a nightmare on rubber, and while I’m personally a fan, I can see why others might not be as enamored by the prospect. Multiple people crammed into a car, strangers and the unknown around every curve in the road, a lack of awareness and familiarity with the world outside your window — road trips can most definitely be terrifying. It’s no surprise, then, that so many genre filmmakers have hit the asphalt for inspiration and execution when it comes to their horror movies.

To be clear, we’re only looking at horror movies here, obviously, so with apologies to Chevy Chase and friends, Nation Lampoon’s Vacation will not be making an appearance. Our focus instead rests with the road trips that find death, terror, killers, monsters, murderers, and more bloody mayhem while people are trying to drive from point A to point B. Now please join me and the crew ( Chris Coffel ,  Valerie Ettenhofer,   Kieran Fisher ,  Brad Gullickson ,  Meg Shields ,  Anna Swanson ,  Jacob Trussell ) as we buckle up, open the sunroof, and hit the highway for our look at the best horror movie road trips!

10. Road Games (1981)

If you want to understand purposeful isolation, make a trucker or a hitchhiker movie. These loners of the road have no use for society. They’ve turned their backs on it, choosing instead to explore the interior by facing the infinite horizon. The points on the map don’t matter; it’s the curvy line between A and B that gets their motor running.

Richard Franklin ‘s Road Games is a thoughtful inspection of the mindsets of two characters: one behind the wheel of a mighty rig, and the other drifting the landscape toward wherever her thumb will take her. There’s a solid narrative simply in the performances of Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, but when the plot drops a serial killer on that same stretch of tarmac they’re occupying, the film takes off as a lo-fi wannabe Hitchock thriller turned road trip horror. Road Games dares to propose intellect where wet, gooey kills would suffice. In its delusion of grandeur, the arty slasher thrives. (Brad Gullickson)

9. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn is basically two different movies spliced into one. The first film is a road trip from hell that chronicles two criminal brothers as they make a dash for the border with their hostages. The second is a siege movie about vampires. While both merge together seamlessly, the road movie aspect is the most interesting part.

The tension in the RV scenes is palpable and uncomfortable, mostly due to the fact that Quentin Tarantino plays a homicidal sexual deviant who could pounce on his desired prey at any moment. Personally, I find that aspect much scarier than the vampire mayhem, which is, admittedly, more hilarious than terrifying. (Kieran Fisher)

8. The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Inspired by the true story of a 1950s spree-killer, The Hitch-Hiker is our oldest piece of road trip horror and follows two buddies on a boys’ trip to Mexico for a relaxing fishing excursion. The plan hits a snag when they pick up a drifter who’s on the run and has plans to take the men hostage. This landmark film noir makes the most of its open-road premise, with some brilliantly crafted suspense sequences and a taut execution from director Ida Lupino . (Anna Swanson)

7. Death Proof (2007)

Quentin Tarantino perfectly captures the high-speed essence of ’70s carsploitation films with his tribute to grindhouse cinema, Death Proof . Kurt Russell stars as Stuntman Mike (he’s a stuntman named Mike), a movie and television daredevil with a fetish for vehicular homicide.

Stuntman Mike hits the road in his 1970 Chevy Nova, complete with a roll cage to make it “death proof,” and uses it as a weapon to track down unsuspecting women traveling on the highway. One victim dies while committing the ultimate road trip sin — placing a barefoot up around the dash and slightly out the window. Mike’s fun and games are turned upside down when he attempts to prey on three badass ladies out joyriding in a 1969 Dodge Charger. This turns out to be one stunt that even Stuntman Mike can’t pull off. (Chris Coffel)

6. Breakdown (1997)

We’ve known for a long time, thanks to the scientists at the Walt Disney Center for Science n’ Stuff, that any film is unavoidably improved by the presence of Kurt Russell. It’s hard not to love the guy even when he’s playing a corrupt cop ( Dark Blue ), a sleazy salesman ( Used Cars ), or a guy who tricks a woman into thinking she’s his wife and mother to his children ( Overboard ). If we love him as those characters, imagine the power he wields when playing a truly good guy?

Jonathan Mostow ‘s still under-appreciated Breakdown presents us with just such a scenario as Russell plays a man whose wife is abducted while on a road trip across the American Midwest. Think a more energetic, suspenseful, and crowd-pleasing take on The Vanishing  and you’ll be in the ballpark as to what this top-notch thriller has to offer. Russell becomes a man possessed by the need to find his wife, and his quest sends him through all manner of chase scenes, brushes with the law, and violent exchanges.

Mostow crafts and captures it all with an eye for — and an appreciation of — practical effects and stunt work. This is an exciting action film that’ll keep your pulse up for the duration, and Russell is joined by the equally talented Kathleen Quinlan as his wife and the late, great J.T. Walsh as the man behind the abduction. It is stellar entertainment and an absolutely thrilling slice of road trip horror. (Rob Hunter)

Related Topics: 31 Days of Horror Lists , Horror

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15 best '80s slasher movies, ranked.

The '80s is largely associated with the Golden Age of slasher films, introducing some of the most memorable and iconic stories within the genre.

• The '80s gave birth to iconic slasher villains like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Chucky, leading to cult followings despite negative reviews.
• Films like "April Fool's Day" played with the slasher genre, mixing comedy, mystery, and horror, but disappointed audiences with its marketing.
• "Child's Play" introduced the killer doll Chucky, standing out with terrifying kills and a balance between horror and comedy for consistent scares.

The '80s are best known for neon colors, MTV, and some of the best slasher movies in the horror genre. As expected with any classic horror film, slashers are full of thrills and suspense but usually include more gore and a handful of characters being killed by the film's antagonists. Some of the more recognizable slasher villains from this decade include Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Chucky. Many of the best slasher films starring similar antagonists have gained cult followings over the years, despite several of them earning a wave of negative reviews .

The unexpected dangers in everyday settings such as high school dances or summer camps add a layer of suspense and have led to a variety of slasher movie remakes in recent years . A few slasher movies aren't made to be taken too seriously, but rather to play into the ridiculousness of the genre, increasing the amount of blood spilled throughout the entirety of the movie. However, other slasher movies, notably those from the "Golden Age" from the late '70s to the mid '80s , have helped define the horror genre.

15 April Fool's Day (1986)

Leaned a little too far into its titular holiday.

Meant to make fun of the slasher film genre itself and embrace the playfulness of the film's titular holiday, April Fool's Day combines comedy, mystery, and horror. The plot twists and ending of April Fool's Day left audiences incredibly disappointed . The film's director, Fred Walton, placed the blame on the marketing surrounding the film, which led audiences to believe they were in for a standard slasher movie (via Collider ). However, April Fool's Day is still worthy of mention due to its ambition and attempt to do something new among the many slasher films that had already come out in the years prior.

14 The Prowler (1981)

A formulaic slasher film with exceptional special effects.

The Prowler isn't the most daring slasher, but a few aspects of the film make it a standout among others from the decade. Many of the violent scenes in The Prowler , which are a critical highlight, were cut from the film's release in Europe and Australia, in addition to the film's menacing score being replaced with sounds of nature. The Prowler is also praised by many for its use of special effects by famous prosthetic makeup artist Tom Savini. Along with The Prowler , Savini is responsible for special effects work in other slasher films such as Friday the 13th , The Burning , and Maniac .

13 Prom Night (1980)

Contained little gore for a slasher movie.

Earning negative comparisons to the films Halloween and Carrie , Prom Night is largely uninspiring. Prom Night 's director, Paul Lynch, aimed for little gore within the film, and as a result, audiences and critics were split about the minimal amount of blood spilled. While some felt disappointment or boredom, others appreciated the room left for the audience's imagination . Still, there are enough scares for an average horror film, including a beheading that was made possible due to a specialized open floor system, giving the illusion of a bodiless head lying on the floor, albeit the special effect doesn't hold up entirely for modern audiences.

12 Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981)

Establishes the franchise's antagonist.

Following the popularity Friday the 13th had with audiences, the story at Camp Crystal Lake continues in Friday the 13th Part 2 , but, unlike the first, the film is low among the Friday the 13th franchise ranking . However, in the same vein as critical praise goes for most of the Friday the 13th franchise, the visuals and gore within the sequel were effective in displaying the ruthless nature of the film's killer. Friday the 13th Part 2 is important for establishing the series' central antagonist, Jason Voorhees , but the film simultaneously establishes a repetitive pattern in storytelling that would continue for the remainder of the franchise.

11 Stage Fright (1987)

A visually stunning slasher movie.

From Italian director Michael Soavi, Stage Fright is a thrilling slasher movie providing countless kills and inspiring visuals. Stage Fright follows a group of stage actors who are locked in a theater with a killer on the loose. Though the characters of Stage Fright , as well as the film's script, are largely weak, the striking direction by Soavi is a rarity even within universally praised slasher films. Stage Fright 's antagonist is also a creepy sight. Wearing the giant owl head meant for the actor's musical production, Stage Fright 's killer brutally attacks the members of the theater group one by one in an increasingly horrific manner.

10 My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Combines slasher elements with valentine's day.

Horror films are often associated with Halloween, but some of the most entertaining premises come when the thrill takes place during other holidays. Contrasting the images of sweetness and love associated with Valentine's Day, My Bloody Valentine is a wild ride full of bloody kills . However, as memorable as the deaths in My Bloody Valentine are, they were cut down considerably to adhere to the MPAA guidelines for an R-rating. Similar to other slasher films that followed Halloween , My Bloody Valentine was seen as a knock-off by critics, but still managed to find a strong enough following that grew to appreciate the film over the years, and a remake, My Bloody Valentine 3D , was released in 2009.

9 The Stepfather (1987)

A career highlight from terry o'quinn.

With a lead performance by Terry O'Quinn praised by critics, The Stepfather follows Jerry Blake (O'Quinn), the latest persona of a man who has gone through multiple identities after killing his families. O'Quinn gives a strong performance as the cunning and chilling antagonist from the moment he appears on the screen in The Stepfather 's opening scene. The suspense of the film is carried by Jerry's stepdaughter, who grows increasingly skeptical of him, leaving audiences to anxiously await his past to be revealed. Like many other slasher movies from the '80s, The Stepfather received sequel films and a 2009 remake, but none of them were as appreciated.

8 The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

A mix of humor and horror.

Intended to be a parody of the slasher genre, The Slumber Party Massacre has earned itself a cult following over the years. The Slumber Party Massacre doesn't particularly stand out from other slasher movies of the decade, but its unique sense of humor pairs neatly with the film's bloody visuals , even when the humor is not always intentional. The element of surprise in The Slumber Party Massacre is run-of-the-mill for a horror film, and while the thrills of the movie are endlessly entertaining for audiences, there is little room left for suspense to build.

7 A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Changed the rules regarding freddy's abilities.

Far less favored than its predecessor, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge brings back the iconic horror villain, Freddy Krueger, in a way that almost works. Freddy's Revenge includes the scares and killings audiences desire in a slasher film, but is underwhelming at times and disregards the rules of the franchise's world as they were established in A Nightmare on Elm Street . The mistake of Freddy's Revenge 's ending and placing Freddy in the real world, completely changed what audiences and critics enjoyed about the villain's modus operandi in the first place. Additionally, audiences have pointed out unintentional subtexts in the film's plot, which explores the sexuality of its lead, Jesse Walsh, making the film a cult classic over the years.

6 Halloween II (1981)

An attempt to recreate the magic of the first film.

Closely emulating its predecessor's stylistic choices, Halloween II is never fully able to live up to its success. Halloween II picks up right where the first film left off and is a gorier, bloodier film, giving plenty of scares for audiences . Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis also reprise their roles and the latter's character, Laurie Strode, is revealed to be Michael Myers' sister. This creative choice, as explained by Halloween 's director, John Carpenter, was included to have a shocking twist within the plot. Many audiences, including Carpenter, dislike the connection between the two characters, but it's a piece of the overall narrative that would continue for a majority of the Halloween franchise .

5 The Burning (1981)

A violent comparison to friday the 13th.

Due to an unfortunate release date that followed the successful Friday the 13th , The Burning earned endless comparisons, discrediting the film in the process. In all fairness, The Burning does have similar aspects to Friday the 13th , including taking place at a summer camp. However, The Burning was noted by critics for its overt gore sequences and high levels of violence, most notably the raft scene in which five campers are brutally killed by The Burning 's vengeful antagonist, Cropsy. Similar to other graphic slasher films during this time, The Burning was cut down significantly after public protests denouncing violence in the media.

4 Sleepaway Camp (1983)

An unexpected ending left audiences split.

In the years following its release, Sleepaway Camp has sparked endless conversations surrounding its plot twists. Taking place at a summer camp, Sleepaway Camp echoes the pattern of killings seen in other slasher movies of the decade, but it's the film's shocking ending that complicates the legacy of Sleepaway Camp . The opening of Sleepaway Camp shows the Baker siblings on a boating trip when one of them, Peter, dies. By the end of Sleepaway Camp , the killer's identity is exposed, revealing the truth that the surviving sibling, Angela, is actually Peter, who'd been raised as a girl by her aunt. This reveal has continued to split audiences, with some condemning the film's handling of sexuality and transphobia, and others applauding Sleepaway Camp for its ability to pull off such a large twist.

3 Child's Play (1988)

An innovative concept after slashers' golden years.

As one of the most consistent horror franchises , Child's Play is the start of a decades-long series of films. Introducing the creepy, yet equally adored killer doll, Chucky, Child's Play is full of terrifying kills and a sound balance between comedy and horror . Child's Play , having been released past what's considered the Golden Age of slasher movies, was a delightful surprise for audiences due to its entertaining premise and believable puppetry work. Critics have continued to praise Child's Play , both the initial film and the franchise, for its consistency and cast performances, especially that of Brad Dourif, who voiced Chucky.

2 Friday The 13th (1980)

A classic slasher that was expected to fail.

What continues to be a beloved slasher film as the years pass, Friday the 13th remains one of the best summer camp movies and kick-started a series of sequels. There's no particular reason why Friday the 13th should have been a box office success, but it wa s, unlike many other slasher movies from the '80s, though critical reception was still murky. Initial reviews deemed the slasher as unoriginal, landing comparisons to Halloween , and nauseatingly violent. However, like Halloween , Friday the 13th is responsible for a wave of horror films with a stalker antagonist seeking the death of a group of young adults. Despite its ability to get lost in the numerous slashers of the '80s, Friday the 13th remains a staple in horror.

1 A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

A unique premise upstages other slasher films.

A favorite slasher movie for fans of horror, A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced a standout concept and memorable antagonist in Freddy Krueger. A Nightmare on Elm Street incorporates the dreams of Krueger's teenage victims as he acts as a menacing threat, manipulating their dreams. The crossover between reality and one's dream leads to confusion about A Nightmare on Elm Street 's ending . Regardless, the film was a hit with audiences and critics and was generally celebrated for its incomparable premise and genre-defining thrills . The subtle comedic tones, which grew in excess as the franchise progressed, added a layer of wit and personality that differentiates A Nightmare on Elm Street from the slashers that came before and those that followed.

1 hr 29 min

EPISODE 98: TRAIN TO BUSAN and DENVER: CONVERGENCE STATION (MEOW WOLF‪)‬ Scream Queens "Horror Movie Road Trip" Podcast

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We traveled to another universe via MEOW WOLF DENVER: CONVERGENCE STATION!  But before we arrived to the Galactic Station we first had to make the drive to Colorful Colorado to catch our Train! Along the way we discussed the 2016 acclaimed zombie flick TRAIN TO BUSAN. Come join us on the road!! ***New Recording equipment means there's a learning curve. Hopefully we can get the audio levels a little better next episode for a cleaner sound. Thanks for your patience!

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Highway To Hell - A List of Road Themed Horror Movies

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Duel (1971 TV Movie)

PG | 90 min | Action, Thriller

A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Dennis Weaver , Jacqueline Scott , Eddie Firestone , Lou Frizzell

Votes: 78,179

Spielberg's directorial debut. He's had many more high profile hits since then but not too many better movies.

2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

R | 83 min | Horror

Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.

Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns , Edwin Neal , Allen Danziger , Paul A. Partain

Votes: 183,068 | Gross: $30.86M

3. Near Dark (1987)

R | 94 min | Horror

A small-town farmer's son reluctantly joins a traveling group of vampires after he is bitten by a beautiful drifter.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Adrian Pasdar , Jenny Wright , Lance Henriksen , Bill Paxton

Votes: 44,608 | Gross: $3.37M

The ultimate Vampire Road movie

4. Wolf Creek (2005)

R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller

Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.

Director: Greg McLean | Stars: Nathan Phillips , Cassandra Magrath , Kestie Morassi , John Jarratt

Votes: 78,178 | Gross: $16.19M

5. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller

On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.

Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Susan Lanier , Robert Houston , John Steadman , Janus Blythe

Votes: 39,115 | Gross: $25.00M

6. Death Proof (2007)

R | 127 min | Action, Thriller

Two separate sets of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by a scarred stuntman who uses his "death proof" cars to execute his murderous plans.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Kurt Russell , Zoë Bell , Rosario Dawson , Vanessa Ferlito

Votes: 313,244

Tarantino's homage to the Grindhouse tradition. A slasher movie with a difference

7. The Hitcher (1986)

R | 97 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller

A young man who escapes the clutches of a murderous hitchhiker is subsequently stalked by the hitcher and framed for his crimes.

Director: Robert Harmon | Stars: Rutger Hauer , C. Thomas Howell , Jennifer Jason Leigh , Jeffrey DeMunn

Votes: 52,365 | Gross: $5.84M

Rutger Hauer terrorizing C Thomas Howell. Jennifer Jason Leigh meets a grisly end.

8. Road Games (1981)

PG | 101 min | Mystery, Thriller

A laid-back American truck driver in south Australia suspects that the driver of a green van is killing young women along his route, and plays a game of cat-and-mouse to catch him.

Director: Richard Franklin | Stars: Stacy Keach , Jamie Lee Curtis , Marion Edward , Grant Page

Votes: 9,052

Richard Franklin, often called the Australian Hitchcock, takes Rear Window onto the open road.

9. Race with the Devil (1975)

PG | 88 min | Action, Horror, Thriller

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.

Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Peter Fonda , Warren Oates , Loretta Swit , Lara Parker

Votes: 7,320 | Gross: $12.64M

Fonda and Oates witness a human sacrifice. Unfortunately they are spotted and a frantic car chase ensues. The Wicker Man meets The Cannonball Run :-)

10. High Tension (2003)

R | 91 min | Horror

Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.

Director: Alexandre Aja | Stars: Cécile de France , Maïwenn , Philippe Nahon , Franck Khalfoun

Votes: 77,703 | Gross: $3.68M

11. Christine (1983)

R | 110 min | Horror, Thriller

A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Keith Gordon , John Stockwell , Alexandra Paul , Robert Prosky

Votes: 92,243 | Gross: $21.20M

John Carpenter directs Stephen King's tale of a killer automobile

12. Dead End (I) (2003)

R | 85 min | Adventure, Horror, Mystery

Christmas Eve. On his way to his in-laws with his family, Frank Harrington decides to try a shortcut, for the first time in 20 years. It turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life.

Directors: Jean-Baptiste Andrea , Fabrice Canepa | Stars: Ray Wise , Lin Shaye , Mick Cain , Alexandra Holden

Votes: 32,227

'A family find themselves on the road to hell on Christmas Eve. A deliciously creepy and blackly humorous little chiller

13. The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

R | 107 min | Horror, Thriller

A traveling family falls victim to a group of mutated cannibals in a desert far away from civilization.

Director: Alexandre Aja | Stars: Ted Levine , Kathleen Quinlan , Dan Byrd , Emilie de Ravin

Votes: 182,918 | Gross: $41.78M

14. The Car (1977)

PG | 96 min | Action, Horror, Mystery

A small desert town is terrorized by a powerful, seemingly possessed car, and the local sheriff may be the only one who can stop it.

Director: Elliot Silverstein | Stars: James Brolin , Kathleen Lloyd , John Marley , R.G. Armstrong

Votes: 11,641

A mysterious Black Car goes on a killing spree in a small American desert town

15. Maximum Overdrive (1986)

R | 98 min | Action, Comedy, Horror

A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.

Director: Stephen King | Stars: Emilio Estevez , Pat Hingle , Laura Harrington , Yeardley Smith

Votes: 35,672 | Gross: $7.43M

Stephen King's directorial debut posits the question 'What would happen if the machines turned on their creators?' Magnificent AC/DC soundtrack

16. The Horseman (2008)

R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

When Christian finds out his runaway teenage daughter, Jesse has been sexually attacked, the suburban father loses it. Setting out to find Jesse's attacker, Christian goes on a violent rampage.

Director: Steven Kastrissios | Stars: Peter Marshall , Caroline Marohasy , Brad McMurray , Jack Henry

Votes: 5,376

17. Frontier(s) (2007)

Unrated | 108 min | Horror

A gang of young thieves flee Paris during the violent aftermath of a political election, only to hole up at an Inn run by neo-Nazis.

Director: Xavier Gens | Stars: Karina Testa , Aurélien Wiik , Patrick Ligardes , Samuel Le Bihan

Votes: 28,739

18. Hush (V) (2008)

Not Rated | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

A young couple on a motorway journey are drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a truck driver following a near accident.

Director: Mark Tonderai | Stars: William Ash , Christine Bottomley , Andreas Wisniewski , Claire Keelan

Votes: 7,208

19. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

R | 98 min | Horror

After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding loon and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

Director: Marcus Nispel | Stars: Jessica Biel , Jonathan Tucker , Andrew Bryniarski , Erica Leerhsen

Votes: 152,188 | Gross: $80.57M

20. The Death Wheelers (1973)

PG | 85 min | Adventure, Horror

An amiable, psychopathic leader of a violent teen motorbike gang is spurred by his mother, a Satan-worshiping spiritual medium, into committing suicide and returning to life as an "undead".

Director: Don Sharp | Stars: George Sanders , Beryl Reid , Nicky Henson , Mary Larkin

Votes: 3,136

21. Joy Ride (2001)

Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer.

Director: John Dahl | Stars: Steve Zahn , Paul Walker , Leelee Sobieski , Jessica Bowman

Votes: 75,748 | Gross: $21.97M

Two brother's play a prank on a lonely truck driver. Big Mistake!

22. Jeepers Creepers (2001)

R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery

A brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree.

Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Gina Philips , Justin Long , Jonathan Breck , Patricia Belcher

Votes: 142,193 | Gross: $37.90M

The opening 30 minutes of this movie are breathlessly scary. The rest not so much.

23. The Wraith (1986)

PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Horror, Romance

In a small town in Arizona, a mysterious man/spirit descends from the sky and manifests in a sports car and targets a local violent road-racing gang of motor heads, headed by a ruthless bully who'll do anything to get what he wants.

Director: Mike Marvin | Stars: Charlie Sheen , Nick Cassavetes , Sherilyn Fenn , Randy Quaid

Votes: 19,176 | Gross: $3.50M

A young Charlie Sheen returns from the dead to avenge his own death at the hands of a vicious gang of drag racing thugs

24. Wrong Turn (I) (2003)

R | 84 min | Horror, Thriller

Chris and a group of five friends are left stranded deep in the middle of the woods after their cars collide. As they venture deeper into the woods, they face an uncertain and bloodcurdling fate.

Director: Rob Schmidt | Stars: Eliza Dushku , Jeremy Sisto , Emmanuelle Chriqui , Desmond Harrington

Votes: 130,907 | Gross: $15.42M

25. Wind Chill (2007)

R | 91 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror

Two college students share a ride home for the holidays, but when they break down on a deserted stretch of road, they are preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there.

Director: Gregory Jacobs | Stars: Emily Blunt , Ashton Holmes , Martin Donovan , Ned Bellamy

Votes: 24,938 | Gross: $0.02M

26. Drive Angry (2011)

R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Fantasy

A vengeful father escapes from hell and chases after the men who killed his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter.

Director: Patrick Lussier | Stars: Nicolas Cage , Amber Heard , William Fichtner , Billy Burke

Votes: 103,308 | Gross: $10.71M

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