Horror Movies in Nature

Not for the faint of heart. Every pick here is rated R, so save them for after the kids are in bed.

Written by Blaine Pate

Most of the year, we’re the ones telling you to get outside. Consider this post the exception. Horror is at its best when it pushes emotions to the extreme, and nature is the perfect place to do it. Out there, far from the comforts of modern life, loneliness has room to grow until it can drive people over the edge. Here are five movies that take that idea and run with it like no other.

1

Yellow wildflowers on a sunny hillside above a valley

Midsommar (2019)

Rural Sweden · A midsummer festival in a remote commune · Dir. Ari Aster

Flower crowns, grassy fields and community don’t sound like the makings of a horror movie, but Ari Aster is dead set on proving you wrong. It’s one of the most memorable nature horror movies of the past decade, and it changes what makes a horror movie work by keeping the audience in the light. Instead of hiding the scares in the dark, he keeps everything out in the open, in endless daylight.

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The sun barely sets in Midsommar, so you’ll want real sunglasses. Ray-Ban’s Round Double Bridge nails the retro festival look, minus the creepy flower crown.

2

Annihilation (2018)

Area X, a wild stretch of coastline sealed off by the Shimmer · Dir. Alex Garland

A shimmering rainbow haze and a swamp full of wildflowers sound beautiful, and in Annihilation they are. Just not in a way you’d want to hike through. Alex Garland, who also made Ex Machina, adapts Jeff VanderMeer’s novel into the most sci-fi pick on this list. Something called the Shimmer is spreading from a lighthouse on the coast and changing every plant and animal it touches, and the movie never fully explains why.

Five explorers walking toward the shimmering forest in Annihilation

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The Shimmer is basically one giant swamp. Xtratuf deck boots keep your feet dry while you wade through it, whatever is in the water with you.

3

A pasture running up to a dark pine forest

The Witch (2015)

A lone farm on the edge of the woods, 1630s New England · Dir. Robert Eggers

The Witch was Robert Eggers’ first movie, years before The Lighthouse and Nosferatu, and he rebuilt 1630s New England right down to the way people talked, with much of the dialogue taken straight from journals and court records of the time. Most scenes are lit only by daylight or candles, so when night falls, the forest really goes black. It’s a slow burn that lets paranoia do the work.

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When the forest goes black, a little light goes a long way. The Moji+ is small enough to hang right inside your tent.

4

The Ritual (2017)

Four friends, a hiking trail and a shortcut through a Swedish forest · Dir. David Bruckner

Anyone who’s hiked past sunset knows the moment a familiar trail starts to feel off. The Ritual lives in that moment from start to finish. The trees get thicker and the light gets thinner with every mile. By the time the sun goes down, even the quiet feels loud. Director David Bruckner keeps you lost right alongside four old friends, right up until the forest itself starts to feel like it’s watching. Maybe don’t watch this one the night before a camping trip.

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Never take a shortcut through the woods without a headlamp. The Spot is bright enough to show you what’s moving in the trees, which may or may not be a good thing.

5

Sheep grazing on a green Scottish hillside

The Wicker Man (1973)

Summerisle, an island off the coast of Scotland · May Day · Dir. Robin Hardy

Made back in 1973, it’s the movie that kicked off folk horror, and you can see its fingerprints all over Midsommar. Instead of jump scares or gore, it lets the dread build slowly, as one outsider realizes the whole island is in on something he isn’t. Christopher Lee is magnetic as the island’s charming leader, and he called it the favorite of all his movies.

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Heading to a Scottish island? Dress for it. Barbour has been making waxed jackets for British wind and rain for over a century, and the Ashby is one of their classics.