Death March: 5 Spooky Hiking Horror Movies You Haven’t Seen
Forest Fright
Forests are places for recreation and renewal, but they can also be dangerous and terrifying. Long ago, the wilderness was rarely used as a horror movie setting. This was partly because of the logistical difficulties of filming there. Hiking horror movies were virtually nonexistent.
That changed quickly after the original Friday the 13th hit theaters in 1980. Horror filmmakers quickly realized that setting their movies in the woods could be big business at the box office.
Wilderness genre films can be split into two main categories: hiking horror and summer camp horror. The former is typically about a couple, or small group of friends, who are hiking/camping together and become the target of a killer lurking in the woods.
Related: The 10 Spookiest Horror Movie Settings
Horror fans are familiar with the most famous of these films, like The Blair Witch Project (1999). But what about the forgotten gems, the movies that were lost in the shuffle? Here are five spooky hiking horror movies that you (probably) haven’t seen.
The Final Terror (1983)
A group of forest rangers and their girlfriends journey deep into the North Carolina wilderness for a camping trip. Their carefree adventure is derailed when a cunning killer begins to hunt them down. The unknown assailant has placed deadly traps throughout the woods.
One wrong move and the hikers will end up decapitated or hung from a tree. Accusations fly and a member of the group is accused of being the perpetrator. The truth turns out to be stranger than anyone could have imagined.
I’m not sure how they came up with this movie’s title. It seems like a film with “final” in its name should be part of a series. The Final Terror is a standalone. There were never any prequels or sequels.
Were they trying to claim that this was the ‘final terror’ because it would scare audiences to death? Beats the hell out of me.
The oddly named Final Terror starts slowly, but builds up to a creepy conclusion. It has more character development than the typical ’80s slasher and features some young actors who went on to have long professional careers (Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward).
The Final Terror gets bonus points for creativity. This is the only movie I’ve seen where tin can lids are used as a murder weapon. Slice and dice time!
Stream The Final Terror on Prime Video
The Interior (2015)
Next up is a movie so obscure that it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. After getting a troubling diagnosis at the doctor’s office, James (Patrick McFadden) leaves his job, breaks up with his girlfriend, and heads into the Canadian wilderness alone.
He sets up a tent and lives in solitude for awhile. Weird stuff begins to happen. Is James being attacked? Is the forest haunted? Or is he simply losing his mind?
The Interior slogs through a meandering first half and features an utterly uncompelling protagonist. James is not likeable at all, and it’s tough to muster much interest in what happens to him.
Yet this movie delivers some real shocks during its second half. Along with plenty of other spooky occurrences, James has multiple bizarre encounters with a strange man wearing a red coat.
It’s unclear whether the man is a person, a ghost, or a figment of James’s imagination. But he’s creepy as hell. And can anything match the sheer unadulterated terror of lying inside a tent alone, at night, and hearing someone unzip your tent from outside? Yikes!
If you’re looking for clear answers and a conclusive ending, look elsewhere. But despite its many flaws, The Interior is probably the scariest of the hiking horror movies in this list.
The Prey (1983)
A trio of couples hiking through the Rocky Mountains are stalked by a mysterious axe-wielding maniac. The killings are apparently connected to a forest fire that occurred decades earlier. The villain is kept off screen until the final minutes, and it’s only in the last moments that the true purpose of his gruesome rampage is revealed.
The Prey is often forgotten amidst the vast horde of wilderness horror movies that were released during the ’80s. It’s distinguished by its offbeat weirdness. Director Edwin Brown makes some unorthodox, even baffling, choices.
Brown dedicates an astonishingly high portion of his film’s runtime to nature footage. We might generously assume that he did this to make a statement about the perils of human interference with the natural world. But, let’s face it, he was probably just trying to pad the movie’s runtime.
Take out the travelogue stuff, and what remains is a surprisingly effective and creepy slasher populated by an obscure but enthusiastic cast who are dispatched in increasingly gruesome fashion.
Unlike The Final Terror, which shares many of the same plot elements, The Prey doesn’t have any novice actors who went on to have major careers. But it does feature the last performance of the late Jackie Coogan, who played Uncle Fester in the 1960s Addams Family series.
Along with the aforementioned nature show strangeness, The Prey distinguishes itself by stinging us with a demented twist ending. Slashers aren’t exactly known for having happy conclusions, but few are as shockingly chilling as this.
The Ranger (2018)
Years after “accidentally” killing her uncle, a pink-haired ’80s punk chick flees into the woods with her friends after one of them stabs a cop. They hang out at her late uncle’s cabin while they plan their next move. Can Chelsea (Chloé Levine) and her friends escape to Canada and avoid the authorities?
Unfortunately for them, a psychopath is lurking in the woods. A deranged park ranger (Jeremy Holm), who long ago helped young Chelsea avoid trouble for killing her uncle, is still patrolling the area. This dude really hates punks. Worse, he’s creepily obsessed with Chelsea and is angry that she has chosen the punk lifestyle.
The ranger slaughters the punks for laughably ridiculous reasons, like having an open alcohol container or not possessing a proper permit. With no other rangers around (maybe he killed them all?), there’s no one to stop his rampage. Soon, it’s just him and Chelsea in the woods. Just like he wants it.
Director and writer Jenn Wexler both honors and satirizes ’80s slasher movies. The most surprising aspect of her movie is its complete lack of likeable characters. Chelsea subverts the outdated horror trope of the “pure” final girl. The ranger tells her that they are the same, and he actually has a point. Levine gives a tough, intense performance as a troubled girl who struggles with homicidal urges. Holm is hilariously campy as the villain.
I’ve always enjoyed slashers that end with long one-on-one battles between the villain and the final girl. The Ranger doesn’t disappoint in this regard. It’s here that the movie’s satirical nature truly comes into focus, with both characters making comically inept mistakes that prevent them from finishing each other off.
Levine and Wexler collaborated again for The Sacrifice Game (2023), which I reviewed here. In that movie, Levine plays a totally different type of character: a sweet, innocent school teacher who tries to protect her students from a cult.
Significant Other (2022)
Ruth (Maika Monroe) and Harry (Jake Lacy) are a couple hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Harry is planning to propose to Ruth during the trip. Their journey is upended by a shapeshifting alien. Early in the film, the entity kills Harry and transforms itself to look like him. When Ruth figures out the shocking truth, she attempts to outwit the creature.
The alien has one weakness: it absorbs the emotions and characteristics of the people that it impersonates. It’s unfamiliar with deep human emotions, like love and fear, and it doesn’t know how to handle them.
Significant Other is the most creative movie in this list. Instead of being another wilderness slasher, it takes a sci-fi route. There are lots of movies about aliens who disguise themselves as humans, but it’s rare to see this plot element combined with a forest setting. It’s an entertaining combo that makes this one of the best hiking horror movies.
It’s interesting to see Maika Monroe in a science fiction movie. This is quite a departure from the stuff she usually does. She gives a genuine, heartfelt performance. Ruth struggles with anxiety issues, but she is poised and courageous. She gives the alien way more than it bargained for, that’s for sure.
Stream Significant Other on Paramount Plus
End of the Road
In an era when most people live in cities or suburbs, the woods are often associated with the unknown and the mysterious. To many of us, a forest is a dark, alien environment filled with unfamiliar terrain, strange sounds, and hidden creatures.
The fear of the unknown is an innate human emotion. The best hiking horror movies exploit this. They have spooky atmosphere, relatable characters, and mysterious villains.
Most of these movies are about people who are stalked by unknown adversaries. There’s no way for them to know exactly what they’re up against, no easy path to escape, and no ability to rely on external protective factors like the police or a nearby hospital. These factors are why forests will continue to be iconic horror movie settings well into the future.
