Top 10 Road Trip Horror Movies of All Time

These are the films that made you think twice about taking that vacation. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Road Trip Horror Movies.



For this list, we’re looking at horror films that revolve around a group of characters embarking on a road trip. Whether it’s cruising down the highway, driving out to the cottage, or setting out on foot, all forms of road trip nightmares are welcome.

While driving home for spring break through Florida, siblings Trish and Darry have a series of close calls with the driver of a rusty truck after witnessing him toss a body down a pipe. Curious, Darry crawls down the pipe and discovers hundreds of human bodies sewn into the walls of a dark cavern. Trish and her brother then desperately try to get help, but soon become the targets of the mysterious truck driver, who is actually a bloodthirsty creature known simply as “The Creeper.” Taking inspiration from urban legends like the Jersey Devil and Spring-Heeled Jack, this movie’s blend of gothic and slasher elements spawned a new icon in the pantheon of classic monsters.

While you can’t always trust when you hear a movie is “based on true events,” what is true about this slasher flick is that real-life incidents did inspire writer-director Greg McLean’s screenplay. In 1996, Australian Ivan Milat was convicted of several murders, including foreign backpackers, and as such “Wolf Creek,” sees 2 British tourists and an Australian going cross- country using this economic form of travel. Unfortunately, Liz, Kristy and Ben fall victim to a crazed psychopath who initially offers to help them during a time of need, but as horror thrillers go, they’re subsequently assaulted, tortured and put through hell. If controversy-raising, realistic violence combined with road trips are your thing, then this movie’s for you.

This movie adaptation of Stephen King’s once thought to be unfilmable novel is a Netflix original that surprised many; sure, it was directed by Mike Flanagan, who’s made a name for himself in the horror genre, but it’s also the tale of a woman who finds herself alone and handcuffed to the bed of secluded lake house following her husband’s death - by heart attack! Okay, we guess if you count Gerald’s corpse, a dog, some inner demon and another “surprise,” she’s not completely alone - but that’s not the point we’re trying to make. This psychological horror thriller REALLY messes with your mind, and really makes you rethink any plans you might have about having a romantic getaway in a remote location.

When two American college students go backpacking through northern England, the worst of their problems at first seems to be finding a pub that serves food. However, failing to heed the advice of the Slaughtered Lamb’s patrons to keep clear of the moors comes back to bite them… literally. The two are attacked by a ravenous werewolf that kills Jack and wounds David before being gunned down by the locals. Unfortunately for David, his survival means that he’s now cursed to become a werewolf himself when the next full moon rises. Turns out backpacking through the English moors wasn’t a good idea after all.

Directed by Eli Roth, this early entry into the torture porn subgenre definitely had people reconsidering if backpacking through Europe was a good idea. Following a group of friends as their European journey takes them to Slovakia, the main characters are lured into staying the night at a hostel with some beautiful women. However, the vacation becomes horrific when the tourists begin to be drugged and kidnapped. The friends are then introduced to a secret organization that allows people to act out their most sadistic and homicidal fantasies on living victims for a price. Infamous for its unrelenting brutality, “Hostel” is a dark glance into the depths of human depravity.

A haunting subversion of horror film tropes, “Funny Games” emphasizes the terror of a very real monster: the psychopath. While staying at their vacation home near a lake, a family is accosted by two young men whose intentions are clearly nefarious. After breaking the father’s leg with a golf club, the two boys begin a series of twisted games with their three victims for their amusement. With no concrete motive given to the boys’ malice, the audience can only assume they are simply vicious sadists who enjoy terrorizing, torturing, and murdering innocents. While the road trip aspect is brief, the film will remind you to change the locks on your lake house.

After driving down to Texas to visit their grandfather’s grave with three friends, siblings Sally and Franklin decide to visit their family’s nearby homestead and end up walking into a nightmare. Following a disturbing experience involving a self-mutilating hitchhiker, the friends run out of gas and venture out to a nearby house in search of fuel. Instead, they find a homicidal maniac with a love of sledgehammers and chainsaws along with his insane family of deranged cannibals. Although nowhere near as gory as its reputation would have you believe, this Tobe Hooper-directed classic serves up the terror in Texas-sized helpings.

Five college students driving out to an isolated cabin with a Necronomicon in the basement, what could possibly go wrong? After discovering the Sumerian Book of the Dead and playing the recording of an archaeologist reading from it, the five friends inadvertently release a malevolent entity that begins to terrorize them. As the demon begins hopping from host to host, only reluctant hero Ash has the courage to fight back against the evil spirit. Despite being as blood-soaked as its sequels, the first film in Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” franchise takes a more serious route, which succeeds in amplifying the sheer horror of this road trip to Hell.

A story about a clash between two very different families, “The Hills Have Eyes” pits an average suburban clan on vacation against a pack of deformed cannibals. After making the familiar error of stopping for gas in an isolated desert, the Carter family ends up having to fight for their lives when the monstrous family of scavengers targets them. Picking up where he left off with “The Last House on the Left,” Wes Craven brings a gritty realism to his second horror film, which magnifies the visceral nature of its violence. The quintessential mobile-home invasion flick, “The Hills Have Eyes” serves as yet another reminder to choose gas stations wisely.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions:

- “Cabin Fever” (2002)

- “The Descent” (2005)

- “Wrong Turn” (2003)

- “The Strangers” (2008)

- “The Ritual” (2017)

Just when you think a subgenre has been done to death, a film like this comes along to change all the rules. When a group of college kids drive out to spend a weekend at a remote cabin, it appears that we are in for a familiar story… until it becomes clear they are the players in an elaborately perverse game orchestrated by underground technicians. Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, this horror-comedy serves as a meta-fictional satire of horror movie conventions that both celebrates and satirizes what makes them great. A complete rejection of the “less is more” approach, “The Cabin in the Woods” is as frightening as it is hilarious.