In many people’s minds,horroris associated with all that is dark and cold. Many horror movies play into this idea, taking place at night, featuring characters who are trapped in a haunted mansion by a blizzard, locked in the chilly corridors of a spaceship with an alien on the prowl, or otherwise drawing upon the chilly unknown.
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Yet some horror movies buck this trend by taking place during the summer, a season that for many represents light, warmth, and the opportunity to relax with friends and loved ones. Thesehorror movies turn summer’s tropes against it, mocking the expectation that just because it’s warm and sunny everything will be okay. Here are some great horror movies set in summer.
8Sleepaway Camp
Camp is a perennial favorite setting in horror.It combines a ready supply of young victims with the isolation necessary for a monster or psychotic slasher to do their bloody work. There are more famous examples, but one of the most fun is 1983’sSleepaway Camp,in whicha series of mysterious deaths occur at the summer camp to which a young girl was sent by her abusive aunt.
There are plenty of reasons to recommendSleepaway Camp,including its fantastic twist ending. The film could have easily been just another camp slasher, butSleepaway Campincludes a variety of deep and difficult themes, rewarding repeated viewings as much as the first.
7The Hills Have Eyes
Wes Craven’s hillbilly horror taleThe Hills Have Eyesreceived a well-executed remake, but the original 1977 version of the film remains the stronger of the two. A family traveling to California is attacked by a group of cannibals, instigating a nightmare in the desert.
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Despite its bleak subject and occasionally repulsive content,The Hills Have Eyesmanages to be funnier than the remake, which in some ways only makes the violence all the more upsetting when it occurs. Unlike many horror movies in which the victims stand no chance against the killer and only exist as disposable pawns,the family in this film does their best to combat the cannibals,resulting in some exciting confrontations.
6The Ruins
Body horror is one of the most delicate of horror’s numerous subgenres.Themes of infection, corruption, infestation, and mutation can easily be made too subtle to have an impact or so obvious that they lose all thematic depth.The Ruinswalks a fine line between these dangers and triumphs as a result.
A group of tourists takes a summer vacation to Mexico, only to wind upoffending a group of Mayans while trying to help a stranger track down his missing brother.Rather than lean heavily into gore,The Ruinskeeps its focus on escalating anxiety, a decision that pays off over and over again. The film’s ambiguous ending couples with its flesh-crawling CGI to make for a truly unsettling film.
5I Know What You Did Last Summer
One of the best things aboutI Know What You Did Last Summeris its superb title, one that has plenty of mystery to draw viewers in and manages not to sound awkward or ridiculous despite its length.
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Four friends joyriding accidentally hit a stranger with their car,and rather than call an ambulance or the police, they decide to dispose of his body and swear one another to secrecy. Their plan to cover up the crime falls apart the following summer when it starts to seem like someone else may be aware of what they did and may be looking for vengeance. Despite being parodied byScary Movie, I Know What You Did Last Summeris an excellent film in its own right, featuring a star-studded cast and some clever writing.
4Jeepers Creepers
A brother and sister head home for the summer holidays, but their road trip is derailed when the flesh-eating creature of local legend begins hunting them.Jeepers Creepersis a strange blend of films, mixing monster horror with the automotive terror ofDuel,but it mostly works. It doesn’t hurt thatthis slasher features a heartbreaking death.
It doesn’t exactly break new ground in the genre, butthe Creeper is a terrifying antagonist.The film packs in some indelible imagery. Its ending is a master class in creepiness, even managing to ruin the 1938 song that inspired the film’s title. Anything capable of tainting a classic forever with a shot or two deserves whatever praise it gets.
3Friday The 13th
The ultimate summer camp slasher and one of the best and brightest stars in horror cinema, theFriday the 13thfranchise introduced the world to Jason Voorhees and his hockey mask, giving Halloween stores something to stock forever. The original film boasted a different killer, butitsstory of the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake is just as good as what came later.
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So many movies have copiedFriday the 13th’spremise of an unstoppable slasher killing pleasure-obsessed teenagers that it can be hard to see the film apart from the legion of copycats. With creepy POV shots and expert direction, the film does its absolute best to make sure no one feels safe at camp again. The franchise did its job well enough to warrant a dozen entries, which is really all there is to say.
2The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
It’s hard to know what to praise first about Tobe Hooper’sThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre.The shocking realism of its cinematography and direction, the grisly set design, or the decision to keep its bloodiest moments off-screen in order to ramp up the dread. Jugglingmultiple villains in one horror movieis tough, butTCMdoes it right.
Leatherface and his depraved clan feature in what remains one of the deepest and most upsetting horror movies.A satire, cultural critique, and exploitative bloodbath all at once,The Texas Chainsaw Massacreis hard to boil down to its essentials. What matters is the way audiences react to the whirr of the chainsaw to this day. Summer has never looked so grimy and unpleasant as it does here.
1Jaws
Thanks toJaws,some people will never go back in the water. It’s one thing to scare audiences; it’s another thing to scare audiences so badly they give up an entire summer pastime. Steven Spielberg’s tale ofa gigantic great white shark terrorizing the local residents of a once-quiet town is as close to perfect as films come.
The unforgettable theme music that plays upon the shark’s approach is just one way that Spielberg and his team conspired to create one ofthe scariest killer shark moviesof all time. The film features virtuoso direction, great casting, and an animatronic shark worth screaming about, makingJawsthe summer horror film to beat.
