Life is full of scary car journeys. You know the ones: breaking down on the hard shoulder with a toddler who needs the toilet, or being late for a 9am meeting because of an accident at Junction 17.
But road trips to deserted cabins in the woods or haunted hotels via apocalyptic landscapes are a different matter altogether. Coming up behind you like a demonic, possessed pick-up truck is this selection of famous scary movie road trips, specially hand-picked for you for Halloween. Don’t have nightmares.
The Shining (1980)
Fancy a nice winter break in a hotel? Unfortunately our Drive The Night Away test-drive campaign is now closed, but instead, perhaps you could get away from it all by working as a caretaker in a remote guest house during the off-season. It’s not all bad. In fact, in the opening credits of The Shining, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an ad from the Colorado tourist board. The wide-open road, the snow covered mountains, the pine trees… but hang on. What about the dark tunnel? And the ominous music? And the TWINS IN THE HALLWAY?
Psycho (1960)
Again, what should have been a nice Airbnb experience turns into a nightmare for poor Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). In an attempt to escape her demons, she drives straight towards the Bates Motel, run by the completely normal Norman, who isn’t a murderer who dresses up as his dead mother at all. In true Hitchcock style, the continuous shot of Marion driving as thoughts race around her head creates bucket loads of in-car tension and claustrophobia. Oh, if only she’d picked a Premier Inn.
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Two teenagers on a road trip. The sun is shining, there’s nobody else on the road apart from two pensioners in a motorhome… What could possibly go wrong? Well. For a start that rusty old lorry which was previously spotted parked at the side of a road (dispensing what looked awfully like a body into a large underground tunnel) is behind you. And it’s not like your regular HGV. It definitely looks like it needs a service, it hasn’t had a valet in years and it’s getting a bit too close for comfort…
Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Going on a road trip with Chris Hemsworth can’t be that bad, right? However, you’re on the way to the Cabin in the Woods, a remote hellmouth where horrors are secretly engineered via an underground bunker operated by some mysterious shady figures. Even scarier, the cabin doesn’t have Wi-Fi. As one by one the characters go into the cellar to meet their fate, it might be a good idea to get out of there in the car, perhaps via an underground tunnel. Yeah, good luck with that.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) spends this film driving a tank across a post-apocalyptic desert landscape in an attempt to locate her childhood home. She is pursued by an entire army, runs into a lawless biker gang, gets wounded and then finds out that her former home has turned into a swamp. It’s a bit like going to Ikea on a Saturday afternoon then coming back to your house, only to find it’s a complete bombsite.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
What would you do if your family car suffers a puncture while taking a short cut through the New Mexico hills? If you’d been smart enough to take out breakdown cover via Arnold Clark Insurance, you’d have been picked up in no time. But if you’re a character in The Hills Have Eyes, you’d go into the woods, only to be attacked and eaten by mutants in a variety of hideous ways. Oh well, you know what to do.
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