Heat of the fright: The 23 best summer horror films

Tobe Hooper’s 1974 slasher masterpiece, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” isn’t just generally set in the summer but is specifically stated to take place from August 18-19, 1973. That’s when Leatherface and his deranged family terrorized some traveling teens in the first installment of this franchise that has since spawned eight sequels, prequels, remakes and reboots over the following five decades.

Some people never looked at the ocean the same way again after the shark blockbuster “Jaws” was released in 1975. Steven Spielberg’s horror thriller starred Richard Dreyfus, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw as a makeshift shark-hunting team determined to protect the people of Amity Island during the tourist-heavy Fourth of July weekend. Any four beach-centric films in this franchise are fine summer flicks, and each offers something a little different. The original Jaws is a polished masterpiece, “Jaws 2” (1978) is a worthy follow-up, “Jaws 3-D” 1983 is a gimmicky cheese-fest, and “Jaws: The Revenge” (1987) is so cringe and campy that you’re sure to laugh all the way through.

Released in the summer of 1977, “The Hills Have Eyes” is also set in the summer during one family’s vacation through the desolate Nevada desert. After suffering the now-tired horror trope of car trouble, the family is tormented, attacked, and brutally tortured by a much more sinister family that lives in the surrounding hills. Wes Craven’s cannibal classic inspired a 1985 sequel and 2006 remake, but neither held up to the original.

Years before making a name for himself with “Gremlins” and “Gremlins 2,” Joe Dante directed this low-budget B-movie that capitalized on the recent success of “Jaws”. Universal Pictures almost sued to stop “Piranha” — which was released around the same time as “Jaws 2” — but Steven Spielberg himself argued against allowing it, as he saw an early cut of “Piranha” and convinced the studio it was more of a tongue-in-cheek parody than a rip-off. “Piranha” and its absurd plot, acting, and special effects has since become a cult classic.

The epitome of summer camp slashers, “Friday the 13th” is the most obvious inclusion on this list. The hockey mask-wearing Jason Voorhees first sliced and diced his way into our little hearts in 1980 (although it was technically Mrs. Voorhees who kicked off the franchise with the original “Friday” film, and Jason didn’t don his signature mask until “Friday the 13th Part III” in 1982). The machete-wielding killer returned to Camp Crystal Lake to exact revenge on counselors, campers, and other unfortunate victims in nearly every film, so pick your favorite! (Ours is “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” from 1986.)

Gardening is a popular summer pastime, but nobody has a garden quite like Farmer Vincent (played by veteran actor Rory Calhoun). They say, “it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s Fritters,” but it really only takes the human kind, as Vincent and his sister trap victims on a nearby roadway, take them to their seedy motel, bury them up to their necks, and fatten them up for future harvest. The Kevin Connor-directed film was initially intended to be a serious, low-budget slasher, but as you might be able to tell from the synopsis, it ended up being a darkly comedic satire of similar films that came before it — and a cult classic we can’t recommend enough.

Although it came out a year after “Friday the 13th,” “The Burning” was not a copycat film. The producers had wanted to make a low-budget movie for years and decided to create a story that was inspired by the Cropsey killer — an urban legend from the ‘70s that was told and retold by summer campers across Upstate New York. The result was “The Burning,” an underrated slasher movie that starred, among others, Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter as campers chased by a killer with a pair of garden shears.

“Friday the 13th” is to summer camp slashers as “The Evil Dead” is to cabin-in-the-woods horror movies. A group of college students (led by the iconic Bruce Campbell) vacation in a remote cabin, find an ancient book bound in human skin, and begin reading archaic passages in Latin that summon the dead with expectedly detrimental (and unexpectedly humorous) results. Writer/director Sam Raimi established himself with this film, which spawned a similar but much zanier remake/sequel in 1987 (and is absolutely worth a Summerween watch), the even-more-out-there medieval sequel “Army of Darkness” in 1992, and additional installments in 2013 (“Evil Dead”), 2023 (“Evil Dead Rise”), as well as a TV series that ran from 2015 to 2018 (“Ash vs. Evil Dead”).

The Cropsey legend also yielded another summer-themed cult classic: 1981’s “Madman.” The film opens around a campfire with the story of Madman Marz, who is mockingly summoned by the youngsters. But it is Marz who gets the last laugh as he picks off the campers one by one throughout this predictably-plotted slasher that nevertheless showcases a unique style by writer/director Joe Giannone, some solid gore, and plenty of ‘80s cheese.

A sorority’s graduation party prank goes horribly wrong when a house mother is accidentally shot and the offending sisters soon meet their untimely ends. “The House on Sorority Row” was remade in 2009 (under the title “Sorority Row”), but it’s the 1982 original that’s often named among the best slashers of all time. Gory and gratuitous, this graduation-themed horror classic is a killer way to kick off your summer.

“Sleepaway Camp” is a near-perfect film if you’re a fan of slashers. It’s set at a summer camp. Its victims are campers and counselors alike. It’s loaded with gore and ‘80s campiness. And, unlike many slashers, it even has a whodunit element. Some horror fans are dismissive of the sequels “Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers” (1988) and “Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland” — both of which are much less polished, much more comical, and replaced the original Angela (Felissa Rose) with Pamela Springsteen — but we love each one. The 2008 and 2012 sequels, however, should be ignored completely.

“Arachnophobia” hit theaters on July 18, 1990 — the height of insect season, and the perfect time to release a film about killer spiders. Jeff Daniels and John Goodman star in this horror-comedy, which received surprisingly solid reviews for its balance of humor and terror, and managed $53 million at the box office during a period in which scary movies weren’t especially popular. 

Ah, summer. A time for romance, a time for outings to the beach and the zoo, and a time for rat-monkeys to bite people and turn them into crazed zombies that feed on the flesh of the living. It’s also the season of breaking out the old lawn mower to keep your yard tidy and mow down scores of zombies that try to take over your home. This may not be your  typical summer, but it’s what happens to Lionel (Timothy Balme) in Peter Jackson’s absurd rom-com splatter film “Braindead,” also known by the title “Dead Alive.” Not only is this film full of laughs, but it might be the bloodiest movie we’ve ever seen.

Of course, we must include “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” as it not only references summer right in the title, but the 1997 horror film also takes place in the summer. An all-star lineup of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillipe play four friends who hit a pedestrian with their car and vow never to speak of it again…until they start receiving threatening letters a year later. Based on the 1972 novel of the same name, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” led to sequels in 1998 and 2006 (the latter being a direct-to-video release), as well as an Amazon Prime Video series that ran for a single season in 2021.

As if staying in a remote cabin in the Appalachian wilderness isn’t scary enough, the all-female cast of characters in 2005’s “The Descent” opt to go spelunking only to have their narrow tunnel exit collapse behind them. But this isn’t some “127 Hours”-type survival movie, as it’s not just hunger, thirst, and the elements that the cave explorers must face, but also a species of cannibalistic humanoids that live deep within the Earth. Unlike many 2000s horror films, “The Descent” was well-received by critics and audiences alike and holds an 86% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

A summer backpacking trip in Europe becomes a nightmare for two recent college grads and their friend when they find themselves in a Slovakian hostel where many who check in never check out. An extremely gratuitous modern take on torture-centric horror films, “Hostel” pulls no punches in its graphic scenes and sadistic plot, which many see as a commentary on consumerism. It’s also the film that’s responsible for establishing Eli Roth as a major player in the horror industry.

A group of college friends go camping in West Virginia, encounter some hillbillies en route, and begin dying in terrible ways. In most horror films, the hillbillies would be the killers, but in the comedy-horror “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil,” nearly every death is an unfortunate accident. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine play the titular characters in this clever story that’s as funny as it is gory — and there’s certainly plenty of the latter.

“The Cabin in the Woods” is a horror movie, a satirical send-up of horror movies, and a love letter to horror movies all rolled into one film. Produced and co-written by Joss Whedon, this comedy also has some familiar faces in its cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and Jesse Williams. “The Cabin in the Woods” may seem like a worn cliche, but the imaginative plot is actually way too unique and complicated to get into here, with the twists, turns, and shocking surprises sure to keep you both guessing and laughing. 

“The Final Girls” is an ode to horror movies that’s about an ode to horror movies. It centers on a handful of audience members at a screening of an ‘80s cult classic summer camp slasher who attempt to escape the theater during a fire but instead find themselves stuck in the film itself. There are some sappy moments in this 2015 comedy-horror, but the movie never takes itself too seriously and features a strong cast that includes Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Adam Devine, Thomas Middleditch, and Alia Shawkat. 

A group of seven young friends known as “The Loser Club” band together one summer to defeat an evil entity that most commonly manifests itself as an extremely creepy clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). This Stephen King story was previously adapted in 1990 as a TV miniseries starring Tim Curry as the clown, and the reboot also included a sequel, 2019’s “It Chapter Two,” which features the friends returning to Derry, Maine, 27 years later to put Pennywise away one more time.

A film festival darling, Saturn Award-winner, and the second most popular film on Shudder in 2018, “Summer of 84” is a little bit of a murder mystery, a little bit of a horror film, and a big dose of nostalgia for the decade in which it’s set. It’s sort of like an ‘80s version of “Rear Window,” but with serial killings instead of a single murder, a cast of teens replacing Jimmy Stewart, and a payoff that’s bigger, gorier, and a whole lot darker than the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic.

Jordan Peele followed up his directorial debut — the 2017 horror film “Get Out” — with another terrifying tale in 2019. This one centers on the Wilson family, who are attacked by their sinister doppelgangers while on a summer beach vacation. More of a pure horror film than “Get Out,” “Us” starred Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker, and earned more than $250 million at the box office.

Midsommar made a big splash when it was first released in 2019. Not only was it critically acclaimed for its unsettling tone and twists, but it was released in the peak of the summer — July 4th weekend — with a seasonally appropriate title. Florence Pugh also shined in the starring role as an American college student who attends a midsummer festival in Sweden with her boyfriend (Jack Reynor) and is shocked by the increasingly deadly ancient rituals.