[Editorial] 6 Tent Horror Films That’ll Stop You Going Camping

This article was inspired by a recent camping trip with my partner. As we were lying there, waiting for sleep, listening to the silence of the country-side, he turned to me and asked “What would you do if the Blair Witch banged on our tent?”. Cue spiralling down the uncomfortable realisation that when sleeping in a tent, you are completely vulnerable. 

In our ‘everyday’ lives we live in houses, secure behind brick walls and locked doors. But camping asks us to let go of all of our usual creature comforts including our safety. This has not gone unnoticed in horror and my picks below tell us why we should think twice about sleeping in the great outdoors.   

The Ritual (2016)

When four friends decide to go on a camping trip in a Swedish forest in honour of their recently murdered friend, one badly twists their knee.This  leads the group of tightly wound men to take a ‘shortcut’ through the den of a big monster who also happens to be a demigod. As the group ventures deeper on the unknown track, they pitch their tents for another night in the forest. Branches and leaves crunch under the foot of a heavy breathing being as it patrols around outside. Hutch, the leader of the group, is ripped from his tent as the others are deep in their nightmares and when they eventually find him he has been strung up, insides falling out, in the trees. 

Backcountry (2014)

Similar to my critique of The Ritual, Backcountry see’s a couple go off the beaten track so a guy can find the perfect spot to propose to his girlfriend. But, you guessed it, it goes wrong because they have wandered into a bear’s territory. This film has one of the gnarliest ‘person being eaten alive by an animal’ scenes I have ever seen - and it all takes place in a tent.

Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997)

In the 2nd instalment of the Jurassic franchise, we are on the 2nd island ‘Isla Sorna’ where a new group of adults run away screaming from the dinosaurs. After successfully escaping the T-Rex’s, Sarah and Kelly are sleeping in a tent when the dried blood of the baby T-Rex Sarah helped earlier has attracted Ma-Rex. We see the great big head of the apex predator cast a shadow on to the tent, teeth showing. As the Rex peers in, Kelly and Sarah fight to hide their tears of fear to evade her detection. 

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Perhaps one of the most common tents we play in growing up are the dens we build in our bedrooms or living rooms, using bed sheets, blankets and towels to create our forts from the outside world. The Sixth Sense has a scene where Cole, the young boy who is haunted by ghosts, has built himself a den to hide from the spirits. One night, sensing there is another ghost is close, he runs to his den. However, his fabric barrier between this world and the next is penetrated when a young girl ghost appears in this tent – pale, crying and vomiting - in one of the most famous jump scares of horror. Cole is not safe from these interactions anywhere and he needs to start facing these apparitions. 

In The Earth (2021)

A more recent entry, In the Earth follows Martin and Alma as they traverse a national park to reach Martin’s old colleague. On their first night, they are attacked in their tents by an unseen aggressor. They are beaten and their tents ripped open and belongings stolen, including their shoes. Eventually they stumble upon a man named Zack who takes pity on their situation and brings them to his tent structure. But wouldn’t you know it, Zack is actually a bad guy who prays to a forest god. 

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The film that started this all for me and possibly you. The Blair Witch Project centres 3 film students creating a documentary on the myth of the Blair Witch in the forest outside Burkittsville. As the days start to bleed into each other and the team deteriorates in more ways than one, the rest-bite afforded by their tents is now a trap. The evil that haunts the woods takes this opportunity to tease the filmmakers by snapping sticks and foliage just beyond the canvas, occasionally banging on the thin walls and mimicking their team to lure them from their “safe spaces” and into the dark unknown. 

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