Deep in stark woodland at the base of Mount Fuji, restless whispers echo as the light fades on a mid-winter afternoon. Here, amongst a maze of roots, a lone figure takes her life, binding her body to the branches and her spirit to the undergrowth.
Years later, Miko and her college friends head into Suicide Forest. Miko yearns to abide a Halloween ritual steeped in demonic tradition which will release her mother’s trapped soul. Filming their journey amongst the shadows, strange things start to happen; angry murmurs and sightings of ghosts warn there are those who do not want them there.
Suddenly, the path to life is barricaded by the dead who have nothing to lose…
To celebrate Grave Halloween being released in the UK on DVD TODAY (27 October) by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment, we’ve decided to explore other iconic woodland horror films.
1. The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project follows three film students who go into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch however leave only their footage.
2. Cabin in the Woods
A much more recent woodland horror from Avengers supremo Joss Whedon and starring Chris Hemsworth, Cabin in the Woods documents five teenagers that go for a break in a woodland cabin. When strange occurrences happen, they must discover the truth behind the cabin.
3. Eden Lake
Another horror based on young people with a headline grabbing cast (including Michael Fassbender, Thomas Turgoose and Jack O’Connel), Eden Lake focuses on a young couple who confront a group of teens after they refuse to let anything ruin their romantic getaway. However, the results are disastrous.
4. Cabin Fever
Arguably Eli Roth’s most well known film as director; Cabin Fever again focuses on a group of college students venturing into the woods. This time, however, the gang fall victim to a flesh-eating virus, which in turn attracts the attention of the homicidal locals.
5. I Spit on Your Grave
From the director of Grave Halloween, the I Spit on Your Grave remake follows a writer who is attacked during a cabin retreat and is left for dead. She decides to seek revenge on her attackers in the most brutal way possible. The original film, also known as Day of the Woman, directed by Meir Zarchi follows the same storyline, but they are about dead equal in terms of where they fall on this list.
6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre has become one of the most seminal horror films of all time. Five friends decide to travel to one of their grandfather’s house in the country, only to be intimidated and haunted by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of cannibals.
7. Wrong Turn
After an unsuccessful camping trip in West Virginia woodland, six people find themselves trapped by a group of grossly disfigured men caused by generations of inbreeding.
8. Mama
Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau star as a couple who have to raise his young nieces that were abandoned in a forest for five years. The question is how, alone were they?
9. Hatchet
A group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Inevitably, what was meant to be an evening of fun and adventure turns into a nightmare of epic proportions.
10. Antichrist
Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist has been become one of the most shocking horror films since being released in 2009. The film itself focuses on a grieving couple who retreat to their cabin in the woods in attempt to repair their troubled marriage. However, as ever with this genre, things go from bad to worse.
