Best Summer-Themed Horror Movies


Post by Sharon 

"Jaws" is perhaps the quintessential summer horror fare. Anyone who watched it in the mid 70s when it came out knows what I mean when I say "we never look at the ocean the same." I personally run a 4th of July marathon of "Jaws" and eat homemade crab cake each year.






No one liked camp as it was, and now they had a reason to fear it! "Friday the 13th" really launched the pot-smoked, sex-crazed teens in trouble genre into a new height.



"Piranha" is a classic 1970s something-went-wrong at the waterway getaway themed movies. It captures the times and the feel so well. 



"I Know What You Did Last Summer" sort of reminds us of those summer friendships that die off and the secrets your best friends shared with you.




Under house arrest all summer. Bummer! Maybe you should spy on the neighbors. "Disturbia" is a nice modern twist to "Rear Window." 


In "Joy Ride," a clean-cut brother and a trouble-making one hit the road to drive home for the summer only to make the mistake of messing with an angry trucker!




While not really a "horror" per se, "Stand By Me" represents every summer adventure a kid goes on to follow an urban legend and face their own fears about their inadequacies just to see a dead body and find out it wasn't as cool as they thought.


"It" is a Stephen King classic docu-series that takes us into the adult lives of some troubled folks who don't want to go back to the hometown and face their friends and their past horror.



"Rollercoaster" is the classic 1970s disaster film with a big-star cast and lots of fun! Can they stop a guy from blowing up a rollercoaster again???



A cult classic, "Sleepaway Camp" is a secret kept by the horror community. Classic summer camp horror with a surprise twist at the end that good horror watchers keep to themselves.


A vacationing family runs into a malicious stranger out to get them in "Summer Of Fear." 



A guy gets a gig driving a car across country in the movie "The Hitcher."  It wouldn't have been so bad except sleepiness had him deciding to pick up a hitchhiker to keep himself awake in the desert country. It seems now he's more concerned with staying alive than staying awake!


"Dead Calm" takes you on one of your greatest fears - a hitchhiker on your boat in the middle of nowhere with an unknown past. A vacationing couple makes the mistake of helping a guy adrift. 



"The Final Terror" has a surprising all-star cast that has to do an assignment in the woods for the forest service only to find themselves stalked by what they thought was an urban legend.


It's summer break and a daughter is going to hang with daddy and help photograph his newest archaeology book only to find they are stuck in the desert and gargoyles are coming to life!



"The Hills Have Eyes" takes us to a worst nightmare - an RV breakdown in the middle of the desert and a wild family of cannibals staking out our safe harbor. 



This is a lesser known but really unsettling horror story of college kids breaking down near an old tourist trap that looks abandoned only to find a creepy museum keeper and mannequins that may be alive!

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