Driving can be stressful enough without thinking of the most deviously tense highwaythrillers, which are scary enough to keep anyone off the road for a good while. Long, desolate stretches of highway make phenomenal settings for thriller movies, with the isolation of the typical empty American or Australian interstate and the relative danger of the simple act of driving working in the genre’s favor. Some of thebest thrillers evermade might take place in a handful of vehicles across a barren stretch of lonely road.
The specific subgenre of highway thrillers actually encompasses a wider range of films than might first be expected. Some may maintain their tension through mystery and action, whereas others function more likeroad trip horror movies, stumbling blindly in fear into a sinister destination. Whatever the case, the highway makes for such a good setting for the genre that it’s no wonder all sorts of different kinds of thrillers have made their way to them.
10Freeway
A dark take on a classic fairy tale
A rare thriller that’s able to balance its abhorrent action and dark themes with a bleak sense of comedy,Freewayis a well-traveled cult classic. The film follows a young girl who goes on a road trip to find her estranged grandmother in the wake of her own mom’s arrest. She hitches a ride with her school counselor at first, only to realize that he is an infamous serial killer, prompting a cat-and-mouse chase across the highways.
Freewayis conceived as a darkmodern-day retelling of the classic fairy taleLittle Red Riding Hood, which becomes obvious once a viewer realizes the antagonist’s name is Bob Wolverton. Perhaps not subtle in its allegory,Freewayis nevertheless a thrill ride that’s able to keep up the adrenaline, laden with offensive humor that defiantly plants the film’s feet in an audacious tone that dares a response. As great as the comedy is, it does nothing to dilute the terror of a modern big bad wolf.
9Breakdown
Simple, but striking
An overlooked gem in star Kurt Russell’s illustrious career,Breakdownpresents a horrific scenario that is far more relatable than shapeshifting aliens or ancient Chinese sorcerers. Russell stars as one half of a married couple going on a cross-country drive who experience an unfortunate breakdown in the middle of the barren New Mexico desert. After trusting a trucker to give his wife a lift to safety, Kurt Russell’s Jeff suddenly finds his wife missing.
Breakdownis a stunning example of just how terrifying a true-to-life missing persons case can be, even in the glow of broad daylight. While the plot has a certain amount of stumbling blocks, the frantic anxiety felt by Russell’s character as he realizes his wife is missing is palpable enough to be transferred to the viewer, kicking off a frenzied race to save the damsel in distress. Sometimes the most deceptively simple stories can be the most effective at stretching tension to a dangerous snapping point.
Redeems truck drivers across the world
A shining star in Australian horror,Road Gamesis a plucky slasher flick starring Jamie Lee Curtis oftheHalloweenseriesfame. The film posits Curtis as a hitchhiker who hitches a ride with a trucker in the rural Outback, only to be recruited to his quest - Finding and apprehending the culprit of a grisly series of murders along the isolated highway. Hot on the heels of his prey, the trucker soon engages in a dangerous game of deadly consequence.
Road Gamesis astonishing for how well it’s able to transfer the sensibilities of a classic Hitchcockian thriller to the open Australian Outback. The paranoia of the protagonist is well-explored by the idle games he plays with his riders to pass the time, sinking the audience into a lowly place of uncertainty. The film also does a lot to repair the public image of truckers in film, making one out to be the hero detective rather than the perpetrator himself.
7Wolf Creek
A roadbound slasher
Yet another Australian horror movie taking advantage of the country’s long stretches of isolated road,Wolf Creekis decidedly more violent and turbulent compared toRoad Games.The threadbare plot follows a young couple of British tourists traveling along with their Australian pal who are held captive by a murderous bushman after their vehicle breaks down, stranding them in a desperate bid for survival. Lean though the story may be, it makes for a perfectly upsetting thriller premise.
Essentially the Australian answer toThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre,Wolf Creekrelies more on exploitative imagery rather than tension to generate its scares, which can easily come off as cheap to some. However, this method is no less effective at getting the average motorist to give their car a thorough once-over before setting out on any cross-country trips. The film doesn’t skimp on out character development or tremendous performances, which helps make the horror of the scenario feel that much more chilling and grisly.
6Duel
Jaws on the open road
One of the earliest works in famousdirector Stephen Spielberg’s illustrious career,Duelis a roadway thriller that got many to take the young, hungry visionary seriously. The premise is exceedingly simple, featuring a man on a business trip who is chased off the road by a mysterious trucker after cutting him off. The trucker returns again and again in an attempt to run the hapless man down with his imposing 18-wheeler, resulting in a film that is essentially one long car chase.
It’s interesting to see whereDuellaid the foundation for Spielberg’s later career-defining blockbusterJaws,employing a similarly inhuman and relentlessly pursuing force of nature as an antagonist. Outside of a single arm and a lone cowboy boot, the truck’s driver is never revealed, resulting in a delicious fear of the unknown manifested through the haunting grille of a rampaging semi-truck. Films likeDuelemphasize just how absurd our society of normal people being trusted to pilot multi-ton weapons rocketing side-by-side is.
5The Vanishing
A bleak fable on the dangers of curiosity
A frontrunner for the most depressing horror movie of all time,The Vanishingis a motorized thriller unlike any other. Like many highway-based thrillers,The Vanishingcenters on a young couple simply trying to enjoy themselves on an idyllic road trip. When his wife vanishes without a trace while entering a gas station, Dutch vacationer Rex spirals into madness in an attempt to find out what happened to her.
The Vanishingpulls an interesting act in that it lays its cards out on the table fairly early in terms of answering its overarching mystery, introducing the monster responsible for the disappearance of Rex’s beloved Saskia not long after she vanishes. It’s in the relentless pursuit of answers that Rex ultimately dooms himself to enduring a similar fate. This is something that anyone watching can see coming, which somehow makes it all the more devastating when it eventually does happen.
A spooky holiday chase through madness
A rare highway thriller that also doubles as aChristmastime horror movie,Dead Endis a quietly unsettling film that adds a supernatural bent to the typical roadside antics of the genre.Dead Endputs viewers in the seat of a van packed tight with a dysfunctional family. When the patriarch, played by Ray Wise, insists on taking a shortcut, the family find themselves on a haunting stretch of never-ending road going through a forest. Even worse, they seem to be perpetually chased by a mysterious hearse driven by a woman in white.
Dead Endgets off as a sort of extended look into a nightmarish supernatural world, but still works as a highway thriller, albeit far from a traditional one. The supernatural elements and ever-present sense of dread build the tension to a ripe boiling point, and a few key moments of humor provide a good reprieve. The family are all brilliantly cast as well, turning the typical tension of trying to get along for the holidays into a life-or-death scenario.
3The Hitcher
Presents a fascinating slasher antagonist
The concept of a murderous hitchiker is a common recurring campfire tale in pop culture, finally codified in 1986 with the horror filmThe Hitcher.The movie follows a young man on a cross-country road trip making his way through the barren landscape of West Texas, where he picks up a mysterious hitchhiker named John Ryder. Ryder soon reveals that he’s a deranged serial killer, and challenges the driver to stop him from committing his latest murder.
The Hitcheris an endlessly fascinating slasher movie that begs the question of a villain who wants to be stopped. Rutger Hauer is incredible as the unknowable John Ryder, acting out of a sort of bizarre sense of obligation rather than personal glory or depravity. Unafraid to center some of its nastiest violence squarely in the barrel of the camera,The Hitcheris a disturbing trip through psychosis that begs the viewer to be put out of their misery.
2Unhinged
Navigating rush hour traffic can be an incredibly stressful experience, andUnhingeduses the typical struggle as the catalyst for the plot of one of themost stressful movies ever made. Russel Crowe stars as Tom Cooper, a disgruntled psychopath driving from the muder scene of his ex-wife and her new lover. After being honked at by an overworked mom driving her son to school, Cooper arbitrarily decides to set her in his sights as his next victim.
Violence resulting from road rage is a very real American epidemic, andUnhingedexplores just how bad of a last straw something as simple as a honking car horn can be for unstable people. Crowe is phenomenal as the terrifying Cooper, who isn’t just a relentless force of nature searching for something to take his rage out on, but a clever and insidious villain willing to do anything to prove his own petty point. Even it suffers from some cheesy dialogue,Unhingedkeeps the pedal to the metal all the way through.
1Death Proof
Tarantino’s take on a typical horror movie
One of Quentin Tarantino’s lesser-known films and one half of the iconicGrindhousedouble feature,Death Proofis as classic an example of a highway thriller as there can be. This time around, Kurt Russell steps behind the wheel of a bad guy as the insidious Stuntman Mike, a crazed serial killer and stunt driver who uses his “death-proof” car to run down random women. He bites off more than he can chew, however, when his latest crop of would-be victims decide to fight back mercilessly.
Stuntman Mike is a deliciously despicable slasher villain who wields an entire car rather than a simple blade, making for an intriguing set-up for a straightforward horror film. It’s also interesting how the film shifts to become more of a revenge-fantasy action flick rather than a thriller as the tables are turned on him, leaning into Tarantino’s sensibilities. Still tense, exciting, and full of brilliant car chases,Death Proofis a stellar highwaythriller.
