The Top 10 Best Eco-Horror Movies
5. Flora
Canada is probably the least exotic location on this list of eco-horror movies, but Flora is probably one of the most believable tales. Set in 1929, a group of college botanists travels deep into an unexplored North American forest to assist their professor chart the area. When they finally arrive, they find the supplies ruined, the camp abandoned, and their professor’s body in a field wearing a gas mask. Putting their degrees to good use, the group discovers that the plants are producing a toxic endophyte killing everything that eats it or inhales the pollen. With all their supplies contaminated, the group is forced to take a deadly trek through the uncharted wilderness in the hopes of finding civilization before it’s too late. With all the people who go missing in the woods every year, Flora might not be as far-fetched as it seems.
4. The Girl with All the Gifts
The biggest blockbuster on this list of eco-horror movies has got to be The Girl with All the Gifts. Based on the best-selling series of novels by M. R. Carey, the film follows a group of British scientists and military personnel who survived the first wave of a zombie apocalypse. Hoping to find a cure for whatever started the pandemic, they have been running tests on children who were born infected, but have still maintained their faculties. These kiddos are as adorable as they are horrifying, especially little Melanie (Sennia Nanua). When their base is overrun by the zombies, a small group manages to escape in search of shelter. What they find is the source of the contagion, which has sprung up from the earth itself. While it might sound like science fiction, there is a fungus out there that does turn animals into “zombies.” So, we humans better watch ourselves.
3. The Beach House
It’s time for a little fun in the sun with the next entry on this list of eco-horror movies. Most of the time Hollywood sends sharks, fish people, and all sorts of other underwater creatures to terrorize beachgoers. However, writer/director Jeffrey A. Brown decided to go with something much smaller as the villain in his debut feature film. They might not sound scary, but the wrong microbes can do some serious damage to an unsuspecting person, and The Beach House is about exactly that. When two college sweeties decide to take a weekend to themselves at a beach house, their romantic getaway turns ugly when a toxic fog of microbes is released from the ocean floor. Breaking the surface, the microbes become a fog that makes humans horribly ill before driving them into an insane rage. With the vast majority of the ocean still unexplored, it might be better safe than sorry when it comes to global warming.
2. Splinter
I absolutely love Splinter. In fact, it’s one of the few films that I regularly recommend to other horror fans. Like some of the other eco-horror movies on this list, Splinter also features a terrifying twist on Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (the zombie one mentioned earlier). The film’s heroes discover that this version begins by turning the host’s body against them almost immediately with gut-wrenching results. As if that weren’t bad enough, the fungus demands that its new host viciously attack and mutilate any warm-blooded creature in the area. Splinter features an impressive cast playing shockingly competent characters for a horror flick pitted against a monster that is wonderfully nightmarish. More importantly, it’s a reminder of just how nasty mother nature can be.
1. In the Earth
Not only is In the Earth coming in at the top of this list of eco-horror movies, but it also snagged the number one spot on the list of the best folk horror movies. Set during a pandemic, the film follows a ranger tasked with escorting a scientist to a colleague’s research site in the middle of the forest. Unfortunately, they run into a psychotic neo-druid who believes the spirit of the forest must be appeased through sacrifices. Barely escaping, they manage to make it to the research site only to discover that the scientist there has been developing a way to communicate with a massive network of mycorrhiza connecting every living thing in the forest. As events unfold, ancient folklore and modern science become two sides of the same coin, as it becomes apparent just how terrifying nature can be when it “notices you.”
Honorable Mention: Annihilation
The Alex Garland helmed sci-fi thriller came incredibly close to earning a spot among the eco-horror movies above. However, it features an extraterrestrial influence reshaping the environment, rather than the planet deciding it’s had enough of the human infestation it’s been suffering from for the past few millennia. That said, it’s still an incredible film featuring an all-star cast of actresses surrounded by mind-bending visuals. While it might not have gotten an official mention, Annihilation still deserves an honorable mention for walking a fine line between beautiful and grotesque,
Dishonorable Mention: The Happening
By now does anyone really need me to explain why The Happening is getting a dishonorable mention? You there in the back, you do? Sigh… M. Night Shyamalan is a director who either makes pretty good movies or unwatchable ones, nothing in between. Well, The Happening wasn’t one of the good ones, that’s for sure. The film basically revolves around plants doing something that makes people kill themselves. Don’t ask me what they do, because the movie doesn’t even know that. It literally describes it as “an act of nature we will never fully understand.” Yeah, well, that same could be said about how this terrible eco-horror movie got made.
There you have it, 10 eco-horror movies that will help make the choice to become green even easier. Of course, I should mention that these are all works of fiction and the earth probably won’t eradicate us all, but do any of you want to take that chance? As always, I’ll be updating this list as new and more frightening eco-horror movies debut. Until then, work on saving electricity by watching the movies above with the lights off, if you dare!