A road trip always feels incredible in theory. You’re out on the open road with freedom stretched out endlessly before you, fueled by all the pit-stop junk food you can handle. It’s the ultimate American freedom fantasy.
It’s no wonder that filmmakers love using the isolation of the open highway to send cold terror straight down our spines. Strip away the crowds, turn off the highway lights, and that sense of boundless freedom quickly curdles into vulnerability.
These five films feature ordinary drivers who head out on the road only to cross paths with a terrifying driver — or creature — that turns a long journey into a living nightmare. They’ll make you think twice before tailgating, chatting up a stranger, or passing a slowpoke on the right. And if you have any holiday travel on the horizon, they might just convince you to book a flight instead.
‘Shortcut’
Don’t let the low IMDb ratings fool you. The UK indie horror flick “Shortcut” (2020) is a surprisingly entertaining thriller that hooks your attention almost immediately. The film opens abruptly on a young boy sprinting through the woods, collapsing from sheer exhaustion before cutting to unsettling sketches of a monster. From there, we meet our main cast: five teenagers heading out on a school field trip. Their journey grinds to a halt when their bus driver is forced onto a dirt detour around a fallen tree.
A second interruption sends everything sideways when the driver stops to clear a deer carcass from the road. That’s when an escaped convict hijacks the vehicle at gunpoint. The group ends up trapped at a dark tunnel where the bus breaks down, and the convict forces two kids out to repair it. Screeching creatures attack, driving everyone back inside the stranded bus. Horror fans will notice clear shades of “Jeepers Creepers 2”, but “Shortcut” delivers enough eerie atmosphere and creature tension to hold its own.
‘Alone’
While you’ll need to suspend a bit of disbelief, the 2020 thriller “Alone” is easily one of the standard-bearers for modern highway suspense. Jessica (Jules Willcox) is packing up her life and driving out of town to start over following the death of her husband. As she navigates the remote, winding roads of the Pacific Northwest, she finds herself unable to shake a sinister driver. The unnamed man (Marc Menchaca) keeps reappearing after a tense encounter where he aggressively speeds up to block her from passing.
When Jessica stops to rest, the stranger strikes, forcing her off the road and kidnapping her into a remote cabin nightmare. Menchaca delivers a terrifyingly grounded performance as the killer, while Willcox shines as a grieving woman fighting ruthlessly to survive. She makes a few questionable decisions along the way, but if you sit back and enjoy the ride, this lean thriller won’t disappoint.
‘Joy Ride’
It’s hard to believe Paul Walker is no longer with us, making it impossible to resist recommending one of his best early thrillers. Released in 2001, “Joy Ride” is the quintessential highway horror film, demonstrating the gruesome consequences of drawing the wrong stranger’s attention. Lewis (Paul Walker) decides to pick up his brother on his way home instead of flying — all to impress a girl, naturally. After picking up his older brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), it’s all fun and games until they pull a foolish prank on a trucker over the CB radio, with Lewis using a fake female voice to toy with him.
When they pull over to turn in for the night, they quickly realize the trucker hasn’t let it go. Driven by one last prank, Fuller goads Lewis into luring the man to the adjacent motel room under the guise of a romantic meetup. Things turn brutal the next morning when they discover the occupant of that room was savagely hospitalized. The brothers flee town, only to realize they can’t outrun a phantom trucker dead set on revenge. The film shifts into a much darker gear in its second half, but Zahn’s sharp comic timing balances out the chilling highway tension.
‘Duel’
The feature directorial debut from Steven Spielberg, “Duel” (1971) is the ultimate road-thriller standard and a true classic in every sense. Starring Dennis Weaver as the mild-mannered salesman David Mann, the film follows him across the desert for a high-stakes business meeting. Early phone calls with his wife establish David as a timid, non-confrontational man, but the road is about to force him into a desperate fight for survival.
While driving along a dusty, deserted highway, David makes the mistake of passing a rusty, lumbering semi-truck. The invisible driver takes the overtake personally, surging past David only to slow down again. What follows is a legendary, relentless game of cat-and-mouse. Spielberg never reveals the trucker’s face, giving the battered rig a terrifying, almost supernatural presence. As the pursuit escalates, you begin to wonder if David is losing his grip on reality, cranking up the psychological dread to an absolute fever pitch.
‘Jeepers Creepers’
If you can separate the art from its creator, “Jeepers Creepers” remains an undeniably effective entry in the road-horror canon. The film kicks off with siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) driving through rural Florida when a battered, terrifying truck tries to run them off the road. Miles later, they spot that same vehicle parked by an abandoned church, with a shadowy figure dumping heavy canvas sacks down a pipe.
Unable to simply drive away, they turn back to investigate. Darry climbs down the pipe, discovering a horrific cavern beneath the church lined with preserved bodies. They rush to a nearby diner to call the police, unaware that the unnatural driver has already picked up their scent. The tension in the first half is masterful, perfectly setting up the shift into a full-blown monster movie. Philips and Long share great sibling chemistry, and their nightmare will leave you profoundly grateful that bad fast food is usually the worst thing you’ll face on a trip.
