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‘The Canyonlands’ and 8 of Horror’s Most Unforgiving Environments
A setting is integral to creating mood and atmosphere in horror. More than that, backgrounds contribute to shaping the narrative. How a character interacts with their environment can play a dramatic role in their survival. Among horror’s most prominent settings, nature is the harshest. Nothing is as unforgiving as mother nature, and the wilderness adds brutal complications for the protagonists. Fighting off a monster, ghost, or psychopath becomes so much harder when battling the elements as well, especially for inexperienced protagonists ill-prepared to cope with nature.
That promises to be the case in The Canyonlands.
In this slasher, an adventurer guide hesitantly accepts a job to take five contest winners on a rafting trip down the Colorado River in Utah. The adventure quickly takes a deadly turn when the group camps off the river for the night. They find out that they’re not the only ones out in the remote canyonlands, and it doesn’t want them to leave.
The Canyonlands marks the feature debut by writer/director Brendan Devane. Scored by Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger from Umphrey’s McGee, the slasher stars Stephanie Barkley, Marqus Bobesich, Jesse Buck-Brennan, Ari Anderson, Dennis Connors, and Lauren Capkanis.
The Canyonlands is available now on VOD. For its release, we’re taking a look at eight of horror’s most unforgiving environments.
A Lonely Place to Die
Five friends embark on a trip to the Scottish Highlands for hiking and mountaineering. It gets off to a harrowing start, and that’s before they stumble upon a young kidnapped girl. Her kidnappers don’t take too kindly to the intrusion, and a dangerous cat and mouse game ensues. From rock climbing to treacherous rivers below, everything about this environment is unforgiving. It lends to some intense sequences.
Anaconda
Things get deadly when a documentary crew gets accosted by a snake hunter on the Amazon river. Evading a giant anaconda snake and a ruthless hunter would be enough for anyone, but the Amazon and its surrounding jungle offer no shortage of ways to die. That quickly becomes clear when the crew’s leader gets stung by a large wasp that made its way into his scuba regulator during a dive. Or when the boat gets trapped thanks to debris blocking the river passage.
Cold Prey
This slasher is nestled in a secluded area deep within the snowy mountains. A group of friends decides to venture off the beaten path for their snowboarding getaway, but that choice turns fatal when a leg break causes them to seek shelter at an abandoned lodge. They discover its home to a masked maniac. The isolated winter location presents many obstacles for survival, including a lack of cell service and perilous ravines.
Crawl
A daughter and her injured father face off against territorial alligators in the crawlspace beneath the house. Compounding the life-or-death situation is a raging Category 5 hurricane, causing rapid floodwaters. It’s a series of highly suspenseful obstacles for the pair and the family dog, and they didn’t even have to leave the house- nature found them.
Frozen
Breaking the rules seldom pays off in the genre. When a trio of friends talks a ski lift operator into giving them a free pass up the mountain for one last run down before closing, they’re forgotten in a mishap. Stranded and abandoned on a mountain resort now closed for the week, the friends face frostbite, hypothermia, starvation, and a pack of hungry wolves down below. With no help in sight, these characters must take drastic measures to survive.
The Lodge
At first, nothing seems particularly unforgiving about the comfy winter lodge at the center of this film. What’s meant to be a relaxing holiday getaway for family bonding turns into something far more harrowing when dad gets called away on business. A stepmom’s plans to thaw icy tensions with two angry children derail after a power outage leaves them without heat or water. Then stepmom’s sanity starts to crumble. It’s a chilling reminder of just how close the threat of nature lurks, waiting for one false step.
Ravenous
A remote Army outpost on the fringes of the western frontier proves particularly treacherous for those stationed there when a stranger arrives with a tale of his caravan murdered by a rogue guide. When a group sets out into the wilderness to verify the claims, they realize far too late they’ve let a dangerous person into their den. The remote location in a cold, mountainous region makes it difficult for the protagonists to seek help. Outside of a murderous maniac, they also have to contend with frostbite and hunger.
The Ruins
Step one in horror survival: avoid uncharted areas at all costs. Friends on vacation in Mexico learn the hard way when they opt to visit an archeological dig deep in the jungle. They get trapped on a Mayan pyramid by hostile locals, who are quarantining them due to the carnivorous plant that inhabits the ruins. The sentient, gruesome nature of the vines makes for one of the most ruthless movie monsters. Still, the protagonists face severe dehydration, starvation, and an assortment of heat-related ailments under the blazing sun.
The Canyonlands is available now on VOD.
A luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader in Corporate Retreat, out today in theaters. It’s the latest entry in a cathartic subgenre of workplace horror that examines every harrowing aspect of job employment.
No job is safe from horror, either, from babysitting to even the most white-collar gigs. But if you work an overnight shift? All bets are off. Vengeful co-workers and bosses aside, the night shift is likely to come armed with witches, creatures, demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Even deadly outbreaks.
Corporate Retreat, along with these five horror movies centered around some of the worst night shifts, will make you glad the weekend has finally arrived.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Passenger director André Øvredal goes full throttle for the scares in this quiet little chiller that sees a father and son coroner team stumped over the bizarre mysteries contained within the body of an unidentified young woman during an unexpected night shift. Well-executed scares, clever twists, and earnest performances by Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch give this supernatural haunter serious heft. While the narrative bides its time unveiling the truth behind Jane Doe’s battered body, it’s heavily steeped in witchcraft. In other words, The Autopsy of Jane Doe presents a new take on the subgenre. More importantly, it’s seriously scary.
Cold Storage
COLD STORAGE, StudioCanal 2023
A lethal, mutated fungus breaks free from confinement deep within the bowels of a storage facility. At the frontlines of the madness are Teacake (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery) and Naomi (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell), two employees thrust into the middle of the chaos when they investigate an alarm beeping somewhere deep within the building. Director Jonny Campbell (Netflix’s Dracula), working from a script by David Koepp based on his novel, helms the goopy madness with workman efficiency. This lighthearted, goopy horror comedy romp makes the deadly night shift a bit more bearable.
Graveyard Shift
Graveyard Shift follows new hire Hall (David Andrews) tasked by his mean boss Warwick (Stephen Macht) to assist with the insane rat infestation beneath their mill. They find something much most monstrous as the cause. Though the film was panned, it’s a fun creature feature with an always welcome appearance by Brad Dourif as the intensely eccentric exterminator. The film also opts for a happier ending, whereas (spoiler), the story sees both Hall and Warwick getting devoured by the mutated rats, the crew in the upstairs mill none the wiser.
Last Shift
‘Last Shift’
Rookie Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to watch over a closing precinct on its final night of operation…alone. With nearly everything already moved over to the new station, including rerouted 911 calls, it should be a pretty quiet night as she waits for a Hazmat team to arrive to remove biohazardous waste. Instead, it becomes a waking nightmare as she’s forced to deal with unsettling visitors. Last Shift, co-written by Scott Poiley and director Anthony DiBlasi, brings the scares.
Intruder
The overnight stock crew of a local grocery store finds themselves falling victim to an unseen killer in this highly infectious late ‘80s slasher. The deaths are delightfully gruesome and inventive; look for this killer to make excellent use of grocery store items as weapons. Frequent Raimi collaborator Scott Spiegel directed this bloody slasher, which means a lot of overlap with the Evil Dead II. That means putting Sam Raimi in front of the camera for a change, along with Ted Raimi and Evil Dead II’s Dan Hicks. Look for a cameo by Bruce Campbell as well!
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters today; get tickets now.
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