10 Most Terrifying Vacation Horror Movies

4. Eden Lake

The Ruins
Rollercoaster Films

James Watkins' 2008 Eden Lake is a truly grim and depressing movie.

One doesn't always have to travel overseas to encounter vacation terror, for Eden Lake had Kelly Reilly's Jenny and Michael Fassbender's Steve opting to travel to a remote lakeside locale for a quiet weekend breakaway.

This beautiful, private time away from the hustle and bustle goes totally belly up, mind, when a group of teenagers start to cause bother around Jenny and Steve's camp. Some young scallywags trying to act 'ard in front of their mates? Ah, just tell them to be on their way.

That approach is the one initially taken, but these teens suddenly up the ante, eventually torturing Steve horrifically before killing him. For Jenny, she managed to make it out of the woods and to the safety of a nearby housing estate... only for the film to end with the reveal that Reilly's character had ended up in the home of a teenager who was left dead earlier because of this whole f**ked up situation.

As mentioned, Eden Lake is gut punch of a movie, with there being no happy endings on show here.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.