The right setting can transform a bad story into a good one in an instant. By providing the right atmosphere, framing the action, and enhancing drama, the right setting can make for a truly memorable film. The horror genre capitalizes on this fact better than almost any other, setting its stories in haunted houses, crumbling hospitals, and creepy amusement parks.
Islands are often associated with luxury, privacy, and summer fun, but in the horror genre, they have a deadly association. Whether the protagonists are hunted by a monstrous animal or even more monstrous people, island horror gives audiences plenty of reasons to rethink their travel plans. Here are some great films about this deadly locale.
8 Battle Royale
An incredibly influential horror satire, Battle Royale is about the passage of the "BR ACT" in near-future Japan, an attempt to curb juvenile delinquency by forcing students to fight to the death on a remote island. Each student is outfitted with a random weapon, rations, a map, and other supplies.
They have three days to fight to the death, and uncooperative students will be killed by the explosive collars around their necks, as will students who leave the assigned battle area and venture into danger zones. Battle Royale was incredibly influential, inspiring numerous books, games, and other films, but few live up to the excellence of the original and its heartbreaking character deaths.
7 After Death
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Italy experienced a boom of zombie and cannibal films in the 70s and 80s inspired by the work of George Romero, and Claudio Fragasso's 1989 film After Death (Zombie 4) is a classic example. It's about a young woman who returns to the island where her parents had been killed while working on a cure for cancer.
Unfortunately for them, her parents had incurred the wrath of a local voodoo priest who raised the dead to strike them down. The researchers' daughter journeys with a group of mercenaries as well as other researchers to the island, which is where they encounter the same zombies that tore her family apart. After Death luxuriates in everything that makes the zombie genre fun.
6 Uninhabited
In this 2010 Australian horror film by Bill Bennett, young couple Beth and Harry decide to take a 10-day trip to a deserted coral island on the Great Barrier Reef. They soon learn that the island has a troubled history, and they may not be alone. While it may not feature creative horror weaponry, there's plenty to fear in Uninhabited.
After finding an abandoned grave beside an old shack, Beth and Harry learn that the camera they've been using to film their vacation has also been used to film them sleeping. Uninhabited deals with some difficult themes of abuse and assault that aren't for all viewers, taking what could have been an interesting but plain horror story and injecting it with additional depth.
5 Piranhaconda
For those looking for a wackier and most colorful story, there's Piranhaconda, a shameless addition to the "hybrid animals" genre of horror. The giant pirana-headed anaconda of the title is a wonderfully bad CGI creation, and watching it run amok on a dazzling island is hilariously over-the-top.
Featuring Michael Madsen as Professor Lovegrove, Piranhaconda is about the crew of a B-grade slasher film who are disrupted in the middle of production by vicious attacks from the hybrid animal of the title. What the film lacks in polish and sophistication it makes up for with fun death sequences, a hint of exploitation, and one of the best titles in a genre saturated with good ones.
4 The Resort
There's a consistent theme in horror: those who seek out evil in the hopes of studying it will fall prey to that same evil. 2021's The Resort takes that premise and runs with it. The film is about a horror fiction writer who travels with her friends to a Hawaiian island to investigate a haunted hotel, a horror cinema favorite.
The pacing isn't the best, but The Resort delivers some solid scares, and the entire experience is uplifted by fantastic cinematography. The search for the infamous "Half-Faced Girl" is gorgeously shot, and the film is a testament to why one shouldn't expect bad things to be warded away by sunshine and white sand beaches alone.
3 Antropophagus
Antropophagus goes by several names, including Anthropophagus: The Beast, The Savage Island, and The Grim Reaper. What remains consistent in this gem of 80s Italian horror by Joe D'Amato is the level of violence and horror throughout.
A horror film that will only be appreciated by those with a strong stomach and high tolerance for awfulness, Antropophagus landed on the U.K.'s list of "video nasties" in the early 80s, a ban that only enhanced the film's appeal amongst cult horror aficionados. Any film with cannibalism as its main theme will prove divisive, but Antropophagus goes further than most, making it a must-see for fans of practical effects in horror.
2 Sweetheart
Sweetheart is a survival horror film from 2019, telling the story of a castaway who must survive on the island she washes up on. Being stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean would be enough fodder for a good horror movie by itself, but things get worse.
The castaway quickly realizes that she isn't alone. She's being stalked by a sea monster. Strong cinematography and a good twist on the desert island premise are enough to make Sweetheart an island horror film to watch, even if some feel the focal character is overrated.
1 The Wicker Man
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Folk horror is a genre that doesn't receive enough attention, and 1973's The Wicker Man is one of the biggest arguments for why that should change. Police Sergeant Neil Howie ventures to Summerisle, an isolated Scottish island, in search of a missing girl. The sergeant is a devout Christian and is horrified to learn that the island's inhabitants practice a form of Celtic Paganism.
Everything about The Wicker Man, from its writing and direction to its acting and escalating horror, make the film one of the best folk horror films ever made. It doesn't take viewers long to realize why this island is no paradise.