As movies like The Black Phone have proven, horror can come from the skies, the neighborhood, or even below the viewer's feet. Caves can be frightening in any context, and movies set deep within the bowels of the earth prey on the primordial fears within every audience member.
Whether it was a monster's lair like in The Descent, the scariest caves in horror movie history are enough to chill the blood of even the most hardened horror hound.
The San Lorenzo Cavern - The Black Scorpion (1957)
The 1950s was primetime for big bug movies, and though The Black Scorpion isn't one of the most well-ed titles, its creepy setting was still chilling. The film centers around a pair of geologists who investigate mysterious deaths in Mexico following the sudden formation of a new volcano. The deaths are a result of a gigantic scorpion, and they must track it down to its lair.
With legendary effects man Willis O'Brien creating the creature, the titular arachnid was intimidating and creepy, especially when lurking in its lair. Giant bugs are scary enough as is, but the cave in the movie restricted the human character's movements and made escape nearly impossible.
The Lair Of The Troglodytes - Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Western films are usually known for their beautiful and sweeping vistas, but the Western/horror movie Bone Tomahawk aimed to show the frightening side of the old west. After a local townsperson is kidnaped by a band of cannibals, a posse is formed to hunt down the bloodthirsty cave dwellers.
Generally considered one of the best underrated Western films, Bone Tomahawk exquisitely blended classical Western tropes with a heaping helping of dread. The finale of the film takes place within the caves of the troglodytes, and the gruesome acts shown in the film went beyond the pale for many viewers. Turning back the clock to the dawn of man, the film exemplified prehistoric horror.
The Sunken Mayan City - 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)
As if being stalked by sharks wasn't frightening enough, the addition of a claustrophobia-inducing cave meant that 47 Meters Down: Uncaged preyed on all sorts of fears. The plot concerns a group of young girls who go on a diving expedition in a sunken Mayan City in Mexico. Things take a turn for the worse when they become trapped by a group of killer sharks.
Dry caves have their own terrifying aspects, but a cave submerged in water adds a whole new level of horror. Though Uncaged is far from being one of the best shark attack movies, it set itself apart from its contemporaries by narrowing the scope down from the open ocean to a claustrophobic underwater cave.
The Creature's Lair - The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
The Universal Monsters cycle was mostly played out by the 1950s, but The Creature from the Black Lagoon burst on the scene to give the franchise one last shot in the arm. The story follows a group of scientists who journey down the Amazon River in search of an elusive primordial creature said to live in the Black Lagoon.
The Gill Man instantly became a fixture of popular culture after the movie debuted, and the frightening images of his underwater habitat have forever been burned in horror history. In the exciting climax, the Creature kidnaps a woman and takes her to his secret cave. Though there isn't anything gruesome about Gill Man's lair, there is something unsettling about the dwelling of a creature lost to time itself.
The Cave - The Cave (2005)
With a simple title like The Cave, there was no doubt what audiences were getting when they went to see the subterranean horror flick. Set within a cave in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, the movie follows a group of scientists and cave divers who accidentally stumble across an underground ecosystem of deadly monsters.
The movie gets quite bogged down in extraneous details and misses the simple charm of movies like The Descent. However, the underground setting is an effectively creepy twist, and the monsters themselves are like something ripped from the nightmarish world of the deep sea.
The Ura Valley Crevice - The Empty Man (2018)
Caves are frightening because they are mysterious, and The Empty Man posited that they are a place of great spiritual danger as well. The film follows a detective who investigates a series of murders that all tie back to a haunted cave in Bhutan's Ura Valley.
The cave of The Empty Man is extra frightening because it seems to have a reach outside its own boundaries. Sending negative energy out half a world away, it is particularly chilling because there is no escaping the titular being. The addition of a horrifying skeleton totem turns the cave from The Empty Man from a run-of-the-mill subterranean terror to an absolutely harrowing event.
The Dylatov Caves - Devil's (2013)
The infamous Dylatov incident has left history buffs stumped for decades, and the macabre events were speculated on in the found footage film Devil's . Investigating the mysterious event from the 1950s, a group of scientists head to the to get to the bottom of what really happened all those years before.
Though no one really knows what occurred, the movie speculates that the events are tied into a mysterious bunker and cave system built into a nearby mountain. The climax of the film takes place within the cave system, and it is there that the tension is paid off in an extravagant fashion. The movie is a slow burn, but the finale alone makes it worth the wait.
The Catacombs - As Above So Below (2014)
Ranked highly among As Above So Below found horror in a very real location. Set below the streets of Paris in the city's infamous catacombs, the movie follows a group of archeologists who accidentally discover horrors of a biblical magnitude.
While the found footage style is often a distraction, As Above So Below uses it to perfection in ratcheting up the tension. Embellishing very little, the movie puts an actually creepy location on full display, and it is a wonderful juxtaposition to the beauties of the French capital. Playing with the viewer's expectations until the very end, the movie's twist ending left audiences flabbergasted.
The Pit - The Pit (1981)
Though the audience never gets a chance to journey down into the creepy cave in The Pit, it is nevertheless one of the creepiest subterranean horrors of all time. Jamie is an outcast tween who suddenly finds purpose in his life when he discovers a pit full of bloodthirsty monsters in the woods near his house.
Though it is a criminally underseen cult classic, The Pit is one of the best monster movies to come out of Canada and is a truly chilling coming-of-age story. The eponymous pit is more of a plot device than a setting, but it is the epicenter of the movie's horror. Though The Pit's troglodyte monsters are creepy, it is Jamie himself who is the true villain.
The Appalachian Cave - The Descent (2005)
Caves have always been a great place to set a horror movie, but none had the simplicity and sheer horror of The Descent. A year after a tragic accident, a group of friends reunites in the mountains of North Carolina to go on a spelunking adventure. A sudden cave-in traps them and forces them to journey deeper into the caverns.
Capturing the spine-tingling claustrophobia of caves, The Descent surprisingly switches gears from a thriller to a monster flick when they encounter subterranean creatures. Perfectly paced out for maximum horror, The Descent will have viewers glad to be on the topside and not down below with the characters.
