We wish all our Haunt Stalkers, but mostly the American ones, a fun but scary Fourth of July! Today we fire up the barbecues, fireworks, and some classic summertime horror flicks.
In the spirit of the holiday, and pure American Horror, we’ve picked off these 4 Patriotic, All-American, and July 4th holiday-themed terror flicks for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Of course, when we watch horror movies, we’re always looking to see if they have haunt potential. We see some of these flicks on this list as providing eerie settings and creepy characters that would be good for haunts.
4. 2001 Maniacs: Eight college students traveling to Florida stumble into a remote town in Georgia where they are set upon by the residents who are out to avenge their deaths by Union troops over 100 years earlier during the Civil War.
With leading Maniac Robert Englund, this movie is campy, corny, gory with some over-the-top murder scenes that could make even the most hardcore horror fan cringe. The settings and characters lend themselves very well to a sadistically themed haunt but may be too explicit for a haunt.
3. Jaws: A Great White Shark decides to make the small beach resort town of Amity his private feeding grounds. This greatly frustrates the town police chief who wants to close the beaches to chase the shark away. He is thwarted in his efforts by the town’s mayor who finally relents when nothing else seems to work and the chief, a scientist, and an old fisherman with revenge on his mind take to the sea to kill the beast.
This is a classic horror film that takes place on the July 4th holiday. Jaws may be a difficult haunt to make but not impossible – perhaps if it was based on the town of Amity which is now cursed by the ghosts victims of Jaws. The finale of the maze can have these enraged spirits sending you into the depths of the ocean for a face to Jaws encounter with the Great White terror itself. Just a suggestion @HHN.
2. I Know What You Did Last Summer: It’s the fourth of July and four friends are celebrating along with graduation. On their way home, they hit a pedestrian walking down a dark and curvy road. After disposing of the body they make a pact to keep it a secret in hopes of saving their futures. The following summer it seems that he or someone who saw them is ready to put them back on the hook (literally).
The movie’s killer fisherman with a hook hand has been featured in a few haunts we’ve experienced over the years. Most notably was Dead Man’s Wharf at Knott’s Scary Farm, which featured a maniac (with the fisherman’s rain slicker and hook) stalking victims in a fog-shrouded shipyard.
1. Uncle Sam: A Desert Storm vet who was killed in combat rises from the grave on July Fourth, to kill the unpatriotic citizens of his hometown, after some teens burn an American flag over his burial site.
This is the ultimate Fourth of July themed horror movie. Uncle Sam was trying to be to the Fourth of July what Michael Myers is to Halloween but it turned out to be very campy and low-budget. You know, like how Leprechaun is to St. Patrick’s day. Nonetheless, Uncle Sam is extremely creepy himself with some patriotic murder tactics who we would be scared to see stalking us in a haunt… we actually think we have (?).
Honorable Mentions:
The Purge: Election Year – Oh, it’s just Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam stalking and killing people they don’t like.
Return of the Living Dead – All the punk zombie shenanigans takes place during the early morning hours of July 4th!
Final Destination 3 – A killer fireworks scene
