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This list contains one mention of a sexual assault scene.
Horror movies are often set in the woods because we understand that the darkness and sounds of an enclosed forest can be a creepy setting, especially at night. However, while being lost in the woods is a horror trope, the trees often fade into the background unless they are central to the story. Though horror movie villains can take many forms, it is often still a surprise when a horror movie features a malevolent tree or plant. Seeing the peaceful embodiment of nature becoming bloodthirsty monsters can either make a hilarious horror-comedy or a genuinely chilling horror movie nightmare.
The central plots in biological horror movies like The Happening often involve sympathy for the plants, as they revolve around people treating nature without the necessary respect, or scientists going too far with their experiments. Alien landscapes like the one beyond "the shimmer" in Annihilation are often dangerous in their own right, without any need for the plants themselves to be evil. However, movies have featured villainous plants for decades, and it appears that while "plant horror" is rare compared to some of the many horror subgenres, trees and plants are underrated horror movie villains.
10 The Day of the Triffids (1963)
Seawater Is The Only Weapon Humans Have Against These Villainous Plants
The Day of the Triffids movie changed some major aspects of the book it is based on, including the origin of the malevolent plant monsters called "triffids." In The Day of the Triffids, the plants arrive from space in a meteor shower, which spreads plant spores, which then grow into the giant, menacing triffids. Like many plants, triffids can continue growing after they are damaged, making the fight against them seem hopeless.
The Day of the Triffids is a classic 1960s horror movie and its solution might be a little simplistic for modern horror movies, but it is logical. The characters find that the monstrous plants are vulnerable to saltwater, after reasoning that if you can kill a houseplant with saltwater, perhaps you can kill a triffid too. The Day of the Triffids is being made into a TV series, and the premise is still creepy today.
9 The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
Humanity Fights A Terrifying Real-life Fungus
A scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.
Director Colm McCarthy
Release Date January 26, 2017
Writers Mike Carey
Cast Sennia Nanua , Fisayo Akinade , Dominique Tipper , Paddy Considine , Anamaria Marinca , Gemma Arterton , Anthony Welsh , Glenn Close
Runtime 111 Minutes
The fungal enemy in The Girl with all the Gifts is based on a terrifying natural phenomenon. The spores of the cordyceps fungus infect the brains of insects, turning them into zombie-like creatures, and the premise of The Girl with all the Gifts explored what would happen if the cordyceps affected humans. The Girl with All the Gifts is a twist on the zombie movie, and was released before The Last of Us, which has a similar premise.
Fungus is technically different from plants, as it doesn't produce its food through photosynthesis. As many of the plants in this list don't do that either, choosing to prey on humans, this writer has allowed fungus to make the list.
The plots for many plant-based horror movies can often be campy and silly, but The Girl with All the Gifts is disturbing, with both gore and creepy feral children added into the mix. The ending is bleak and unexpected, even for a zombie movie. The movie has an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a cast full of well-known stars, including Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton, and House of the Dragon actor, Paddy Considine.
8 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
In This Remake, Anyone Could Be An Evil Plant
1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Philip Kaufman and is an adaptation of the popular 1955 Sci-Fi novel, The Body Snatchers. The Horror and Sci-Fi release features a race of mysterious alien creatures that travel to Earth and begin taking over the bodies of unsuspecting humans.
Director Philip Kaufman
Release Date December 22, 1978
Studio(s) United Artists
Distributor(s) United Artists
Writers W.D. Richter
Runtime 115 minutes
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a critically acclaimed horror, with a 93% positive Rotten Tomatoes score and an impressive cast, which includes Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, Donald Sutherland, and Jeff Goldblum. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is often considered one of the greatest remakes of all time, as it is a remake of a 1950s horror of the same name. The villainous plants in this movie are the disturbing "Pod People."
The Pod People in Invasion of the Body Snatchers are a shape-shifting, parasitic alien race that resembles plants with pink flowers. They take the place of existing humans when the humans fall asleep, with the movie showing many of the Pod People as half-formed embryos before they fully replace these existing characters. The concept has been so successfully disturbing that there have been four Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies.
7 Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)
This Iconic Horror Villain Is A Carnivorous Alien Plant
Based on the stage musical of the same name, Little Shop of Horrors stars Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborn, a shy young man working at a florists shop in New York City who acquires a strange plant that begins to bring in more business for the shop. When Seymour learns that the plant is not only sentient but requires human blood to grow, he comes caught up in a nightmarish farce in order to keep the plant fed. Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, and Steve Martin also star.
Release Date December 19, 1986
Studio(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Writers Howard Ashman , Roger Corman , Charles B. Griffith
Runtime 94 Minutes
is an iconic horror comedy musical about a timid florist's assistant named Seymour, who discovers that the strangest plant he owns is both evil and carnivorous. The monstrous plant, which Seymour has named Audrey II after his co-worker and love interest, turns out to be an alien from outer space, but it resembles a cross between a watermelon and a Venus fly trap. Audrey II convinces Seymour to feed people to it in exchange for fame and fortune for his botany skills.
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The original Little Shop of Horrors was a 1960 movie, which was then made into a musical in 1982. The plots are significantly different, though both star a villainous plant, and Audrey II is still one of the most recognizable horror comedy villains around. The award-winning 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors changes the musical's darker ending into a more lighthearted conclusion, with a happy ending for Seymour and Audrey.
6 The Evil Dead (1981)
The Evil Tree Scene Is Extremely Disturbing
The Evil Dead is a horror movie from 1981 starring Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi. The film follows Ash Williams, who after visiting a cabin in the woods, is tormented by deadites and must fight for his life after his friends are possessed. The Evil Dead not only started a long-running horror franchise, but it is also the film responsible for putting both Raimi and Campbell on the map as a director and actor, respectively.
Release Date September 10, 1981
Studio(s) New Line Cinema
Distributor(s) New Line Cinema
Runtime 85 minutes
Director Sam Raimi's horror movie The Evil Dead is about demonic possession, and the movie drew positive reviews, including praise from legendary horror writer Stephen King. The Evil Dead's possessed trees have a key role in the movie, as they both torture the main characters and try to stop them from escaping. Although The Evil Dead features many graphic and disturbing scenes, it is often overshadowed by one controversial scene, which Raimi has admitted he regrets.
The Evil Dead shows the possessed tree vines sexually assaulting one of the main characters. This infamous scene attracted backlash when the movie was newly released, and has even led to some countries banning the movie. Raimi has spoken out about the "tree rape" scene and its controversy, admitting that it was too graphic and brutal. While director Fede Álvarez kept the scene in his 2013 remake, it was considerably toned down.
5 Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
"The King Of The Monsters" Fights A Villainous Plant
Godzilla vs. Biollante is a 1989 Japanese kaiju film directed by Kazuki Omori. The film follows Godzilla's battle against Biollante, a genetically engineered rose monster infused with human and Godzilla's DNA. As the two monsters clash, humanity faces the devastating impact of their confrontation. This installment explores themes of biotechnology and environmental consequences.
Director Kazuki Ômori , Koji Hashimoto , Kenjirô Ohmori
Release Date December 16, 1989
Writers Shinichiro Kobayashi , Shin'ichi Sekizawa , Kazuki Ômori
Cast Kunihiko Mitamura , Yoshiko Tanaka , Masanobu Takashima , Kôji Takahashi , Tôru Minegishi , Megumi Odaka , Toshiyuki Nagashima , Ryûnosuke Kaneda
Runtime 104 Minutes
The iconic "King of the Monsters," Godzilla has fought many enemies throughout the 30 movies in his long-running franchise. While the Godzilla movies are often very different depending on the Godzilla era and whether he has been cast as a hero or villain, Godzilla vs Biollante includes more horror elements than other Godzilla movies. Biollante is even bigger than Godzilla and resembles an enormous plant, with the mouth of a crocodile.
Biollante is a mutant kaiju, created by scientists using a mix of DNA from a human, a rose, and Godzilla himself. This formidable combination makes Biollante one of Godzilla's strongest enemies. As Biollante was created by a grieving scientist with some of the DNA of his dead daughter, the monstrous plant keeps some human elements, including human voices in its roar, which adds an extra disturbing element to Godzilla vs Biollante.
4 The Ruins (2008)
Evil Plants That Can Mimic Sounds Live In Abandoned Ruins
The Ruins is a horror film directed by Carter Smith, centering on a group of friends who encounter terrifying forces at an ancient archaeological dig in Mexico. As they attempt to escape, they realize the ruins harbor a sinister presence. The film stars Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, and Laura Ramsey, and is based on the novel by Scott Smith.
Director Carter Smith
Release Date April 2, 2008
Studio(s) Spyglass Entertainment , Pacific Film and Television Commission , Internationale Filmproduktion Prometheus , Red Hour , DreamWorks Pictures , Paramount
Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures
Writers Scott B. Smith
Runtime 91 Minutes
The Ruins stars Jena Malone and Shawn Ashmore among a group of tourists who join up to explore a Mayan ruin in the Mexican jungle. At first, the human guardians of the ruins appear to be the main antagonists, when they immediately threaten and then shoot one of the group, forcing them to flee into the ruins. However, the extreme measure is soon explained, as the evil in The Ruins is revealed.
The real danger in The Ruins has been in plain sight all along. It is the vine itself, which had been lurking in the background in many of the movie's shots before the team met the Mayans. The vines are carnivorous, luring people into the ruins using their ability to mimic sound. This begins with the vines mimicking a ringing phone, and in a scarier alternative ending for The Ruins, another character's voice.
3 Poltergeist (1982)
Steven Spielberg Wrote This Ghostly Horror, Which Features A Possessed Tree
A remake of the 1982 horror film of the same name, Poltergeist revolves around the Bowen family, whose home has been invaded by evil, supernatural forces.
Director Tobe Hooper
Release Date June 4, 1982
The main villain in Poltergeist is the ghostly force that causes havoc in a new house that has been built on top of a graveyard. This force possesses several things in and around the house, including the old oak tree in the garden. Poltergeist's tree is already scary before the movie's supernatural events begin. It is an imposing, gnarled presence that towers over the children in the movie, who are afraid of it at night.
After the haunting begins, the tree smashes through the house's walls, snatches up one of the children, and attempts to eat him as a mouth opens in its bark. The child tries to escape, but the tree's roots grab him once more before the tree is defeated by a tornado. The movie plays on a common fear for children - scary shadows outside the window - and with an even creepier twist, Poltergeist is based on a horrifying true story.
2 The Thing From Another World (1951)
The Humanoid Plant That Inspired A Body Horror Classic
The Thing From Another World is a 1950s black-and-white science fiction horror, set in Alaska, where a group of scientists finds and thaw out a spaceship that appears to have a human occupant. Though the unfrozen villain looks like a humanoid creature, it is biologically more similar to a highly evolved form of plant, which can shape-shift and shoot spores out of its hands. This shape-shifting alien antagonist might sound familiar to horror fans.
Director Christian Nyby
Release Date April 5, 1951
Writers Charles Lederer
Cast Kenneth Tobey , Margaret Sheridan , Robert Cornthwaite , Douglas Spencer , James Young , Dewey Martin , Robert Nichols , William Self , Nicholas Byron , Eduard Franz , George Fenneman , Paul Frees , Everett Glass , Norbert Schiller , Edmund Breon , John Dierkes , Sally Creighton , James Arness , David McMahon , Bill Neff
Character(s) Captain Patrick Hendry , Nikki , Dr. Arthur Carrington , Ned 'Scotty' Scott , Lt. Eddie Dykes , Crew Chief Bob , Lt. Ken 'Mac' Erickson , Corporal Barnes , Tex Richards , Dr. Stern , Dr. Redding , Prof. Voorhees , Prof. Wilson , Dr. Lorenz , Prof. Ambrose , Dr. Chapman , Mrs. Chapman , 'The Thing' , Gen. Fogarty , Bill Stone (uncredited)
Runtime 87 minutes
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The Thing from Another World is based on a 1938 novella, called "Who Goes There?" The Thing From Another World shares a location and many scenes with John Carpenter's critically-acclaimed body horror movie, The Thing, because both movies were inspired by the same novella. However, the two movies treat the evil plant differently. While The Thing From Another World keeps its monster in the shadows,The Thing takes its body horror to gruesome levels with practical effects.
1 The Guardian (1990)
A Murderous Tree Spirit Is Feeding People To Her Tree
The villain in The Guardian is relatively rare, as its evil tree is not an alien from outer space or possessed by malevolent forces. Instead, The Guardian's antagonist is a tree spirit who is working as a nanny and stealing the children she cares for, so she can feed them to the tree as human sacrifices. The Evil Dead director Sam Raimi nearly directed The Guardian, but he dropped out of the project.
The Guardian was critically panned and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 25% positive. This is surprising considering the movie had a horror veteran involved in its production. The Guardian was written and directed by William Friedkin, director of the groundbreaking horror movie, The Exorcist. Though The Guardian was not Friedkin's best movie, it has an interesting premise and villain, and some unintentionally hilarious gore.
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