The thrill of the chase is a big element in many successful horror movies. It gets everyone's adrenaline running, helps push the element of suspense, and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they hope and pray the survivors can make it out alive.
It's that element of the unknown that keeps viewers coming back for more. They might be on the run from sharks, zombies, or the stereotypical masked murderer, but the getaway motif is a common trope that is often used for thrills and chills in any freaky feature.
Escape Room
A bit on the nose, but one that simply couldn't be ignored with the sheer popularity of escape rooms nowadays. Honestly, it was only a matter of time before someone turned the often gimmicky puzzle activities into a Jigsaw-inspired death trap, and the result was this teen-scream horror film.
The plot is simple enough, a group of participants in an elaborate escape room must overcome their past sins in order to avoid various traps and hazards, usually leading to someone getting the ax. It's formulaic, true enough, but there's certainly something to be said for the film's creativity.
Jeepers Creepers
The Creeper himself has haunted the dreams of many movie-goers, and there are more than a few reasons why. The horror genre is no stranger to monsters who want to eat people's vital organs, but not many can give chase and pursue their victims with the ferocity of this ancient evil.
Granted, not many supernatural entities have access to a giant truck they can use to mow down their targets, but this movie isn't exactly known for its subtlety. Hunger is a powerful motivator for anyone, monster or otherwise, but when they're as armed to the spiky teeth as the creeper is, he's more than equipped to get what he wants.
Death Proof
The Creeper isn't the only one who comes with a slick set of wheels. Quinten Tarantino's grindhouse-style slasher movie features Kurt Russell as a serial killer stuntman whose weapon of choice is a vicious vehicle that's "100% death proof," at least for the driver.
The film essentially follows the slasher formula of a murderer stalking and picking off women one-by-one until a final girl and her companions have their vengeance, but it's all done with Tarantino's over-the-top and violent flair.
Saw
There's no getting away from it, but Saw was the escape-horror movie that completely turned the genre on its head. Essentially Escape Room before Escape Room, the original film featuring the vengeful and enigmatic Jigsaw and his fiendish traps was a horror movie that took the world by storm and spawned sequel after sequel.
Saw is brutal, plain and simple. The only goal of the survivors of the film is to stay alive, no matter the cost. Jaws are snapped open, limbs are ripped off, and victims trigger terrifying traps throughout the film. It's definitely one way to get the adrenaline pumping.
Haunt
Eli Roth's Haunt is an interesting hybrid of escape and slasher movie as a gang of friends spend their Halloween Night looking for an extreme haunted house, but find a deadly roadside attraction ran by a group of masked killers. It hearkens back to the golden age of the genre, but also includes Roth's gift for gore.
Any good slasher movie has to have some form of a chase scene, but that factor is only increased when multiple murderers are thrown into the mix. Especially if the victims are trying to escape a grungy haunted house rigged with deadly booby traps.
The Strangers
Normally, home is a place people want to go to feel safe. But if said home is being invaded by a trio of slashers in creepy masks, that's probably not the best idea. It's a slow burn, but The Strangers is an intense and frightening film with scares around every corner.
A common theme for getaway films just getting out of whatever location the victims happen to be trapped in, but there's something more unsettling about it being in the characters' own home. When that element of familiar safety is taken away, the fear factor shoots up tremendously.
Halloween II
Although the first Halloween does have that familiar escape element towards the second half of the movie, its sequel fully utilizes the idea. After the events of the previous film. Laurie Strode is trapped in a hospital with the murderous Michael ripping and tearing his way through staff and others to get to her.
The escape element seen in many '80s horror movies typically involves getting away from an entity or slasher character, and Michael Myers is one of the most iconic. Along with characters like Jason Voorhees, he's more of a force of nature than a man in a mask, and he doesn't go down easy.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
When one of the most iconic scenes in the 1974 slasher features the final girl practically running a marathon with a chainsaw-swinging madman on her tail, it has to be included on the list. Once again, the theme of trying to flee from a house full of killers graces the list, but with a more grindhouse feel than the common slasher.
Running from someone in a mask with a chainsaw is a common horror trope seen and lampooned across the genre, but Leatherface made it happen. Though, it's pretty impossible to forget a scene that ends with a chase and a chainsaw dance.
The Terminator
While it might not be horror in the traditional sense, The Terminator is a sci-fi thriller all about being on the run, whether that's from an evil cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger or a future destroyed by an evil corporation. It's a theme that follows the series, but the horror elements shine brighter in the original.
The original T-800 is a relentless killing machine with one sole mission, to destroy Sarah Connor and prevent the rise of the resistance against Skynet. The intensity of the cyborg growing closer and closer to Sarah and Kyle like a robotic predator is absolutely palpable.
Alien
Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece Alien wins the top billing for its amalgamation of traits that make for the ideal escape-horror movie. A group of victims has to get out of a familiar place of work when a vicious alien monster finds its way onto their ship. The thrill of the hunt only intensifies as the crew of the Nostromo gets picked off and eaten by the Xenomorph.
The film has been compared to a slasher film in space, and it does jump through a lot of similar hoops, including utilizing that fear of the unknown as the alien creature lurks in the darkness of the spacecraft. It's intense, original, and a classic that has stood the test of time.