History Main / HillbillyHorrors

* EvilIsDeathlyCold: The snowy woods and tundra of the [[GrimUpNorth northern]] States or inland and northern [[CanadaEh Canada]] during wintertime, or else in some [[DeathMountain inhospitable mountainous region]]. Expect a backstory full of [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty frontier cannibalism]] and, if regionally appropriate ([[SadlyMythtaken or even if not]]), some {{Wendigo}} motifs.

* SlasherFilm: Many such films are this, with ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' being the TropeCodifier for non-supernatural versions

* ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' series has Leatherface and his family, the Sawyers, who became the {{Trope Codifier}}s for this. They're from rural Texas, they're [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]], and they check off nearly every box on the list of hillbilly stereotypes.

* In "Literature/GenreSavvy", Edgar and Charlotte briefly discuss the subject. Edgar believes in being GenreSavvy and recognizing the Hillbilly Horrors are a threat when you see them and going home instead of sticking around to be their victim. It's on his mind when taking the scenic route and he finds an injured, barefoot girl screaming for help in the middle of nowhere; he slows down to help her, pictures being killed by [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]] or other cannibal hillbillies in the process, and says ScrewThisImOuttaHere and leaves her on the side of the road.

* The base game of ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' has the Hillbilly, who hunts down the Survivors with a large cattle hammer and [[ChainsawGood a chainsaw]] that can [[OneHitKill incapacitate a Survivor at full health]]. A {{DLC}} later introduced Leatherface from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'', referred to in-game as the Cannibal. He uses a sledge and his iconic chainsaw as weapons, and can enter a crazed state where he wildly swings his chainsaw around in large sweeps, instantly downing any Survivor he hits. The Hillbilly [[WordOfGod was stated to have been based directly on Leatherface]], hence the similarities between the two.

* Part IV of ''VideoGame/LakeviewCabinCollection'' takes place in this setting, in a {{Homage}} to ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''. Complete with a cannibalistic family living in a decaying farmhouse full of blood, corpses, and slaughterhouse equipment. The house can actually be seen across the lake in Part III.
* Jedidiah in ''VideoGame/ObsCure II'' is a mad, mentally damaged man who lives in an empty, decaying mansion in the woods, occasionally venturing out to kidnap and murder people with a chainsaw. Given that the game is a GenreThrowback to the teen horror movies of the '80s and '90s, the homage to [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]] is obvious. [[spoiler:He is Leonard Friedman's son, and serves to care for his father and spread the mortifilia plant around the Fallcreek campus. You kill both him and his father in the penultimate boss fight.]]

* Northern UsefulNote/{{Idaho}} (and to an extent the rest of the state and inland Washington and Oregon) has gained a reputation for being a den for militant Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Much of this can be attributed to the presence of Aryan Nations during the 70s-00s. The notoriety of Aryan Nations was such that when Idaho tried to encourage minorities to move into the state virtually all of them refused out of fear of getting killed by militant white racists.

Works where the horror lurks in isolated, rural areas. May include [[BrotherSisterIncest a deeply inbred family]], a SerialKiller or SerialRapist (or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs both]], seeing how MurderersAreRapists) or maybe even a CannibalClan. The native environment of the SackheadSlasher.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Most likely born of [[IncestIsRelative incest]].

* IncestIsRelative
** BrotherSisterIncest
** InbredAndEvil is near-universal
** KissingCousins (For less lurid examples)
** ParentalIncest
** {{Twincest}}

* The arguable UrExample and influence on many stories is the legend of Sawney Bean, who allegedly lived in 17th-century Ayrshire in Scotland, although the oldest printed sources date from around a century later. The tale hits all the tropes of the genre, despite being a Scottish legend -- he was allegedly the founder of a CannibalClan [[IncestIsRelative through inbreeding]] who lived in caves and abducted and ate travelers. There is a less well-known, but almost identical, Scottish legend about a character named Christie-Cleek, who allegedly lived and murdered in the Grampians in the fourteenth century. Creator/WesCraven described the genre's TropeCodifier, ''Film/{{The Hills Have Eyes|1977}}'', as being inspired by the Bean legend.

** One optional encounter has the player character invited in for dinner by an oddly-insistent pig farmer and his wife, where you gradually realize that your hosts are [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous siblings]] who are [[InnOfNoReturn planning to murder and rob you]]. You may also run into a fellow traveler who will invite you to share his campfire, and then tell you about a couple - implied to be the above Aberdeen siblings - who invited him in for dinner, but his GutFeeling told him to keep away.

* ''Film/{{Carver}}'' is a hybrid of Hillbilly Horrors and TorturePorn.

* ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'' is set up almost perfectly for this, with a small band of people trapped in an isolated woodland cabin in Tennessee, and being picked off by demonic spirits that possess the corpses of their kills. The movie derives a lot of horror from the isolated environment itself ([[WhenTreesAttack especially the trees]], although actual hillbillies don't show up until ''Film/EvilDead2'', where they're not presented as anything more than just slightly odd people.

* ''Film/IDrinkYourBlood'' inverts this, in that the hillbillies are actually decent people and it's the Satanic, murderous hippies who are evil. Unfortunately for the hillbillies, their plan to get back at said hippies by giving them meat pies contaminated with rabies backfires.
* ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave'' inverts this, in that it's about a woman who, having been raped and abused by hillbillies, returns to brutally torture and butcher them in revenge.

* ''Film/JoyRide''

* FolkHorror: Both of these subgenres typically rely on isolated settings and strange practices, so there is a lot of overlap
* FlyoverCountry

* SouthOfTheBorder, as Mexico is host to enormous stretches of deserted wilderness. Expect lots of [[{{Calacas}} Dia de los Muertos imagery]] and maybe some {{Mayincatec}}-style HumanSacrifice motifs

* The LandDownUnder, which, like Mexico, has unfathomably large areas that are totally devoid of people.

%%* ''Film/EdenLake'' (for OopNorth)

* The ''Point Lookout'' DLC for ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has the player fighting mutated hillbillies who have formed acult around a MadScientist BrainInAJar.
** The main game has the small settlement of Andale, which plays with this trope. It's only inhabited by two families, who obsessively cling to the values and fashions of the pre-War world for humorous effect [[spoiler: but in reality, they're an inbred clan of cannibals who prey on hapless travellers. The basement and sheds in the family homes are full of human corpses, and the settlement has such a nasty reputation even the Raiders avoid it. They're descended from an original group of four families that survived the nuclear apocalypse and took to inbreeding and cannibalism to survive]].

* Cousin Eddy from ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' Head-On is a parody, whilst Billy Ray, driver of Junkyard Dog, is a subversion, he is a deformed murderer, but is sympathetic once the player finds out why.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' takes place on a decaying, decrepit plantation manor in a Louisiana bayou, inhabited by the Bakers -- a small but superhumanly tough and strong CannibalClan of murderous kidnappers who keep horrific fungus-people monsters locked up in their basement. Though it should be noted that the Bakers aren't ignorant or stupid; they're just crazy. [[spoiler:In a twist on the trope, it's also eventually revealed [[BrainwashedAndCrazy they weren't even like this originally]]: they used to be perfectly normal and nice people (except for [[BlackSheep Lucas]]) and were transformed into these super-powered sociopaths after they rescued and took in a little girl, who unfortunately turned out to be a HumanoidAbomination SuperSoldier GoneHorriblyWrong and promptly {{Mind Rape}}d them into this state.]]

%%* ''Film/ColdPrey''

* ''Film/NiteTalesTheMovie'': In "Karma", the bank robbers find themselves trapped in a remote farmhouse by a CannnibalClan of farmers who don't like outsiders who steal from and murder locals.

* ''Redneck Zombies'': A bunch of rednecks get turned into zombies as a result of drinking moonshine made from a barrel of radioactive waste.

* The arguable UrExample and influence on many stories is the legend of Sawney Bean, who allegedly lived in 17th-century Ayrshire in Scotland, although the oldest printed sources date from around a century later. The tale hits all the tropes of the genre, despite being a Scottish legend -- he was allegedly the founder of a CannibalClan [[IncestIsRelative through inbreeding]] who lived in caves and abducted and ate travelers. There is a less well-known, but almost identical, Scottish legend about a character named Christie-Cleek, who allegedly lived and murdered in the Grampians in the fourteenth century. Creator/WesCraven described the genre's TropeCodifier, ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes'', as being inspired by the Bean legend.

* ''Film/StrawDogs'' transplants Dustin Hoffman into [[OopNorth the rural north of England]], where the local toughs torment him and his wife. Increasingly, though, it becomes clear that he can be just as big of a monster as they are. It received a remake, decades later, set in the southern United States.

* ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'':

** ''TableTopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' offers two [[PrestigeClass bloodlines]] who are twists on this, both of which (unsurprisingly enough) are [[WildMan Gangrel]]: the Oberlochs, an inbred family descended from cruel mine owners who cling to the backwoods and readily recruit; and the Mabrys, who bring the prey to them by running back-road watering holes and roadhouses.

* ''VideoGame/OutlastII'' is set in a rural Arizona town called Temple Gate, which is populated almost entirely by murderous hillbilly [[{{Cult}} cultists]] led by a self-proclaimed prophet of God. The scariest thing, however, is how [[ItCanThink organized]] they are compared to many other examples as well as the Variants of the previous game; they cooperate and thoroughly search the farm for the player character using flashlights and seem to have a sacrificial system.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Film/EatenAlive'' revolves around a hotel in the DeepSouth being run by a crazed war-veteran who keeps feeding people to his pet gator.

* Most Jack Ketchum stories, the most well known of them probably being ''Off Season''.