History Main / DontGoInTheWoods

* The Headless Horseman sequence from ''TheLegendofSleepyHollow'' segment from ''Disney/TheIchabodandMrToad''.

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* ''SCPFoundation'' does it in [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-899 SCP-899]]. It's a bad idea to go near it if you're an adult. It's even worse if you're a child. And if you're a teenager going through puberty [DATA EXPUNGED]. [[spoiler: And this is ''before'' the SCP-899-1 manifestations appear...]]

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* In ''HanselAndGretel'', a people-eating witch waits in the woods.

* {{The Village}} had this, with people being warned to stay out of the woods because of the monsters. When the girl protagonist goes to get help, she gets chased by them. (They turn out to be not real, but she only finds that out later).

The {{horror}} equivalent of the HorribleCampingTrip, for a doomed wilderness expedition, see RiverOfInsanity, sometimes may overlap with WildWilderness at some point but with much darker overtones.

* In the Zelda series The Ocarina of Time it is best to not go into the woods unless you are a Kiorki child, unless you want to become a monster.

* The Forest in ''SeptimusHeap'' is filled with carnivorous trees, wolverines, and nasty witches and not a place to enter without caution. [[spoiler: Septimus and Nicko get almost killed in ''Flyte'' in this Forest]].

* In Arthur Machen's ''TheGreatGodPan'', some of Helen's earliest victims are driven to madness after going in the woods with her. (She is the daughter of the pagan nature deity Pan, who is depicted as a [[EldritchAbomination very dark force]].)

->''[[RapeTropes Kin ye squeal like a piggy]]?''
-->--- ''{{Deliverance}}''

* The ponies of [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]] treat the Everfree Forest as an EldritchLocation ; looking at it with fear, and prefering to avoid it when possible. Turns out, the forest is not so bad... it just happens to be an EldritchLocation '''for them only''', because ''the plants and trees fend by themselves without pony aid, and the weather is not under the control of Pegasi''; which clashes directly with the rest of the pony-ordered, cheerful civilized Equestria. It is of note, though, that Everfree Forest DOES have some dangerous creatures, such as manticores, and other assorted nasty stuff like Poison Joke, which although not lethal or painful, can really mess up your day; it's just not as dangerous as the ponies make you believe.

* ''{{Halloween}}: Revenge of Michael Myers'' ends with Michael Myers chasing the protagonists into an eerie, foggy woodlands with a car. When he crashes the car, he gets out completely unscathed and proceeds to stalk the victims through the forest with a butcher knife.

* ''SleepawayCamp''. Set primarily in [[SummerCampy a summer camp]], but at one point bunch of kids and a counselor venture into the woods. [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean The kids never came back]].

In horror/thriller/fantasy movies; holidays or outings in woodsy locations never seem to bode all that well. This trope is OlderThanDirt, with the wilderness being viewed as dangerous for much of human history.

* The forest bordering ''InkCity'' is home to mindless ink monsters and other threats, and also holds the FourthWall. Assuming you make it that far, it's best just to leave the Wall alone... touching it leads to [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel BAD THINGS]].

->''"If you go down to the woods today,''\\
''You're sure for a big surprise..."''

Two or more people, often a group of teenagers, go for a casual hike or a vacation at a secluded retreat in the [[TheLostWoods deciduous wilderness of North America or Europe]]. Horrible things ensue. The soon-to-be-not-so-happy campers get stalked through the trees by [[AxCrazy psychopathic]] [[SerialKiller killers]]; they run afoul of [[CannibalClan tribes of inbred hillbillies]]; ghosts, werewolves, witches, druids, fairies and other such beings toy with them; perhaps even the [[WhenTreesAttack TREES THEMSELVES attack them]]; [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight they hear strange noises in the night]]; people disappear; [[GoAmongMadPeople people go insane]]; ETC, ETC... [[DownerEnding Rarely do movies of this flavor end happily]]; often with everyone ending up dead, though there may be a FinalGirl. This has almost gotten to the point at which such movies almost have [[ForegoneConclusion Foregone Conclusions]].

TropeNamer (though hardly the TropeMaker) is ''[[Film/DontGoInTheWoods Don't Go in the Woods]]'', a notoriously sub-par 1981 [[SlasherMovies Slasher Movie]] by James Bryan (and also one of the films on Britain's infamous VideoNasties list) about four teenage campers who go for a relaxing weekend in the woods and, sure enough, are set upon by a deranged killer.

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