12 Scary Movies Set in the South

Everything's bigger in the South -- the hair, the honky-tonk, and the horror movies. 

Doesn't it just figure -- you finally get to inherit a hotel in Louisiana; you have grand plans to fix it all up. Then you find out the buildling sits directly over one of the doors to hell. Bummer. And yes, there are multiple doors to hell.

While not a traditional horror movie, it's hard not to be terrified by this cautionary tale set in the backwoods of Northern Georgia. The film, based on the popular novel of the same name, is the stuff of movie legend. How else would the phrase "Squeal like a pig!" enter the common vernacular?

The Ruggsville, Texas, police should have thought twice when they attacked the brutal, inbred Firefly family. Now the Fireflys are on a bloody, sadistically grotesque mission of revenge -- along with the occasional random thrill kill.

Yes, there's such as thing as romantic horror, thanks to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, who haunt the Louisiana night in search of a good time -- and the blood that keeps them undead.

Let's just say that the southern town of Pleasant Valley is ironically named. Six men from the North are lured there to participate in a celebration, only to be systematically murdered as revenge for the Union's Civil War victory over the town 100 years before. Some folks really hold a grudge.

Deep in the heart of Texas, there lives a family who would just as soon eat that heart as say hello. This cult favorite, directed by Tobe Hooper, set the standard for the slasher-horror movies to come over the next decade.

Don't mess with Texas -- or Judd, in this case, as he runs a small, rural hotel and likes to feed guests who annoy him to his voracious pet alligator. It's one thing to be eaten dead -- getting eaten alive really stings.

When you come from a long line of people who have mated with cats, you might find a strange yearning for balls of yarn. You might also transform into a panther in New Orleans, whose appetite for human flesh is voracious.

New Orleans sure does have its seedy underbelly. Just ask the Candyman, who travels there to continue his brutal killing spree from the first movie. This time, he sets his sights on the daughter of one of his previous victims.

Three women. A spelunking trip. In the Appalachians running through North Carolina. What could go wrong? Well, for one, you could unwittingly run into a group of terrifying, grotesque and vicious creatures -- hell-bent on devouring you.

New Orleans is the perfect setting for this tale of conjuring, soul swapping and the eerie magic of hoodoo rituals. A young nurse (Kate Hudson) moves in to a creepy old plantation home to help an elderly couple, only to find evil dwelling within, naturally. 

Years of poisonous insecticides have created a mutated and angry community of frogs on the Florida coast. Well, not just frogs -- also water moccasins, alligators, tarantulas, rattlesnakes, crabs, turtles, leeches and lizards. Whoops, almost left out seagulls.