The Burrowers (2008)
The Temperature’s Rising: Set in the Old West, The Burrowers is a dusty little monster movie, with pioneers already struggling against the inhospitable terrain of Dakota Territory (and fighting off the Native Americans who already lived there) going up against unimaginably horrible desert monsters. It’s enough to give anyone the sweats.
Sweatiness Rating: 8/10
If the Burrowers get you, all you can do is sweat.
Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)
The Temperature’s Rising: When Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow) sets out for the tropical island of Matool in search of her father, she was prepared for the heat - but not for the slavering zombies.
Sweatiness Rating: 8/10
Between the sunshine, a mysterious illness, the walking dead, and a hospital on fire, this is a stiflingly hot movie.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Temperature’s Rising: A cautionary tale about going on roadtrips with inadequate supplies, The Hills Have Eyes sees the Carter family fall prey to a clan of cannibals out in the middle of the Nevada desert.
Sweatiness Rating: 8/10
In the desert sand, it’s hot enough to cook a… well, let’s not think too much about that.
The Ruins (2008)
The Temperature’s Rising: A group of American tourists set out to find an archaeological dig out in the Mexican jungle and end up trapped at the top of a Mayan temple. With no shelter, very little water, and no hope of any help on the way, they’re left at the mercy of the bizarre vines that are growing all over the ruins.
Sweatiness Rating: 8/10
When even plants are trying to kill you, you’ve got no chance, really.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
The Temperature’s Rising: Deep in the Amazon rainforest is an indigenous tribe that’s never had contact with the outside world… until a film crew rocks up and decides the best way to portray their secretive way of life is by setting fire to their village. To be honest, they pretty much deserved to get eaten.
Sweatiness Rating: 9/10
Cannibal Holocaust caught some heat for its violent content when it was released. It was initially banned in the UK, making it a hot property in more ways than one.
Jaws (1975)
The Temperature’s Rising: Summer on Amity Island is prime tourist season: it’s hot and sunny, so the beaches are crowded with holidaymakers. Holidaymakers so desperate to get into the water that the first few corpses don’t even put them off their paddling.
Sweatiness Rating: 9/10
Looking at that tempting blue sea and knowing you can’t go in for fear of losing a limb must be torture.
The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961)
The Temperature’s Rising: Nuclear weapons testing has knocked the Earth off its axis and closer to the sun, causing the global temperature to rise catastrophically. Can science save the day, or is the planet doomed?
Sweatiness Rating: 10/10
That is some seriously apocalyptic heat.
Hell (2011)
The Temperature’s Rising: Another apocalyptic horror about global warming, Hell portrays a world where solar flares have destroyed the atmosphere. As the world gets ever hotter and drier, the human race gets ever stabbier.
Sweatiness Rating: 10/10
Since this is a German film, the title actually means “light”… but it works just as well in English, anyway.
Night Of The Big Heat (1967)
The Temperature’s Rising: Also known as Island Of The Burning Damned and Island Of The Burning Doomed , this film is about an island and a heatwave. Obviously. This is no ordinary heatwave, though: it’s a heatwave caused by extremely hot extraterrestrials.
Sweatiness Rating: 10/10
Imagine if ET set homeless people on fire. Terrifying.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Temperature’s Rising: Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her friends were just going to pay their respects to her grandfather’s grave in a remote part of Texas when they stumbled across the Sawyer family home and, er, got massacred.
The film’s atmosphere of oppressive heat is authentic enough – the film crew were working temperatures of up to 43°C for much of the shoot, and since they didn’t have multiple versions of the costumes, the cast had to put their sweaty clothes back on day after day. Urgh.
Sweatiness Rating: 10/10
Just remembering the sound of the saw makes us break out in a cold sweat.
