Woods are to easy to get lost in, snuck up on, trip, fall in a hole or otherwise lost. In a house, even a small one I feel like I would have a fighting chance. The opportunity for weapons, ability to barricade in or trap the bad guy or create a defensible position.

True - Then of course, you could wind up in a Blair Witch situation where you're going round and round and round................ I don't know why but that's still less scary to me than being stuck in a closet just knowing that you're going to be demolished any second.

Related note - When I can't sleep at night I pontificate on what I'd do if a Killer came into our house... Overwhelming conclusion is that my closet is such a pit I could just bury myself in clothes and they would never find me............



True story - I used to keep a hatchet by the bed just in case... My fiance made me put it somewhere else, though, for fear that I'd fall on it. :o

If a Killer's downstairs in our condo, we're screwed; I don't think I have anything in my room I could use as a weapon (does a heavy Yankee Candle jar count?)

I think it all depends on the way it is presented in a film. For the most obvious reasons, a scene inside a house needs to add the effect of darkness and usually some sort of pulsating lights effects. Not to mention sounds, etc. Scenes in the woods give off natural effects that give help to that fear factor; Even in a fully sunny day the trees give off an eerie effect of darkness and shadows and as others have mentioned it is very easy to get disoriented and lost in the woods.

It's actually funny... it's no big secret that I have dendrophobia. I think trees are the creepiest things ever. But horror movies that takes place in the woods don't nescesarily make any impression on me... like the Blair Witch, for example, which I didn't find scary at all.

In "real life", I am pretty sure that I'd be much more scared if I was in the woods... but for a movie, I usually find the haunted house stuff more scary. Of course, it does depend on the movie, and especially how it's been filmed.

Death by candle is possible with those large ones from Yankee, and potentially humiliating. Intruder is bludgeoned AND he smells like the most amazing Pumpkin Spice Latte or Summer Peaches. He seemed so vicious and scary before that fabulous scent.

I'd go with woods, you can always get out of a house through a window or door at any 15 ft radius, not always the case with woods.

I like the way you think. :D

For me personally I'd be more afraid of being trapped in a house. I grew up on a farm and I'm very comfortable in the woods - just run as fast as you can and find some good thick underbrush to duck down in and wait for the killer to lose track of you. Being trapped in a house would be much worse. Though unlike people in horror movies, I'd probably just jump through a window if it was a matter of life and death :p

As far as movies though, it totally depends on the lighting, the theme music, how the whole thing is presented etc.