15 Horror Movie Scenes That Make Hooking Up in Your Car Seem Like a Bad Idea

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Ah, the 1950s. A time of innocent cuddles up at Makeout Point. Too bad for all the G-rated lovers in this cult classic from director Ray Kellogg that, as the title promises, there’s a giant Gila monster on the loose. And he’s got a penchant for picking off the passengers in parked cars.

Brent (Xavier Samuel) is having a bad year in this Australian import. First, he's in a tragic car accident, which claims the life of his father. Six months later he's back in the passenger's seat of his girlfriend's car, only this time for carnal reasons. Unfortunately, a jealous classmate named Lola (Robin McLeavy) is looking on, and flies into a fit of psychotic jealous rage that ends with Brent bound to a chair in Lola's kitchen, where she has staged her house as if it were the senior prom. And Brent's going to be named King whether he likes it or not.

The U.S. military is on high alert. They've been warned of an approaching alien spaceship, which is set to land in the very same spot where all the town's teenagers go for a little heavy petting. This all proves a bit too exciting for the military folk, who begin watching the horny teens instead of keeping watch for E.T., so they miss it when a flying saucer does land and wreaks havoc on all those inexperienced fumblers.

Camp Crystal Lake counselor Cort (Tom Fridley) is looking for a little action. So he heads into town in the company RV where he meets a young lady named Nikki (Darcy DeMoss) who is looking to party. Unfortunately for both of them, they've got a stowaway in the form of Jason Voorhees, who never learned that "if the RV is a-rocking, don't come a-knocking." Nikkie ends up with her head permanently encased in a bathroom wall and Cort is delivered a splitting blow to the head.

Italy's "Godfather of Gore" Lucio Fulci delivers a truly gruesome interruption to a car makeout session when the lustful couple looks up to see a priest hanging from a tree in front of them, but staring. At them. And clearly disapproving of what he sees. They try to drive away but—surprise, surprise—the car won't start. It's too late for the female party anyway, as the priest's glare has caused her to choke up her own internal organs. The fact that it's probably not scientifically sound doesn't make it any easier to watch.

Based on a series of real-life murders that happened in Texarkana in 1946, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (which is set to be remade next year) makes the killer's disdain for horny teens known from the get-go. The movie opens with a hooded man popping the hood of an otherwise preoccupied couple's car and removing a part from their engine, making all attempts to escape the horror that is about to unfold fruitless.

The horror genre has seen far more terrifying assailants than The Creeping Terror, a slow-moving snail-like alien that somehow convinces a couple of lustful teens to climb into its mouth.

Getting handsy is certainly an expected consequence of getting naked in a car. But Tiffany (Kelly Monaco) expects the hands to belong to her chosen paramour for the evening. She gets a bit more digital action than she bargained for when the possessed hand of a classmate (Devon Sawa) gets in on the action.

It's 1980 and teenagers clearly haven't received word that the '70s are over. Because they're still smoking pot and having sex in pervy-type vans. At least Jude (Joy Thompson) and Slick (Sheldon Rybowski) are in Prom Night. But there's a masked killer who's about to put an end to all that when he flings open the back door and slashes Jude's throat. Slick gets away... almost. He's able to shake the killer, but then accidentally drives said creepy van over a cliff. Oops!

Chuck Russell's remake of The Blob paints a very clear picture for would-be date rapists: lay your hands on a drunk and/or otherwise non-consenting lady and you will be punished. In this case, a jock has the unwise idea to cop a quick look and feel of his passed out lady friend, only to realize that it's not alcohol that has induced her slumber—it's the blob. And it's pissed that he has invaded its personal space.

If ever there were a great anti-bullying PSA in the form of a feature film, this British horror film would be it. Bullied teenager Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean) uses the afterlife to exact revenge on the classmates who led him to commit suicide, including the school's most beautiful couple—Natasha (April Pearson) and Bradley (Alex Pettyfer)—whom he catches in flagrante delicto... in Bradley's classic ride.

The movie that gave Tom Hanks his first on-screen gig also opens with one of the horror genre's most memorably murderous makeout sessions. It's actually a movie within a movie in which a noise (as always) draws the male (Russell Todd) out of the car, only to have the female (Debbie Novak) follow suit a few minutes later. How her date went from fully aroused to hanging from a tree in two minutes she'll never know... because she'll be attacked with a scythe momentarily. To which the camera will pan back to reveal that the scene is being played out on a movie screen in a cinema full of youngsters, who will get into some trouble of their own over the next 94 minutes.

There is no definitive ending to David Fincher's masterful examination of the famously unsolved case of California's Zodiac Killer. But there's a definite beginning, and it's this perfectly lit opening scene in which the unseen Zodiac shoots a young couple (Ciara Hughes and Lee Norris), who have gone parking in Vallejo, California on the 4th of July. He makes it, she does not. But the murder will set the stage for the remainder of the film.

William Lustig probably doesn't get the credit he deserves for being a true master of horror. Maybe that's because there's a certain brutality to his work that doesn't make it fun for the whole family. Case in point: this scene from Maniac, in which the maniac of the title (Joe Spinell) happens upon a young couple steaming up the windows of their car. So he does what any red-blooded psycopath would: He shoots the guy (played by Tom Savini) dead in the face, which results in the kind of messy head explosion that might make David Cronenberg cringe.

Whereas most motorized makeout sessions are interrupted by a psycho killer, the antagonist in question in Christine is the vehicle itself. And she's a jealous little lady who doesn't take too kindly to her owner Arnie (Keith Gordon) fumbling around on her freshly Armor-Alled upholstery with his girlfriend (Alexandra Paul). So when Arnie heads off to grab a snack, Christine will try and choke a bitch.