Here are the top 10 films set in West Virginia

CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — West Virginia is known for its beautiful mountains and rugged scenery, and one of the best ways to showcase it is in the world of cinema.

This list was compiled using the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website. Here are some fun facts about films set in West Virginia:

No films in the top 10 won an Academy Award, but two were nominated: “Matewan” for Best Cinematography and “Patch Adams” for Best Score.

Even though “Patch Adams” was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, it is the lowest rated film critically. It is sitting at a 25/100.

“Patch Adams” was even nominated for Stinker Award at the “Stinkers Bad Movie Awards”, being nominated for “Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing More than $100 Million Using Hollywood Math.”

“The Night of the Hunter” has the most critical acclaim as well as being the highest rated film set in West Virginia. It has a 99/100 on Metacritic.

The average critic score for films set in West Virginia is around 61/100, while movies filmed in West Virginia is at around 73/100.

Drama films were represented the most in the top 10, being featured in seven films. Biography was a genre for three of them, while thriller, crime, history, comedy and horror were featured in two of the films.

According to IMDb user ratings with more than 1,000 ratings, here are the Top 10 films set in West Virginia.

1. The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Director: Charles Laughton

Writer: Charles Laughton (Screenplay), James Agee (Screenplay), Davis Grubb (Based on the Novel)

Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish

Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller

IMDb Rating: 8/10 (89,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 99/100

IMDb Synopsis: “A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid the $10,000 he’d stolen in a robbery.”

2. Matewan (1987)

Director: John Sayles

Writer: John Sayles

Stars: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell

Genre: Drama, History

IMDb Rating: 7.9/10 (8,100 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 73/100

IMDb Synopsis: “A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.”

3. October Sky (1999)

Director: Joe Johnston

Writer: Lewis Colick (Screenplay), Homer H. Hickam, Jr. (Based on the Novel)

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern

Genre: Biography, Drama, Family

IMDb Rating: 7.8/10 (90,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 71/100

IMDb Synopsis: “The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner’s son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father’s wishes.”

4. Dark Waters (2019)

Director: Todd Haynes

Writer: Mario Correa (Screenplay), Matthew Michael Carnahan (Screenplay), Nathaniel Rich (Based on the Article)

Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins

Genre: Biography, Drama, History

IMDb Rating: 7.6/10 (85,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 73/100

IMDb Synopsis: “A corporate defense attorney takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.”

5. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

Director: Eli Craig

Writer: Eli Craig, Morgan Jurgenson

Stars: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden

Genre: Comedy, Horror

IMDb Rating: 7.5/10 (177,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 65/100

IMDb Synopsis: “Affable hillbillies Tucker and Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are mistaken for murderers by a group of preppy college students.”

6. The Devil All the Time (2020)

Director: Antonio Campos

Writer: Antonio Campos (Screenplay), Paulo Campos (Screenplay), Donald Ray Pollock (Based on the Novel)

Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

IMDb Rating: 7.1/10 (129,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 55/100

IMDb Synopsis: “Sinister characters converge around a young man devoted to protecting those he loves in a postwar backwoods town teeming with corruption and brutality.”

7. We Are Marshall (2006)

Director: McG

Writer: Jamie Linden (Screenplay), Cory Helms (Story)

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie

Genre: Drama, Sport

IMDb Rating: 7/10 (61,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 53/100

IMDb Synopsis: “When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team’s new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.”

8. The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)

Director: Julien Nitzberg

Stars: J. Parker Bazzle II, Derek Wayne Castle, Francis M. Curnutte III

Genre: Documentary

IMDb Rating: 7/10 (4,800 ratings)

Metacritic Score: N/A

IMDb Synopsis: “A year in the life of the White family, well known for Jesco White, the star of the ‘Dancing Outlaw’ documentary.

9. Patch Adams (1998)

Director: Tom Shadyac

Writer: Steve Oedekerk (Screenplay), Patch Adams (Based on the Novel), Maureen Mylander (Based on the Novel)

Stars: Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama

IMDb Rating: 6.8/10 (113,000 ratings)

Metacritic Score: 25/100

IMDb Synopsis: “The true story of a heroic man, Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams, determined to become a medical doctor because he enjoys helping people. He ventured where no doctor had ventured before, using humour and pathos.”