I love to do this: Look up cool movie locations. Ever wonder where some of your favorite horror movies were filmed? Some of these locations may surprise you. I’d like to hear which ones shocked you.
“Twilight” Most locations were in Oregon. I recognized a lot of them and they included Oregon City which I consider to be the scariest town I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in some crazy backwater mountainous towns in Appalachia. If you watch the movie, you can understand why I think Oregon is Nirvana.
“Rose Red” The exterior shots were from Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, Washington. The interior shots were a giant set built indoors at a hanger at an abandoned Seattle Naval Base.
“Signs” Bensalem Township, PA. No surprise here. M. Knight loves his home state.
“30 Days of Night” New Zealand. They had to do a little to pump up the snow, as New Zealand wasn’t producing a lot, but filming was at the time of the year when it was winter there and summer here, so they had to go to the source.
“Burnt Offerings” at Dunsmuir House and Gardens in Oakland, CA. I thought the home for this movie was really creepy.
“The Covenant” Quebec and Nova Scotia Canada. Every time I see this movie, I feel like moving to Nova Scotia (another of my dream places to experience). Now that I know part of it was filmed there, I understand why I love the concept of this place so much. It’s probably as close to living in autumn most of the year as I could find.
“The Fog” (original) Point Reyes Lighthouse, northern California. Loved this lighthouse. When I first saw the movie, I wanted to be that totally cool DJ (well, except for the part where the ghosts attack).
“Gothika” Quebec, Canada. This was dark and dank. Seems like Quebec is a real fav to film at, along with Vancouver. They’ve certainly got the mood and weather. Every movie I've ever seen filmed in either location--I totally loved.
“The Hills Have Eyes” Victorville, CA. It’s funny, when I lived in Redondo Beach, I used to think the movie had to be done in Victorville, which is where all the guys liked to go motorcycle riding. Every time I went out that way, I was really worried about the hills and felt like I was in the movie.
“Jeepers Creepers” Bushnell, FL. I knew this one was in Florida for the movie, but I didn’t know they filmed it there. I figured they’d gone deeper into Alabama or Mississippi.
“The Omega Man” Los Angeles, CA. I figured it was probably mostly on sets, although in the opening scene when he’s driving around in the daytime. He gets out of his car and in the distance, you see a single car cross a street far away—oops!
“Salem’s Lot” (original) Eureka, CA. You know, in “Halloween” you knew it was filmed in California and not Indiana—there weren’t any autumn colors anywhere, just some dead leaves they threw at a fan and an occasional palm tree in the distance, but in this miniseries, I thought for sure it was filmed in the NE. Surprise!
“Session 9” Lynn, Massachusetts. I wasn’t surprised. Seemed like somewhere in the NE.
“Stir of Echoes” Chicago, IL. Felt like it.
“When a Stranger Calls” (remake) Culver City, CA This was a big surprised to me. I got the movie (not because it was any good--it was awful), but I adored the house and setting. Sometimes, I just want a movie for the location only like “30 Days of Night” and “Cold Creek Manor” and “Wedding Crashers” where the setting was so much like Aspen Grove, it made me all misty-eyed.
Do you know any other surprise locations? I've love to hear them.
A lot of the exterior shots from Friday The 13th were filmed in Alabama. It really looked it, too (all tose pine trees!), made it even scarier for us Southerners.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite "B"-movie, "Eegah" was filmed in and around Palm Springs, CA, some scenes were shot on Harpo Marx's estate. One reason it's my favorite is that I love desert lanscapes and mid-century modern architecture.
I don't know where the remake of "The Blob. was filmed, but the whole layout of the town and the nearby forest was almost a dead ringer for my hometown.
And "Tremors" was filmed in the Alabama Mountains (which are in California, not Alabama!)
You always are in the know! That really makes me want to go to Alabama! I loved the location of the original Friday The 13th. I forgot about that movie "Eegah" now I gotta see it again! Ilike the way they portrayed the desert in "Them!" also. I'm thrilled to learn about "Tremors." It reminded me of parts of the area around Joshua Tree Monument in the California desert because they have a lot of boulders there. Thanks for the insight!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this. Great research. Whenever I watch a good movie, I always wonder where it was filmed. I wilkl now think of you as the location scout for the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteword verification - and this is odd: twing.
Twing--I like that. I do plan on looking up a bunch more that came to mind just recently that had me wondering about the locations, some of the classic horror movies. Maybe I'll use that as a followup--thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not horror or a movie, but Lost is filmed almost entirely in Hawaii...and sometimes they can make Hawaii look like foreign countries...one time they even made a street look like a German street (I think it was German) in winter by dumping chunks of ice along the street! There hasn't been many times where they filmed something someone else. One time they filmed some shots in Los Angeles, and another time they filmed some shots in London because they needed actor Alan Dale for the scenes and he had a scheduling conflict in London and couldn't fly to Hawaii. The Lost producers have done an excellent job of making Hawaiian look like foreign locations.
ReplyDeleteHey Jeff;
ReplyDeleteI think that would be a dream job to find filming locations. Even Halloween was filmed in LA-though I totallly didn't buy it at all--Indiana at Halloween would be so lush and green and with palm trees.. Hee hee. A lot of movies have used Hawaii like Jurassic Park and The Thornbirds. If they need a tropical location--it's a dream. It must be a real nightmare trying to film a street as Middle America when it has tropical plants and the wrong architecture, but still every city has a quaint street that looks very generic, so I'm sure Hawaii must have a few made by sentimental missionaries. I gotta say an English coastline filmed in Phoenix? Now, that's a big stretch!
My favorite movie location is by far the eerie village and the house from the 70s horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death. This place in New England was so creepy that I used it to describe the small town in my own horror novel Drowned Sorrow.
ReplyDeleteOther favorites are the locations from The Fog, The Shining, The Wicker Man, Dead and Buried and Friday the 13th.
If you're interested in horror movie locations, then check out the pics from the filming locations in Belgium of my upcoming movie The Strangers Outside : http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/2010/08/strangers-outside-filming-locations.html
www.movieshotsla.com
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