21 Horror Movie Locations Across America
Nightmare Scenarios
If Halloween gets you in the mood to rewatch your favorite horror classics, perhaps you'd also like to visit where they were filmed. While many movies are shot on secluded sound stages, these 21 spots are real movie locations that brave souls can seek out on their own. Some are public businesses — hotels, diners, and even a very tongue-in-cheek barbecue restaurant — while others are historic locations open for tours. Just be sure to be respectful when visiting residences and parks, and watch out for monsters!
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The Overlook Hotel From 'The Shining'
Mount Hood, Oregon
The Timberline Lodge was built on the side of Oregon's Mount Hood in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration, which put Americans to work during the Great Depression. It is now a National Historic Landmark — and serves as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, "The Shining" tells the story of a family who signs on to care for the hotel during its winter off-season. After the staff departs, the family is left alone with the hotel, falling prey to the malevolent spirits that lurk within. King was inspired to write the novel after staying at another hotel with his wife, Tabby: The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. But it's the Timberline that hosts "Shining" screenings and was painstakingly reconstructed for the sequel, "Doctor Sleep."
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The House From 'Psycho'
Universal City, California
Guests to Universal Studios Hollywood can still visit the house where "Psycho" serial killer Norman Bates and his mother — or Norman pretending to be his mother — lived while operating the adjacent Bates Motel. The motel set gets incorporated into theme park Halloween Horror Nights events and optional photo ops, but it's always visible via backlot tram tours.
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The Woods From 'The Blair Witch Project'
Seneca Creek State Park, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Seneca Creek State Park is perfect for a scenic outing. Its 6,300 acres contain numerous trails, a creek for kayaking, and a lake where guests can fish and boat. It's also where much of the "The Blair Witch Project" was filmed. The 1999 film follows three film students as they seek a creature that supposedly haunts the woods of Maryland for a documentary. It was certainly not the first "found footage" horror film, but it spawned numerous copycats in the years to come.
The Cemetery Gates From 'Phantasm'
Altadena, California
In 1918, lumber mogul Charles Cobb built himself an estate in Altadena. The house was bought by the Marx Brothers and later demolished, though the gates remain and are visible in the 1979 film "Phantasm" as the gates to a cemetery. The film follows two orphaned brothers, Jody and Mike Pearson, who are terrorized by the The Tall Man. He's not only the town mortician, but the brothers suspect he's been picking off fellow citizens. Present-day hikers like to claim that the area around the gates is haunted.
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The Bridge From 'Stand By Me'
Burney, California
Based on Stephen King's "The Body," "Stand by Me" trails a group of boys as they set out to find the body of a missing boy in the woods. In one scene, the boys try to cross a train bridge that sits over a stream, which goes well until a train come barreling along. Though the 1986 film is set in a small town in Oregon, this scene really uses the Lake Britton Bridge in Burney, California.
The Gas Station From 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Bastrop, Texas
The gas station where a group of friends make a fatal stop is now a barbecue restaurant. If you think it's weird that a meat-centric restaurant has sprung up at a location featured in a movie about a killer cannibal who wears flesh masks, it's definitely intentional. Guests can buy horror merchandise, order up some delicious brisket, or even stay in one of the property's four cabins. You'll know you've found the right place when you see the "We Slaughter Barbecue" sign.
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The Apartment From 'Rosemary's Baby'
New York
The Dakota is a beautiful apartment building in Manhattan, known to attract the rich and famous. John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived here, and it's outside this building where Lennon was fatally shot in 1980. The building also played a role in the 1968 horror film, "Rosemary's Baby." The Dakota serves as the exteriors of The Bramford, an apartment building with a dark past where bad things seem to happen. Despite the rumors, Rosemary Woodhouse agreed to move there with her husband, only to accidentally conceive the son of Satan.
The Mall From 'Dawn of the Dead'
Monroeville, Pennsylvania
The Monroeville Mall is a functioning shopping center with shopping and a food court like any other mall in America — and where George Romero shot his 1978 horror classic "Dawn of the Dead." Here, a group of human survivors attempt to barricade themselves away from the zombies that have ravaged the planet. Famously, the mall came to offer games of zombie laser tag and annual "Living Dead Weekends."
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The Train Station From 'Maniac'
Los Angeles
In the 2012 remake of 1980's "Maniac," Elijah Wood plays Frank Zito, a serial killer who attacks and scalps young women. Notably, the entire film is shot from the killer's perspective, meaning viewers rarely see Wood aside from shots that involve a reflective surface. In a particularly harrowing scene, Zito chases a dancer through an empty train station full of neon artwork. That station is Pershing Square, a Metro stop on Los Angeles' Red Line in downtown L.A.
The Diner From 'Friday the 13th'
Blairstown, New Jersey
In the first of the "Friday the 13th" movies, a group of camp counselors is terrorized by a mysterious killer at Camp Crystal Lake. It starts with one counselor, Annie Phillips, stopping by the Crystal Lake Diner to ask for directions to the camp. She's cautioned against going there, but like every horror movie victim, chooses not to heed the warning. In real life, this diner is the Blairstown Diner. The camp itself is a Boy Scout camp, also in New Jersey, called Camp No-Bo-Be-Sco.
The Steps From 'The Exorcist'
Washington, D.C.
In "The Exorcist," the demon Pazuzu possesses the body of a little girl named Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). Despite the best efforts of two priests, Father Karras (Jason Miller) and the elder Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), the demon refuses to let go of her until Karras screams at the demon to enter him instead. He then sacrifices himself, killing the demon, by flinging himself through a window and down a flight of stairs. The steps where Karras meets his fate can be found in Washington, D.C. and, since 2015, have been marked with a plaque.
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The Parking Garage From 'It Follows'
Detroit
In "It Follows" (2014), protagonist Jay (Maika Monroe) is a teenage girl who has sex with her new boyfriend for the first time only to wake up taped to a wheelchair in an empty parking garage. He explains that he's being stalked by an entity that follows him at all times, and that by sleeping with him, she's become the monster's new target. The interior of this chilling scene was filmed in the former Packard Plant in Detroit. At the time of the shoot, it was a sprawling, abandoned auto factory popular with urban explorers. It soon underwent renovation to become a place where visitors can get coffee, a craft brew, or a meal. As the tale is set in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, locals may recognize many shots of the city.
Louis' House From 'Interview With the Vampire'
Vacherie, Louisiana
This plantation's real-life history with slavery is more disturbing than any of the horror films shot here. Oak Alley Plantation functions today as a hotel, event space, and restaurant with the occasional tour. In the 1994 film "Interview with the Vampire," it was the home of vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) who, before becoming a vampire, had been a plantation owner in the late 1700s.
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The Witch's House From 'The Undead'
Beverly Hills, California
Though it's technically called The Spadena House, this strange Los Angeles residence is more commonly known as the Witch's House due to its dark fairytale design. It was built in Culver City in 1920 for a silent film studio, then moved to its current location in Beverly Hills. Alicia Silverstone walks by the house in "Clueless," but it also appeared in the 1957 horror flick "The Undead." The film stars Pamela Duncan as Diana, a woman who undergoes hypnosis and relives her former life as a woman accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages.
The Motel From 'The Devil's Rejects'
Lancaster, California
This dilapidated film set in the California desert was initially built for the 1990 film "Eye of the Storm." It consists of a diner, a motel, and a gas station, and has since appeared in numerous other films, including Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects." The antagonists from a previous Zombie film, "House of 1000 Corpses," flee to the motel after the brother of a police officer they killed storms their home seeking revenge.
The Cave From 'Cabin Fever' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'
Los Angeles
Located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, the Bronson Cave been used in numerous films and TV shows, perhaps most notably as the Batcave in the campy 1960s TV version of “Batman.” It also appears in the sci-fi horror movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) as a hiding place from pod people, and where a protagonist makes the gruesome discovery in Eli Roth's zombie horror film "Cabin Fever" (2002).
Laurie Strode and Michael Myers' Homes From 'Halloween'
South Pasadena, California
Known for his expressionless white mask and big knife, Michael Myers terrorizes the teens of Haddonfield, Illinois, in the "Halloween" horror franchise. Myers' childhood home and the residence where teen Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) live are actually in South Pasadena, California. You can walk Laurie's route home from school, or creep around the hedge where Laurie first spots Myers stalking her. Visitors often report that the owner of Laurie's house keeps a plastic pumpkin on the porch for photo ops.
The Mansion From 'Drag Me to Hell'
Los Angeles
Sam Raimi's 2009 horror film "Drag Me to Hell" opens with a panicked mother and father who bring their ailing son to a beautiful mansion for help, only to learn that he's seriously cursed. This house is the Doheny Mansion, a popular filming location in Los Angeles built in 1899. Tours are available for curious visitors, and the house hosts the occasional classical music concert.
The House From 'House on Haunted Hill'
Los Angeles
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Angeles has appeared in several films and TV shows. In "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), it's where Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five strangers to stay the night, promising a reward of $10,000 to anyone who can survive until dawn. You might also recognize it as the abandoned home where vampires Angelus, Spike, and Drusilla hole up while terrorizing the town of Sunnydale in the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and perhaps most famously as the home of Rick Deckard in "Blade Runner"(1982) — although only the exterior was used, while the interior was created on a soundstage.
The Hotel From 'Ghostbusters'
Los Angeles
This downtown Los Angeles hotel opened in the 1920s, and has appeared frequently on screen. Though "Ghostbusters" (1984) is set in New York, the Biltmore played the Sedgewick Hotel. This is where the Ghostbusters capture the ectoplasm blob known as Slimer.
The Town From 'The Birds'
Bodega Bay, California
In Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963), Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is terrorized by a massive flock of birds that descend on the seaside town of Bodega Bay. Bodega Bay is a real town, and between Bodega Bay and nearby Bodega, visitors will find the restaurant, schoolhouse, and other locations in the film.
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