Happy Halloween, City News readers!
If you take a look at the guide on your TV tonight, you'll no doubt see a bevy of classic scary movies waiting to lull you off sleep. Well, it might surprise you to learn just how many of these iconic chillers were shot in cities and towns, both big and small, across California.
In the spirit of spook and fun and local filming appreciation, we present to you 10 classic horror films shot in and around California:
Year: 1990
Director: Frank Marshall
Next time you're in Paso Robles for wine tasting, be sure to visit Halter Ranch Vineyard and tasting room. But don't be alarmed if you feel a little tickle on the back of your neck. It's probably just your imagination. The Victorian farmhouse on Adelaida Road became famous for some of the most frightening scenes in cinematic history, at least if you're an arachnophobe. This is where the world's deadliest spiders emerged from ceilings and sink drains in search of prey, making it impossible for many of us to ever look at a house spider the same way again. Much of the film was also shot in nearby Cambria.
Year: 1963
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock was immediately attracted to the eerie tranquility of the Bodega Bay for this film about homicidal foul. Scenes from the film were also shot in San Francisco, Valley Ford, Bloomfield and L.A., as well as studio lots in the San Fernando Valley and Culver City.
Year: 1976
Director: Brian De Palma
On their way to slaughter a pig for its blood, Carrie's taunters pass by a bucolic mural depicting the very pigs being turned into sausage on the other side. That mural actually exists in Vernon, California. Carrie's house in the film is now the site of a vacant lot in Santa Paula.
Year: 1980
Director: John Carpenter
This apocalyptic thriller about a zombie reckoning takes place entirely in the fictional town of Antonio Bay. In real life, it's the breathtakingly beautiful Point Reyes and Inverness, California in Marin County. The church scenes were shot at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Sierra Madre, with brief shots in Altadena, Van Nuys, and Olema as well.
Year: 1978
Director: John Carpenter
The quintessential Halloween horror flick, aptly named Halloween, was filmed over a period of 21 days in idyllic South Pasadena (the house belonging to Jamie Lee Curtis' character Laurie Strode), Sierra Madre (the cemetery), and various parts of Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Year: 1977
Director: Wes Craven
The hills do indeed have eyes. And filmmakers set theirs on the Mojave Desert for this classic horror film. The remote town where a family becomes stranded and savaged by maniacal mutants is actually Victorville and Apple Valley, California.
Year: 1982
Director: Steven Spielberg
The house that taught us never to disturb sacred burial ground lies in Simi Valley, California. Some of the peripheral scenes were shot in Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Irvine.
Year: 1996
Director: Wes Craven
Scream was really Generation X’s version of Halloween. It starred some of the hottest young actors and actresses of the decade, including Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Matthew Lillard, and Courtney Cox.
As for the filming locations, look north. The opening scene featuring Barrymore and that infamous phone call (Do you like Scary Movies?) was shot at a house on Sonoma Mountain Road in Santa Rosa. Healdsburg and Tomales Bay were also featured in the film.
Year: 1984
Director: Wes Craven
This list just wouldn’t be complete without Freddy Krueger. But here’s what you may not know: most of the scenes were shot in the heart of West Los Angeles. Check out this tour of the filming spots at BloodyDisgusting.com.
Year: 1943
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
This psychological thriller was mostly filmed in Santa Rosa, California -- and for good reason, as it turns out.
Here’s what Life Magazine had to say about the project back in 1943:
As a director of one of the first movies to be produced under the Government restriction placing a $5,000 ceiling on new materials used for sets, [Hitchcock] has shown he has more than one trick up his sleeve. Accustomed to spending more than $100,000 on sets alone for one picture, Hitchcock made Shadow Of A Doubt by reverting to the "location shooting" of early movie days. Instead of elaborate sets he used the real thing... Instead of building a studio version of a typical American city, his main setting, he searched for a ready-made one. Selecting Santa Rosa, Calif. (pop. 13,000), Hitchcock with his cast and crew took over the entire city for four weeks, converted it into a complete motion-picture studio. The result is an exciting and highly realistic film, whose new set cost, mainly for studio replicas, was well under the imposed limit.
As they say in the biz, that’s a wrap.