Famous Real Estate from Horror Films
By Chris Petry
A couple weeks ago, we featured some haunted real estate you can visit around the country. Some fairly close to home. This week, we’re going to talk about notable real estate that isn’t haunted in “real life” but has the distinction of being featured in some of the most terrifying motion pictures ever made. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Where: Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, Hardwick New Jersey
Featured in: Friday the 13th (1980)
Last month, on Friday the 13th, I had the pleasure of visiting the remote boy scout camp, renamed as Camp Crystal Lake in the 1980 slasher film classic, Friday the 13th. For fright flick fans, it’s hallowed ground.
In the film, the Camp was established as a co-ed children’s summer camp in 1935. In 1957, a young boy (later identified as Jason) drowns in the lake. Two years later, an unknown killer strikes, leaving two counselors dead. Fast forward to 1979 where the camp is being reopened by the heir to the property, Steve Christy, and a group of prospective counselors (including a young Kevin Bacon). It doesn’t take long before someone (perhaps the killer from 20 years before) begins targeting the new counselors.
In real life, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco was opened as a boy scout camp in 1927. It rests on over 380 acres in New Jersey’s Kittatinny Mountains. In 1979, while scouting locations for the film, director Sean Cunningham stumbled upon the camp and decided it would be the perfect location for his low-budget horror opus. Production gave the camp $25,000 to make repairs in real time, to mimic the plot of the film.
Other locations that appear in the film can be found in nearby Hope Township and Blairstown. Most obvious being the Blairstown Diner. For an unrelated real estate curiosity sitting nearby, singer/songwriter Lou Reed, perhaps most famous for his 1972 radio hit, “Walk on the Wild Side,” owned a home right down the road from the camp and reportedly visited the set from time to time.
Where: Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
Featured in: The Shining (1980)
Sitting on high, with gorgeous panoramic views of Lake Estes, Longs Peak and The Rocky Mountains, in Estes Park, Colorado, you’ll find The Stanley Hotel. In Stanley Kubrick’s supernatural horror classic, The Shining, the hotel is renamed The Overlook Hotel.
In the film, the Torrance family (Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd) heads to the hotel to caretake for the winter. Immediately upon arrival, the Hotel Manager informs Jack that a previous caretaker had gone insane a decade prior and attacked his own family.
The young son, Danny, possesses telepathic abilities, a fact realized by head chef Dick Hallorann who also possesses the uncanny ability. Not long after the staff’s departure, Danny begins to experience terrifying supernatural visions.
In real life, the hotel was opened on Independence Day in 1909 as an upper-class resort and health retreat. Today, it’s still in operation and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where: The Dakota Apartments, Manhattan, New York
Featured in: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
For fans of classic horror, one of the most easily-identifiable apartment complexes in cinematic history has to be the Dakota Building on the Upper West Side of New York City. It’s the building where Rosemary (played by Mia Farrow) and her struggling- stage actor husband, Guy (played by independent filmmaker John Cassavetes) take up residence in Roman Polanski’s 1968 occultic masterpiece, Rosemary’s Baby.
In the film, young couple Rosemary and Guy move into the imposing structure, quickly making friends, including an elderly couple across the hall who routinely invite them for dinner. After the mysterious death of her laundry companion Terry, unaccounted for events leading to her pregnancy and her husband’s increasingly odd behavior, Rosemary begins to suspect that her neighbors and her own husband are not who they seem.
In real life, the building was one of the first large developments on the West Side of the City, finishing construction in 1884. In 1961, the Dakota’s residents purchased the building from the family of the original developer, Edward Cabot Clark, and converted it into a housing cooperative.
Not only did Beatle John Lennon reside in the building, but he was tragically assassinated outside its doors in December of 1980. For better or worse, there’s a lot of history to see at the beautiful historic New York multi-residence.
Where: The Myers House, 1000 Mission Street, South Pasadena, California
Featured in: Halloween (1978)
If you’re ever in Pasadena, California, be sure to drive by the old Myers house where the living embodiment of evil, Michel Myers, stalked Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends in John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s slasher classic, Halloween.
In real life, the property was originally designated as single-family housing but, today, is the location of a couple small businesses. Though the home looks much like it did back in 78,’ to the relief of horror hounds everywhere. The home is also registered as a California Historic Landmark, so it’s likely the central location of Michael Myer’s nefarious exploits will remain standing for generations to come. Just leave your whited-out William Shatner mask and coveralls at home if you stop by for a selfie.
Where: The Bates Motel, Universal Studios, Hollywood
Featured in: Psycho (1960)
Another location that will be very familiar to fans of the macabre is the Bates Motel and House from Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece of suspense, Psycho. Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam, Psycho was a huge hit for the iconic English filmmaker.
In the movie, the Bates Motel is located somewhere outside the fictional town of Fairville, California. It’s tucked away off an old two-lane road, recently obscured by the completion of a modern interstate highway. Of course, said obscurity makes the Motel the perfect backdrop for the sinister events that unfold over the film’s 1 hour 49-minute runtime.
A Phoenix, Arizona real estate secretary named Marion impulsively steals $40,000 cash from a high-profile client and flees with the money, ending up at the Motel. There she meets owner and operator, Norman Bates, a nervous and wiry young man, seemingly controlled by his overbearing mother whose haunting silhouette can be seen in the upstairs window of the home that rests behind the Motel.
In real life, the house and motel were built for the film and rest on the backlot of Universal Studios in Hollywood, California. To view them, you’ll have to go on a guided studio tour, which offers a closeup look at both pieces of real estate.