Movies
It Came From Shudder: Our Recommendations for June
Hey folks! I had a week off from work and I spent my time playing the Evil Dead video game, recording episodes for my podcast (Autopsy of a Horror Movie), and watching movies on Shudder. It was a good, horror-filled week off! For this month’s “It Came From Shudder” article, I’ll share some recommendations from my time off and a short review for each. Let me know if you end up checking out any of these!
Popcorn (1991)
I was intrigued with the title of this 90s slasher shot in Jamaica. With a title like Popcorn, I was expecting campy horror, cheesy effects, and tons of movie references. I was kind of right! The plot centers around a high school film club hosting an all-night-horror-thon to raise money. The catch? The horror-thon will occur in a soon-to-be closed-down cinema with a dark past involving a director who murdered his family in front of critics. The film club puts on a William Castle-esque production with nods to his classic gimmicks, such as the flying skeleton in House on Haunted Hill (1959) and zapping chairs from The Tingler (1959). All of this leads to a theater environment similarly seen in Scream 2. There are some good gags, a messy plot, crafty kills, bad acting, and a twist to boot. I’d recommend it to anyone who prioritizes camp over continuity.
See for Me (2022)
I bought into this movie early on when I received my screener for it. See for Me is the story of a skier, Sophie Scott (Skyler Davenport), who lost her vision after a skiing accident. She is an angry and stubborn person who makes money by house/pet sitting for wealthy clients. The movie plunges us deep into the home-invasion subgenre as three men break into the house she is sitting for. Through the help of FaceTime with an army vet, Sophie is talked through how to handle the situation and fight off the burglars. I have seen some reviews calling this movie slow, but I enjoyed the pacing. It’s very slick, which makes for an easy watch with a cup of coffee. I found the premise to be unique, and super cool to discover that Davenport is legally blind herself. Sophie is a morally gray character, and I enjoyed following a horror protagonist that was not a goodie-two-shoes. I recommend it for those looking for a twist on the subgenre.
The Last Matinee (2020)
I am a sucker for movies set in a theater; how fun is it to see characters doing what you’re doing? The best way I can describe The Last Matinee is to imagine if I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) made a baby with The Phantom of the Megaplex (2000), then forced the baby to watch Giallo films. Tada! You have this Spanish slasher filled with bodily fluids, camp, funny characters, surprisingly good direction, and gross body horror. It also successfully presents the different groups of people that would be at a theater late at night. You have the awkward couple on a date, teens with nothing better to do, an older man who enjoys cinema, and a murderer with a jar and bag. This movie has everything! Watch it on a Friday night for a good time.
The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)
This is one of my favorite hidden gems on Shudder. A period horror piece starring Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence…sign me the fuck up! Peter Cushing plays a very successful surgeon and medical school professor. He needs a constant import of cadavers to perform his experiments on to advance his studies. The issue with grave robbing is that the bodies aren’t fresh enough. Donald Pleasence’s character can offer a solution by providing extremely fresh cadavers for the right price. This movie asks us what boundaries we are willing to break to help humanity? And are we even trying to help humankind anymore, or are we more concerned with being the best? Peter Cushing gives a phenomenal performance and is deliciously evil. I recommend this to anyone interested in seeing Cushing deliver some highbrow insults. (TW: brief scene of sexual assault).
The Shed (2019)
I will admit…I think vampires are boring. I am more of a wolfman guy myself. That being said, The Shed offers a fun spin on the typical vampire story. A newly turned vampire is seeking shelter from the rising sun. They find a shed adjacent to a farm and seek refuge there. However, they become trapped in the shed as our high school protagonist, Stan, tries to figure out what to do with them. It’s a coming-of-age story as Stan and his friend, Dommer, see this as an opportunity to stand up to bullies and abusive parents. The movie itself has good production value and presents an interesting plot. Its downfall is the subpar acting and poor dialogue. It’s worth a shot but doesn’t need to be a priority viewing.
What I’ll Be Watching Next:
I love a good horror documentary, and Shudder recently released a documentary on found footage movies called The Found Footage Phenomena (2021). I’m stoked to see what list of movies they have curated and how the subgenre has changed over time.
The last thing I’ll mention is Revealer (2022). An 80s apocalyptic flick with a stripper and preacher stuck together trying to survive. I got my screener for it, and it looks like it’ll be a fun, bloody, visually poppy ride. Check out the trailer here, and you will see what I mean.
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
Tragedy Girls (2017)
A dark, comedic, high school romp about best friends gaining internet clout through murder. It may feel dated due to its use of Twitter rather than X, but it adds charm and reminds us of a simpler internet age. Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp deliver devilishly fun performances, and their slasher personas are heavily under-appreciated in the horror community. There are lots of familiar faces here, including Josh Hutcherson, Jack Quaid, Craig Robinson, and not to mention the director, Tyler MacIntyre, who went on to be one of the writers for Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023).
Seance (2021)
This Is Not a Test (2025)
School’s Out (2018)
Graduation Day (1981)
One of my absolute favorite things to do when I’m on vacation is to visit horror filming locations. Wherever you happen to be going, odds are that at least one horror project was filmed there at some point. There’s something magical about seeing the places that helped bring iconic scary stories to life on the big and small screens.
However, some locations are better than others. A lot of them (like the original A Nightmare on Elm Street house, Stu’s house from Scream, and the schoolhouse from The Birds) are private property and aren’t always owned by people who are particularly happy to have horror fans milling around out front. Others (like the schools from Buffy, Elm Street, and many other teen horror titles) are active educational institutions that don’t welcome strange visitors.
But I’m here to deliver a guide to some of the coolest horror filming locations in North America that give you that magical vibe without somebody calling 9-1-1 on you. Because the best things in life are free, so are all the locations on this list.
The Bridge from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Location: Linnie Canal Ct. Los Angeles, CA 9029, USA
The bridge where Glen (Johnny Depp) and Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) discuss the Balinese method of dreaming is nowhere near the movie’s fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. It’s actually one of the bridges over the human-made canals in Venice, California. Specifically, it’s the bridge over the Eastern canal that connects to Linnie Ct. It’s totally free to visit, and once you’re done taking photos and quoting “I’m into survival” to your heart’s content, you’re still in Venice. Not a bad place to be!
The Movie Theater from Scream 2 (1997)
Location: Rialto Theatre, 1019-1023 Fair Oaks Ave. South Pasadena, CA, 91030 USA
Although the majority of the campus scenes in the college-set slasher sequel Scream 2 were filmed at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, a lot of the school’s surrounding environs were filmed closer to Hollywood, in sunny Pasadena. While the movie theater where poor Phil (Omar Epps) and Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) are killed in the movie’s prologue is no longer an operating cinema and you can’t go inside (the building has been taken over by a church), the exterior has been well preserved and looks more or less exactly the way it did in the late 1990s.
This horror filming location is also just an 11 minute drive from the street where the film’s famous car crash sequence was shot, which is part of Green Street between South Los Robles Avenue and Madison Avenue in Pasadena.
The Myers House from Halloween (1978)
Location: 1000 Mission St, South Pasadena, CA 91030, USA
Although the building has been moved from its original location, it was rebuilt to look exactly the way it does when young Michael Myers is stalking his way around it in the iconic opening sequence of Halloween. There is a business operating out of the building, so don’t bother them or try to get inside (the interiors aren’t the same, anyway). But at this point, they’re very used to people doing photo ops out front. If you find yourself in Pasadena on October 31, it’s a can’t-miss destination, as a nonstop torrent of cosplayers swarm the area.
Other free Halloween locations in South Pasadena include the exterior of the hardware store where Michael gets his mask (right around the corner at 966 Mission St – it’s now the Radhika Modern Indian restaurant) and the famous hedge he hides behind when stalking Laurie Strode (just one mile away, at 1019 Montrose Ave S).
Brennan’s Tip: If you do have money to burn, check out the SugarMynt Gallery next door, which is chock full of horror-themed artwork. Also grab a snack at the Heirloom Bakery across the street! They’ve got all kinds of great treats (I even had them do the desserts for my wedding), and you can enjoy them on the outdoor patio with the Myers house looming over you.
The Town Square from Scream (1996)
Location: Healdsburg Town Square, Healdsburg, CA 95448, USA
Scream was filmed in and around Sonoma County, but the core town playing Woodsboro was the real-life wine country borough of Healdsburg. The town square, complete with fountain, is still there, and surrounded by cute shops and restaurants. You can also find the police station exterior where Sidney punches out Gale at Oakville Grocery (124 Matheson Street) nearby, but it has changed enough to be barely recognizable at this point.
Derry from It (2017), It: Chapter Two (2019), and It: Welcome to Derry (2025-)
Location: Port Hope, Ontario L1A 2Y7, Canada
The majority of the important locations in It and Welcome to Derry’s fictional town of Derry, Maine are all located along the main road of Port Hope, including the movie theater (Capitol Theatre on 20 Queen St), the library (Port Hope Town Hall, 56 Queen St), the park with the bandshell, and the alleyway outside the butcher shop, which still has the door painted with the faux sign from the movie.
Brennan’s Tip: Check out the river that runs parallel to the main street. When I went, there were hundreds of fish making their way upstream for spawning. Multiple species do this in Port Hope, in various seasons, so you never know if you’ll get lucky.
The University from Black Christmas (1974)
Location: Soldiers’ Tower at the University of Toronto, Hart House Cir, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7, Canada
The college from the 1974 proto-slasher Black Christmas is played by the real-life University of Toronto, with the most notable area being the plaza outside Soldiers’ Tower, where Clare’s dad is seen waiting for his ill-fated daughter.
Brennan’s Tip: If you’re a huge Killer Party (1986) fan like I am, the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada building (25 Spadina Rd), which plays the haunted frat house, is just a short walk away.
Abe’s Snake Bodega from Scream VI (2023)
Location: Dépanneur St.Ambroise, 5701 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, QC H4A 1W9, Canada
Our next horror filming location is of a more recent vintage, but it’s an instant classic: the “New York City” bodega in which Ghostface hunts down Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) in Scream VI. Both the exterior and the interior of the shop were used for filming, though they changed a great deal of the inside to make it look more New York-y. You don’t have to pay to visit, but if you want to do a photo op posing like Ghostface at the end of the row of refrigerator cases, you might as well buy a soda on your way out as a thank you.
Other worthwhile free Scream VI filming locations in the area are the campus of Blackmore University (McGill University at 845 Sherbrooke St W), and “Central Park” (Parc La Fontaine, 3819 Av. Calixa-Lavallée).
Crawford Academy from Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Location: Concordia University – Loyola Campus, 7141 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada
The fictional high school from this classic Canadian slasher was played by the real-life Concordia University (except for the opening kill scene, which was shot around Douglass Hall at McGill University). It’s a relatively small campus, so you can’t miss the grand brick buildings, which look exactly the same now as they did 45 years ago, though the quad has been relandscaped.
The Steps from The Exorcist (1973)
Location: Corner of Prospect St and 36th St NW, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., 20007, USA
William Friedkin’s landmark classic The Exorcist is home to one of our most iconic horror filming locations yet. The steps that claim the lives of both Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran) and Father Karras (Jason Miller) are still there more than 50 years later, and you’ll almost certainly find people exercising on them, as if they aren’t worried that Pazuzu is gonna fling another victim toward them when they least expect it.
While the house from The Exorcist is indeed at the top of the steps (at 3600 Prospect Street), it is more set back than the movie implies (the exterior of Reagan’s window was a facade). But it’s still there, as is the Georgetown campus, where other scenes from the movie were filmed.
The Crystal Shop from Obsession (2026)
Location: The Green Man, 824 N Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505, USA
Our tour of some of the greatest free horror filming locations of North America comes full circle now, bringing us back to Southern California with the most recent movie on the list. Curry Barker’s Obsession was entirely shot in and around Burbank, and the metaphysical supply store The Green Man looks almost exactly like the fictional store from the movie, both inside and out. Just don’t go in hoping to find a display of One Wish Willows.
