It’s spooky season in the North Bay, when ghosts and ghouls hit the streets to trick-or-treat. It’s also a great time to watch horror movies, and these films made in Sonoma County and throughout the North Bay will not only scare you, but they’ll remind you of home.
“The Birds” (1963)
One of the most iconic films in director Alfred Hitchcock’s cannon is also one of the most beloved movies ever made in Sonoma County. Shot on location in the town of Bodega and Bodega Bay, as well as a few early scenes in San Francisco, the film starring Tippi Hedron, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy and dozens of murderous seagulls and crows is still revered by locals and visitors alike who flock to the Sonoma Coast to get their photo taken in front of spots like the Potter schoolhouse.
Want more locally made Hitchcock? Check out 1943’s murder-mystery “Shadow of a Doubt,” filmed largely in Santa Rosa and featuring the Old Courthouse, Railroad Square and the McDonald neighborhood.
“The Dunwich Horror” (1970)
Based on a story by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror” is a cult-classic horror film starring Sandra Lee (“A Summer Place”) and Dean Stockwell (“Quantum Leap”) with copious amounts of creepiness and a moody atmosphere courtesy of Mendocino County.
Shocking events unfold when a student at Miskatonic University (which appears in several Lovecraft stories) travels to an isolated farmhouse in the town of Dunwich with the book of the dead and a man who may be a wizard. Dunwich is in fact the town of Mendocino and the farmhouse and accompanying cemetery are located in Little River, along the Mendocino County coast.
Years after it was used as Dunwich, Mendocino would also stand in for the small coastal town of Potter’s Bluff in the 1981 B-movie “Dead & Buried.” Featuring special effects by a young Stan Winston, the film follows a sheriff investigating the eerie deaths of visitors to the town who finds a terrifying secret among its residents.
“The Fog” (1980)
Director John Carpenter earned the nickname “The Master of Horror” after his 1978 smash hit “Halloween.” He followed that movie with this classic ghost story about a town on the Northern California coast haunted by a band of long-dead pirates seeking revenge. The film, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh (“Psycho”) was filmed in Point Reyes Station and at the Point Reyes Lighthouse, as well as Inverness, Olema and Bodega Bay, taking advantage of the region’s naturally foggy conditions for this spookfest.
Fifteen years after “The Fog,” Carpenter would return to the region to film his 1995 remake of “Village of the Damned,” starring Christopher Reeve and Kristie Alley. The film, about a group of creepy kids who begin to exhibit disturbing behavior, was shot in Tomales, Nicasio, Point Reyes Station and Inverness. Carpenter also reportedly had a second home in Inverness at the time.
“The Howling” (1981)
One of the best werewolf movies, “The Howling” stars Dee Wallace (“E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial”) as an anchorwoman who relocates to a secluded town after being attacked by a stalker. There, she encounters a group of shape-shifting monsters. Directed by Joe Dante (“Gremlins”) and featuring special effects makeup by Rob Bottin (“The Thing”) the film is mostly set in the wilderness of Mendocino County, including Mendocino Woodlands Camp and Russian Gulch State Park.
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