Top 10 Horror Locations in Media

When it comes to a work in the horror genre, the characters, from the villains racking up a kill count, to the victims become part of the kill count, get most of the credit for creating the story’s dark atmosphere and sense of dread and unease. But sometimes, the location of a horror story can add just as much tone and flavor to a work as the characters within it, surrounding the characters with a feeling of discomfort and unease.

This Top List is all about the Top 10 Horror Locations in Media.

For this list, we will be looking at different horror properties, including movies, video games, and TV shows, to find terrifying locales that are eerie, foreboding, and indicative of the horrors that have happened within them, possibly even being dangerous themselves. They are just as iconic and integral to their series as the killers associated with them and can be as small as one building or as large as a city. To qualify, most of the story needs to take place there and there needs to be something clearly unsettling and unnatural about the setting itself. If it is essentially just a normal town except there’s a slasher on the loose, then it doesn’t count.

10. Silent Hill (Silent Hill)

It may look like a normal town at first, but looks can be deceiving.

Though portrayals may differ between stories, Silent Hill is typically shown as a small town in the northeastern United States. Protagonists wind up here through different circumstances and while some may see it as normal at first, once the fog rolls in, all bets are off. Monsters spawn in all over the town and reality itself can warp into a twisted version of itself, most of it as a result of the main character’s psyche. Some characters, like the infamous Pyramid Head, were born out of a character’s inner turmoil.

9. The Upside-Down (Stranger Things)

The main setting for this darkly fantastical Netflix series may be the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, but the real horror here comes from a place both near and far. The Upside-Down, first named so by Mike Wheeler and his friends, is a parallel dimension to Earth. It looks like a twisted reflection of the regular world, with similar buildings and landmarks, but appearing colder, darker, and more foreboding. The air is toxic to non-native flora and fauna after long periods of time, practically every surface is covered in strange tendrils, and there is an ever-present ashy fog. The worst part is that this dimension is also home to strange, murderous monsters like the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer.

8. Raccoon City (Resident Evil)

This once-bustling metropolis now infested with the undead is the most iconic location in the Resident Evil series of video games and movies. What makes this city more overtly horrific is its connections to the Umbrella Corporation, a large biomedical company that repeatedly dabbled in experimental bioweaponry. One of their creations was the T-Virus, a virus that essentially turned people into flesh-eating zombies that could spread the contagion through a bite or scratch. The virus got loose at a laboratory within the city and it spread, engulfing the entire area and killing/zombifying most of the population. If hordes of zombies aren’t dangerous enough, some of Umbrella’s other experiments (also loose within the city) include mutant monsters, most notably, the powerful, rocket-launcher-wielding Nemesis T-Type.

7. Dr. Frankenstein’s Castle (Frankenstein)

This castle in the German countryside is the home of the original horror mad scientist, Doctor Victor Frankenstein. It is within his lab in the castle that he and his assistant Igor bring to life a large monster made from the sewn-together body parts of several dead humans. Things initially seem to go well for Frankenstein, who is overjoyed that his experiment to create life was a success, but karma eventually comes back around as his creation escapes. Saying that the townspeople don’t like what they see and find out about the creature would be a huge understatement. Over the years, this story has formed the blueprint for what mad scientists could be and this castle played a huge part in that.

6. The USCSS Nostromo (Alien)

The setting of the original Alien movie, this spaceship plays host to a very ill-fated star voyage. After answering a distress call, the crew of this ship finds themselves the prey of a merciless predatory creature we have come to know as the Xenomorph. Slinking through the ship’s air ducts and tight corridors, the Xenomorph manages to kill all the crew members one by one, with the last survivor, the equally as iconic Ellen Ripley, just barely making it out alive. The ship’s narrow hallways give the vessel a claustrophobic feel and its isolation within the depths of space can give a feeling of despair as you know help will not be coming.

5. U.S. Outpost 31 (The Thing)

We just touched on how isolation can make a horror scenario worse. Here’s Exhibit B.

This laboratory in the middle of the frozen continent of Antarctica was meant to be a simple research station, but everything changed when the aliens attacked. An alien killer that can shapeshift to take the form of any living creature makes its way into the station, disguised as a dog getting chased by some crazy-looking Norwegian guys, and from there, no one is safe. The biggest things about this place are the isolation and the climate. Given that this place is in Antarctica, barring another research station, help is an ocean and several hundred miles away, and the cold climate means that just running away won’t guarantee your safety; if the alien doesn’t get you, the elements will. And again, none of this is touching on the paranoia that the alien itself brings to the table.

4. Rapture (BioShock)

This video game is well-regarded for several reasons and the terrifying atmosphere its setting brings is a big part of it.

Rapture was a large, Art Deco-style, underwater city built by businessman Andrew Ryan in the mid-1940s, envisioned as a utopia where society’s greatest could thrive and allow their ideas to blossom uninhibited by restrictive governments. However, unrest soon spread throughout the city, owing in part to internal political unrest and an arms race over ADAM, a substance that can alter genetic material and grant special abilities. This culminated in a civil war that left the city in ruins and many of its populace dead.

At the time of the story, in 1960, the city is crumbling. Parts of the buildings are falling apart or leaking water and the few people that are still alive have either become psychotic Splicers who are hungry for ADAM or have hidden themselves away to stay safe from the Splicers. Then there’s the Big Daddies, massive behemoths in heavy diving gear meant to protect small beings called Little Sisters as they gather ADAM from the numerous dead bodies lying around the city. The impressive atmosphere meant to look daunting even in the city’s heyday looks almost menacing in its ruined state. The sense of danger never really leaves either as behind any corner a Splicer could be ready to strike or a Big Daddy could be walking by practically daring someone to mess with it.

Mess with it at your own risk.

3. The Overlook Hotel (Stephen King’s The Shining)

Sitting in the Colorado Rockies, the Overlook Hotel is a large establishment with a dark history. The hotel is reportedly haunted, with several guests having died within its walls, including the previous winter caretaker who the story says “succumbed to cabin fever” and killed himself and his family. As writer and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance takes the new winter caretaker position for the hotel’s off-season, he and his family experience the hotel’s hauntings first-hand. At most points, especially with Jack, it’s hard to tell whether the strange happenings around them were actually happening or if they were just tricks of the mind. But even without the ghosts, the hotel’s large, empty space, maze-like corridors (not even counting the literal hedge maze in the gardens), and isolation from the nearest sign of other people mean there is a large opportunity for things to go wrong.

2. Camp Crystal Lake (Friday the 13^th)

What started out as just a normal summer camp for kids has become one of the most infamous murder grounds in movie history.

It all started when Mrs. Pamela Voorhees found out her son Jason had drowned in the camp’s lake due to neglectful counselors sneaking off to have sex. Since then, between Mrs. Voorhees and Jason himself, Camp Crystal Lake has seen a steadily climbing body count throughout the years. Even setting aside the level of common sense in your typical Voorhees victim, the camp itself serves as an effective hunting ground for slashers. It has several places where a killer could hide, both in and outdoors, several potential hazards, and isolation from the nearest place to get help or make a call if the lines are down (no cell phones here. 80s, remember?) Taking into account Jason’s resourcefulness, the camp also shows that just about anything can be used as a weapon in the right, or in this case, wrong hands.

And if all that isn't enough, there's always the fact that Jason seems to come back to kill again when ever he dies at the camp. That may say something about either Jason or the camp itself, but either way, Jason's preferred hunting ground grants a quick kill for most of the people that enter it.

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Before revealing the number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

The Cabin & The Facility (The Cabin in the Woods) – Cabins in remote woods already have a history with horror stories, but underneath this one is a facility housing just about every terrifying entity you could think of.

USG Ishimura (Dead Space) – Another case of a spaceship crew confined to their ship with killer aliens, but these aliens infect and twist your body into horrific shapes, all to continue the killing.

Cabrini-Green Housing Projects (Candyman) – If the gang members and desperate people living in these low-income high-rises are too down-to-earth for you, there’s always the supernatural killer of urban legend roaming the area.

Derry, Maine (Stephen King’s It) – A seemingly normal small town with an evil entity living underneath it, luring away and killing children, keeping the adults oblivious to it, and bending minds to IT’s will.

The Murder House (American Horror Story) – A large, but seemingly normal house with a violent history. Just about everyone who dies here comes back as a ghost and several evil souls roam within its walls.

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1. Transylvania (Dracula)

Sometimes, you just can’t beat the classics.

Based on an actual region of Romania, Transylvania, as depicted in numerous books, films, shows, and games, is the home to one of the most infamous monsters of all time, the vampire Count Dracula. In his various depictions, he rules over the land from his castle, allows his vampire progeny to have their way with the humans that they find, and may even open his home to other creatures of the night. This castle is often alpha priority for vampire and monster hunters but getting to the Count is no easy task.

Transylvania is often depicted as being lousy with all things spooky, from dark forests with a mind of their own to raging rivers impeding progress to other monstrous beings including witches, werewolves, zombies, and ghouls. Depending on the story, the Count may even be getting a visit from Frankenstein’s monster or an Egyptian mummy. All that is before you even reach the big man himself and he is not easy to keep down.

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Did you like this list? What horror locations are memorable to you? Make your voice heard in the comments below.

Thanks for coming!

Top 10 Halloween Locations in Media

It’s October, which means it’s time to get in the Halloween spirit, with all the thrills chills, frights, ghouls, and ghosts it entails. In some places, that’s easier than others as it seems like it’s Halloween basically all the time there.

In this list, we’re counting down the top 10 Halloween locations in media.

For this list, we’ll be counting down the top locations across different kinds of media, from comics to shows to games, that best embody the feel of Halloween, anything from a large building to an entire world. This means creepy locales, gothic architecture, Halloween appropriate color palettes, and ghosts and monsters galore, and it explores those themes without crossing the line into outright horror. We won’t be counting locations whose creepiness is only implied or has to be searched for or places that are just outright dangerous or do cross the line into outright horror. This means places like Gravity Falls, Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Lavender Town from Pokemon won’t count here.

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10. Forever Forest & Boo’s Mansion (Paper Mario)

The ghosts called Boos and their Ghost Houses are a well-established part of the world of the Mushroom Kingdom, but in the Nintendo 64 RPG Paper Mario, we find probably one of the largest ones ever. Mario having been summoned there by the head of the house Lady Bow, Boo’s Mansion is a creepy, old, haunted mansion inhabited by several Boos, many of which are cowering from a ghost-eating being known as Tubba Blubba. Mario needs to solve puzzles and play different small games in order to move through the manor’s rooms and at the end of it, Bow herself joins the party and they move on to find Tubba Blubba.

At least the ghosts in the mansion aren’t hostile, which is more than can be said about the surrounding Forever Forest. This mazelike spooky forest with dead trees and strange plants also has several enemies to fight against and while they aren’t any different from normal Mario enemies, they’re still choosing to attack in a spooky forest. Any wrong turns trying to get from the forest entrance to Boo’s Mansion will put you right back where you started at the forest entrance. Clues to which way you should go are indicated by the foliage in front of each path.

9. Thriller Bark (One Piece)

Who’s ready for some high-seas screams?

One Piece is usually an action-packed adventure series following the Straw Hat Pirate crew as they sail the seas from one adventure to the next, but one stop on their charter has them treading in horror waters. Right after getting their new ship the Thousand Sunny, the crew arrives at the mysterious Thriller Bark, which at first looks like an island not found on any map but is soon discovered to actually be a giant pirate ship. The ship itself is big enough to house the aforementioned island, complete with a spooky forest, graveyard, and an enormous castle and the island itself is infested with hundreds of zombies.

The zombies were created by the ship’s captain, Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea and a cursed fruit user with the power to control shadows. He uses this power along with soulless corpses to create zombies with powerful physical capabilities, all with the purpose of creating an unstoppable undead army. Along with the zombies and Moria himself, a gigantic figure with features reminiscent of vampires, there’s the sharp-toothed mad scientist Dr. Hogback, the lion-faced, invisibility-gifted Absalom, and the emotion-warping, ghost-controlling Perona. The Straw Hats even take a piece of the spookiness with them in the form of their new crewmate, the skeletal, singing swordsman Brooke.

8. Death City (Soul Eater)

In an alternate version of Earth, sitting somewhere in the middle of the Nevada desert is this dark city run by Death himself. Death City is the main hub of activity in the shonen anime series Soul Eater, being the home of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, where people who can shapeshift into weapons, and the meisters who wield them, train to hone their skills. The final goal of many of these students is to turn their weapon into a Death Scythe, a powerful class of weapon with the privilege of being wielded by Death and protecting the world from sinister forces that threaten it.

The city also serves as the prison of the kishin Asura, a demon intent on spreading madness throughout the world. The allure of harnessing Asura’s power causes different factions, like those lead by the witches Medusa and Arachne, to invade the city. The city itself has a somewhat gothic look, especially the DWMA, about half of the characters have black or dark-colored default outfits, and recurring characters within the show include a vampire, a werewolf, several witches, a zombie, a magical cat with pumpkin-themed attacks, and one character who’s a clear homage to Dr. Frankenstein.

7. Evershade Valley (Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon)

One haunted mansion wasn’t enough for you? How about five?

This sequel to the hit GameCube title, sees the younger Mario Brother called out by Professor E. Gadd to his laboratory in the Evershade Valley, a location with five undead-infested buildings, including a pair of overgrown greenhouse towers built around a giant tree, an abandoned clock and watch factory built over an ancient desert tomb, and a snowy mountain chalet hiding a secret mining operation. While this sounds like a place to avoid, the ghosts of Evershade Valley are normally nice and civil, thanks to the power of an artifact called the Dark Moon. However, the plot of the game sees the Dark Moon getting broken into pieces, making the ghosts turn hostile. So, it is up to Luigi to find the pieces and reassemble it before things get too out of hand.

6. The Netherworld (Disgaea)

You would think that an alternate dimension inhabited by demons would be more about fire and brimstone.

In the Disgaea series, the Netherworld is a plane of existence parallel to our human world and Celestia, the world of the angels. Home to several different kinds of demons, each new game in the series tends to have its own Netherworld, ranging in theme from a gigantic school campus to a former human world where all the humans have been turned into demons, but they all tend to have dark landscapes, spooky buildings (especially if they’re castles), and several deadly monsters. The demons themselves have a wide range of powers and tend to vary in alignment from Chaotic Neutral at best to different shades of pure evil at worst. A good number of them even have a view on villainy cliched enough to make Snidely Whiplash blush in embarrassment. The ties to Halloween get especially stronger with the main characters of Disgaea 4, the vampire Valvatorez and his werewolf partner Fenrich. The Netherworld also serves as a kind of afterlife, with the souls of sinners arriving penguin-like demons known as Prinnies, to work off a debt before they can be reincarnated back in the human world.

5. Halloweentown (Halloweentown)

Did you know that there were two Disney movies with a setting involving a Halloween-themed location? Let’s start with the lesser known of the two.

The main location of a series of Disney Channel Original Movies, a portal opens up every year on Halloween that allows those with the know-how to enter Halloweentown, a town in another dimension inhabited by several monsters, everything from ghosts and vampires to werewolves and trolls to witches and warlocks. There are buildings and services catering to different species and the town’s centerpiece is even a giant Jack O’ Lantern. Barring the eccentricities that come with the different types of monsters walking around, they behave a lot like normal people and some of them find offense in the images that humans have of them being horrifying nightmares. They even seem to have their own stereotypes of normal humans, viewing them as dull, drab, and boring.

Though now, you might be asking “What’s more Halloween than a place literally called ‘Halloweentown’?” Let’s look at the rest of the top five.

4. Horrorland (Goosebumps)

First appearing in the book One Day at Horrorland, this amusement park containing or paying tribute to all things ghoulish and gruesome is the Goosebumps franchise’s premiere scary location. Several books in the series involve Horrorland, with it even being the connecting setting of an entire run of Goosebumps books. There are several horror or monster-themed rides, shops, and attractions, the park has several rules that would seem bizarre to humans (mostly to benefit the monsters that are or aren’t trying to get them), and the park is staffed by several monsters including vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, fishmen, and witches. The most notable staff members however are the Horrorland horrors, the ogre-esque creatures that seem to run the park, and at times, it’s hard to tell if they’re trying to put an end to their guests or if they just want it to look that way to get the max amount of screams out of them.

It gets worse when several villains arrive in Horrorland in the Goosebumps Horrorland series and use the park as their hunting grounds searching for the kids each of them are targeting. It’s also implied that the living ventriloquist puppet Slappy, the most infamous villain in the franchise, is a frequent visitor and is the park’s equivalent to a VIP guest.

3. Underborough & Pendleton (The Underburbs)

The settings of the indie comic series The Underburbs, Pendleton used to be a normal, everyday, small town while Underborough was a separate alternate dimension of monsters, both initially having nothing to do with each other. That changed one Halloween night however, when a portal to Underborough opened in Pendleton, courtesy of Countess Winifred Pale, a young vampire with dreams of world conquest. Using the power of a magic scroll, she essentially makes the town part of Underborough, sealing it off from the rest of the human world, turning most of the people into monsters (with the remaining humans going into hiding), and essentially making it Halloween permanently.

While the new version of Pendleton still looks like a normal modern town, except now there's the always-eerie-looking sky, a gigantic pumpkin patch, and the fact that monsters are now everywhere. Meanwhile, Underborough itself looks more like stepping into Transylvania, with dark forests, spooky castles, and other foreboding locations.

2. The Neitherworld (Beetlejuice: The Animated Series)

Based on the 1988 horror-comedy film of the same name, Beetlejuice follows the titular ghostly trickster and his living best friend/love interest Lydia Deetz as they go through various misadventures through the Neitherworld, an abstract and chaotic plane of existence where monsters and the undead reside. Pretty much everyone there is spooky in some way, if not outright monsters. Even living human visitors like Lydia get a creepy makeover upon crossing over. The dark and twisted atmosphere of the Neitherworld takes cues from the Tim Burton film that inspired it and does a good job of showing a lighter version of the Afterlife, if something like that is even possible.

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Before revealing the number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Addams Manor (The Addams Family) – It may be just one large building, but it’s a classic example of a good, creepy location that perfectly gives off a Halloween vibe.

Hang Castle & Mystic Mansion (Sonic Heroes) – A haunted castle and mansion that has spook-themed robot enemies and mechanics that warp the physics and overall state of the environment.

Your Town (Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times) – This obscure Animal Crossing style life sim game is set in a town of monsters and spirits with a wizarding school as the main hub of activity.

Mad Monster Mansion (Banjo-Kazooie) – Think every large, haunted mansion ever with treasure scattered around, ominous pipe organ music following you everywhere, ghosts and strange half-dead creatures ready to attack, and an evil witch watching your every move.

Monster High (Monster High) – A high school for all the classic Halloween/horror monsters and many more.

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1. Halloween Town (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Admit it. Most of you knew this would be on the list at some point.

The main setting of the hit stop-motion movie, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween Town is meant to encapsulate everything about the scariest of holidays. Dead trees, graveyards, and pumpkin patches surround the town, which itself has a lot of gothic-style buildings, and all its residents are monsters. The big musical number at the start of the film shows that the population includes vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, zombies, and that’s just the top of the list and its most prominent figure is the Pumpkin King himself, Jack Skellington.

Also pictured: the unofficial mascot for Hot Topic.

As you could guess, Halloween isn’t just a big deal here; it’s the biggest deal. The residents spend all year preparing for it, so they can bring their A-game with the best scares possible and Jack is the guy who brings it all together and makes sure it all goes smoothly. They’re always on the lookout for something that can take their performances to the next level and when Jack has an idea, everyone listens. Even when they take charge of other holidays, like in the movie, they basically Halloween it up and turn it into a scary version of itself.

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What did you think of this list? What locations do you think embody the spirit of Halloween? Make your voice heard in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!