Vancouver doubles for so many on-screen cities that even its horror films don't always admit where they were made. A new round-up from Curiocity lists a dozen scary movies filmed in and around Metro Vancouver — and plenty of the locations are easy to visit between screenings.

The big names keep coming. Longlegs, the 2024 Nicolas Cage hit (the source dates it to 2004, but it's the recent Osgood Perkins thriller) was shot locally and produced by Vancouver's Oddfellows Pictures. Four of the five Final Destination films were made in the region, with YVR Airport, the Lions Gate Bridge and Playland amusement park all making cameo appearances. The Cabin in the Woods used BCIT's Aerospace building as its underground control facility, plus Coquihalla Canyon and a Kitsilano apartment. The Exorcism of Emily Rose filmed on the UBC campus, specifically the HR MacMillan and Douglas Kenny buildings.

A few locations lean big and photogenic. Jennifer's Body shot at the Sutton Place Hotel, Sasamat Lake and around the Fraser Valley. The 2006 Wicker Man remake — yes, the 'not the bees!' one — used Merritt, Saturna Island and Bowen Island. Daniel Radcliffe's Horns spread across Vancouver, Surrey, Squamish and Mission, while James Gunn's cult slime-fest Slither turned Abbotsford into small-town South Carolina with help from Langley and Surrey.

Some picks are delightfully grim: Halloween: Resurrection opened at the creepily abandoned Riverview Hospital, Michael Keaton's White Noise used Burnaby Hospital, and Friday the 13th Part VIII had Vancouver standing in for Manhattan, filming at Britannia Beach and the Post Office tunnel. Even the YouTube-born Backrooms movie, from director Kane Parsons, shot at the 2400 Motel on East Vancouver's main strip — a retro motor inn that also appeared in The X-Files, Smallville and Yellowjackets.

For travellers, this is basically a free self-guided tour. Most spots are within an hour of downtown Vancouver — Bowen Island and Saturna Island need a ferry, and Merritt and Coquihalla Canyon are a few hours' drive into the Interior — but landmarks like Playland, the Lions Gate Bridge and the 2400 Motel slot easily into a regular city break. Film-location spotting plus Halloween-season gloomy Pacific Northwest weather? That's a theme weekend waiting to happen.

Via Curiocity