A Pacific Northwest Halloween Watch List

There’s a reason horror movies love the Pacific Northwest. Seattle’s gloomy skies and rainy streets provide plenty of atmosphere for a good scare. From cursed videotapes and foggy ferry rides to creepy old mansions and a city overrun by infected creatures, the region has inspired its share of memorable movies and video games. Here are a few to add to your Halloween lineup.

Night Strangler (1973)

In The Night Strangler, reporter Carl Kolchak tracks a killer through Seattle’s Underground in a wonderfully creepy ’70s thriller.
Look for: Space Needle, Seattle landmarks (the Underground sequences were recreated on sets)

The Changeling (1980)

A grieving composer, a haunted mansion and a dark secret make The Changeling one of the creepiest films ever set in Seattle.
Look for: Stimson-Green Mansion on First Hill, UW campus, downtown Seattle

War Games (1983)

It’s not quite horror, but a teenage hacker accidentally bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war is plenty terrifying. Add a young Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and a healthy dose of Cold War paranoia, and you’ve got a thriller that still holds up.
Look for: UW’s Kincaid Hall, Boeing Field

Fire Walk with Me (1992)

David Lynch takes us back to the unsettling world of Twin Peaks in this prequel exploring the final days of Laura Palmer. A former hospital on Seattle’s Boren Avenue even doubles as an FBI office in Philadelphia.
Look for: Boren Avenue

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)

A seemingly perfect nanny moves in with a family, but her intentions are anything but innocent. This psychological thriller filmed around Seattle and Tacoma, including a Magnolia house used as the home of the nanny’s husband. The family’s home, meanwhile, is in Tacoma.
Look for: Magnolia, Tacoma

The Vanishing (1993)

It’s hard to imagine the Dude as a villain, but Jeff Bridges is genuinely creepy as Barney Cousins, a chemistry teacher determined to find out just how much evil he’s capable of. Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock also star in this thriller, filmed partly around Seattle and the surrounding region.
Look for: Pike Place Market, North Bend, Snohomish

Fear (1996)

Mark Wahlberg plays the charming boyfriend who turns into every parent’s worst nightmare in this ’90s psychological thriller co-starring Reese Witherspoon. Their romance quickly turns into a disturbing story of obsession and control, with Seattle-area locations helping set the scene.
Look for: Seattle, Mercer Island

Practical Magic (1998)

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play witchy sisters dealing with love, family curses and a little accidental murder. It’s not quite horror, but it’s a Halloween favorite, and Coupeville’s charming waterfront stands in for a fictional Massachusetts town. Fun fact: The filmmakers built the sisters’ famous Victorian house on San Juan Island, then tore it down after filming.
Look for: Whidbey Island

The Ring (2002)

Naomi Watts plays a Seattle journalist investigating a cursed videotape that supposedly kills anyone who watches it within seven days. Between the relentlessly gray skies, eerie island scenery and that unforgettable horse scene aboard a Washington state ferry, this is one horror movie that makes excellent use of the Pacific Northwest’s darker side.
Look for: Whidbey Island, downtown Seattle, the Quinault ferry

Rose Red (2002)

A professor brings a group of psychics into a supposedly haunted Seattle mansion, where the house seems determined to keep them from leaving. Stephen King’s three-part miniseries has an especially fun local connection: Thornewood Castle in Lakewood served as the mansion’s exterior, while elaborate interior sets were built inside a former naval facility at Magnuson Park.
Look for: Magnuson Park

Cthulhu (2007)

A trip home to the Oregon coast takes a disturbing turn when a Seattle professor discovers his father’s involvement in a mysterious cult. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, this low-budget indie trades big Hollywood scares for an increasingly unsettling sense that something is very wrong.
Look for: Coastal Oregon and Washington locations

Alan Wake (2010)

A missing wife, a writer with a serious case of writer’s block and a town where darkness brings some very unpleasant surprises. Set in the fictional Washington town of Bright Falls, this spooky, atmospheric game takes plenty of inspiration from the Pacific Northwest. You might want to leave a few lights on.

The Last of Us Part 2 (2020)

Seattle has seen better days in this post-apocalyptic video game, where 19-year-old Ellie navigates a city overtaken by vegetation, dangerous survivors, and infected creatures. The attention to local detail is impressive, from familiar downtown landmarks to Capitol Hill’s rainbow crosswalks. Even after the end of civilization, Seattle still looks pretty rainy.
Look for: Space Needle, Seattle Convention Center, Pioneer Square, Seattle Great Wheel, King Street Station clock tower